My ride had business in Dublin and he was able to drop me off close to the middle around the castle area . I found a payphone and left a message on my couchsurfing host's voicemail only to get a email 3 hours later saying that I should be able to find a hostel.... I walked back up across the river and got a bed for 10 euros a night which wasn't to bad . I cooked up some pasta then made my way to Temple Bar to see what was happening . Drinking in Temple Bar isn't very cheap at 5 or 6 euros so I decided to quit before my balance went into the red !!!
The next 2 days where spent exploring the city walking shoulder to shoulder with 1000's of other tourists along O'Connell street with its spire and post office and then over the O'Connell bridge with the Trinity college,Castle (which had some cool looking sand sculptures in the court),St Patricks and ChristChurch Catheridal and Dvblinia (a bit disappointing) and then it was time to move onto Belfast
On the bus ride to Belfast there wasn't a change in scenery but there was a definite change in the air. The road signs had changed from metric to imperial but of more interest were the Union Jack flags lining every town we went past.When I arrived in Belfast there were three bomb threats on the news . I sat next to a man in his 50's on the bus who couldn't get to his car parked at the train station so he had to take the bus ,marching season is still big deal up north or at least to some anyway. In Belfast I stayed with family some of whom I had never met. My Uncle and Aunt had come to visit us in New Zealand 10 years ago so it was nice to return the favour and meet cousins who were much older than me but were cool to hang out with .
We went into Belfast to look at the Shankill Rd and the surrounding Catholic areas and it was spooky looking at murals of masked gunman and memorials to victims of the troubles on the same wall or house . The Catholic areas had murals of Cha Gurvaro and other freedom fighters from the Irish and various other conflicts around the world as well as murals showing their support for the PLO which explained why you can see the Israeli flag in some Protestant areas. To a outsider looking in the religious issue means more to the older generation than to the younger generation who didn't experience the troubles in the same way
The next day my Aunt and Uncle kindly drove me out to the Giants Causeway despite their reservations and described it as " a pile of rocks" . As it turned out we weren't the only ones to make our way out to the pile of rocks on a overcast Monday morning. Bus loads of tourists were perched on the top of the hill by the Church . I walked down to the base of the causeway and my Aunt and Uncle caught a shuttle down . Its not the grand canyon... but its still worth seeing in my humble opinion .
That night I went into the centre of Belfast and watched my cousin Ian play a solo cover gig at a bar in the student area and the following morning he dropped me off at the ferry terminal and I made my way to Liverpool on the ferry . You would do well to travel on the night crossing if you value your space because the day sailing is on a very cramped boat and isn't the best way of spending 6 hours !. I stayed in Liverpool for a couple of nights so I could watch Liverpool play some Turkish team with a name that escapes me now in the europa league . With that done and dusted and the game won next stop was York !
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