Day 15-18: Ireland

The first day we were in Ireland we were all super tired. We didn’t get to bed until one thirty AM and had to wake up at three thirty for our flight, so two hours of sleep. We spent the day trying to stay awake. We walked around and tried to stay awake. We rode the bus and tried to stay awake. Eventually we checked into our Hostel and fell asleep. After a few hours of naptime we got up and got dinner. After dinner we walked around Dublin and explored the city. It got fairly cold and starting misting/raining at night. We got back to the Hostel and took a much-needed rest. We were woken up a few times from our unknown roommates coming in around three thirty in the morning.

The second day we got a bit of a late start. After breakfast we hopped on a bus and went to Bray, a small coastal town south of Dublin. We explored the beach for a while and took pictures. We found a sweet little gelato place right on the beach and arrived at heaven. It was so amazing I couldn’t believe it. We wandered around the town for a while and eventually hopped on a train back to Dublin. From there we took a train to Belfast, Northern Ireland. The food is so cheap in Belfast; it’s wonderful! Dublin was expensive so it was nice to have a break for my wallet. The second Hostel was so much better than the first. It was slightly less clean but the people were much better and the hostel itself had much more character. Every one was very friendly and talkative. It’s great to meet people from different places, and with different accents.

The third day we went on what’s called a Black Taxi Tour. It was a tour around Belfast, specifically focused on the Catholic/Protestant conflict. The cab driver was driving his cab while the violence was at its height; it was cool to learn about everything from someone around during the conflict. He would pull over by murals and sites of significance and hop in the back with us to tell us all about what happened and what each mural meant. There is a giant wall separating the catholic and the protestant sides of the city. The wall was at least twenty-five feet high and extended for three miles. It’s crazy that things like this are still happening. Some say the violence will never end; it just takes about twenty year lulls. The people on each side of the wall aren’t even religious, most of them are atheist, but they’re still separated into protestant and catholic. We also tried to get to the G8 summit to shoot the protestors (with our cameras). But to even get there you had to sign up a month ago, and there were only four tents of protestors. Turns out the Irish riot police are well known for aiming at protestor’s heads with rubber bullets. It deters most of the anarchists and protestors from coming.

The last day was spent walking to bus stations and going to an art museum. The museum was called The Mac. All of the exhibits were photographic which was cool. We walked through the museum and then walked some more and then walked some more. We caught our flight back to the compound where I am now, typing all of this up. It was a good weekend. We met some really great people and we had a chance to get some rest. The Irish countryside is absolutely gorgeous. It was definitely a trip that I will never forget.