“Go raibh maith agaibh” Ireland!

The morning we boarded a train from Dublin started in overcast weather, but as we moved from south to north Ireland, the skies began to clear up and we were able to enjoy the Irish countryside. This, of course, made Dan even more regretful that we didn’t explore the smaller towns outside of Dublin. But since we hadn’t even initally planned to really visiting the UK and Ireland, we pressed on, since we still wanted to make it down to mainland Europe before summer ended.

Belfast was a great wee city that we enjoyed, if only for a few days. We were lucky enough to have a Subway lunch on the lawns of city hall while watching the Irish Open on a huge outdoor TV. And while there were nice buildings and shopping arcades in the city center, the more interesting part of Belfast was when we took one of the black cabs out to West Belfast to see the murals representing the past violence and turmoil on both the Protestant and Catholic sides of the peace wall.

While the newer murals are slowly replacing the more violent ones, there are still clear reminders of the kind of strife that’s gone on (and while not as prominent, is STILL going on).

I was unnerved to hear the kind of events, i.e. bombings and shootings that had gone on and even though it’s not nearly as bad, there are still bars on the pub windows/doors and cages for backyards (to protect their children & families from incindiaries, blades and other undesirables being thrown over the peace wall).

Another highlight of our trip to Belfast was the fact that we got to meet up with a few people from our church who were in Ireland for Project 32 – a Youth for Christ initiative. Among that group was Pastor Ken Castor, someone near and dear to our hearts as he had seen us grow as a couple and also had married us only 2 years ago. This had been our first time seeing him since he had left Calgary for Minnesota, so it was a special treat for us. While meeting up with the gang, we were also able to meet and connect with Steve McCready and his lovely wife and daughter, whom we heard were planning on joining the Brentview family and moving to Calgary from Ireland. We also met the McKnights, who had hosted a BBQ and welcomed us to join them on our last night in Belfast.

Further to our time in Belfast, we also managed to score an unlimited all day bus pass, so we did a day trip up to the North Coast to visit the Giant’s Causeway, which were unique rock formations from a volcanic eruption. They were columns of rock that were each octogonal in shape. Add that to the beautiful backdrop of the coastline and the view was spectacular.

We caught a bus that took us into the town of Bushmills and Ireland’s oldest whiskey distillery, the Bushmills Distillery. Here, we had the best Steak & Guinness Pie… EVER.. the meat was so tender, it felt like it melted the moment it hit your tongue, and the gravy was flavourful and the pastry top was light & flaky. Unfortunately we didn’t get to do the tour, because by the time we finished our fantastic meal, the next tour would be an hour later, which we didn’t really want to wait for, so we pressed on.

We hopped onto another bus that took us a few miles out to Dunluce Castle, which mainly was a castle ruin that clung to the coastal cliffs. Here, we passed on the paid tour as well, but that was because we figured we could get the better shots from the outside, and we were right, after confirming with some other tourists. At around this time, we got a bit of blue sky, which was a nice break from the rain.

We ended off our day visiting a small town called Portrush, which we admittedly kept on forgetting the name for some reason, even as we strolled through their main street, up their boardwalk and sat in one of their cafes looking out into the ocean. Given the fact that we were able to explore the countryside at such a low cost and with reasonable flexibility made us feel like we experienced North Ireland a lot more properly than South Ireland.

Today, we woke up to a deluge of rain and caught a cab to the Belfast ferry port, where we boarded the Stenaline HSS which was even bigger and more equipped than the Irish Ferries boat we took getting on to the island. But due to the inclement weather it was still a little choppy as we crossed the north channel, which of course thrilled Dan and had me white-knuckling the dining table while trying to distract myself by reading my book. Blessedly we reached solid ground in just under 2 hours, where we immediately boarded a train to Glasgow, which our hosts from the night before had advised we do, rather than stay a night at the port town of Stranraer. We had fun in Ireland and are now looking forward to the Scottish scenery.