6 Day Norther Ireland Tour

Crikes it seems like ages since I last wrote. So much has happened in the last week or so. I'm currently in Zakopane - Southern Poland, but right now I´m only going to write about my 6 Day Northern Ireland Tour from the begining of September.
Mike and I set off on 2nd September. I was kind of dissapointed at first because there were only 2 other backpackers on the trip plus the Driver/Guide. But it soon became apparent that this was a blessing in diguise since it gave us more freedom to do stuff that would be impossible in a big group, like having picnics, bbqs and changing the itinery to suit the weather.

Day 1. Went to New Grange in the morning and saw these 5000yo Monolithic tombs, even older than the pyramids !!! A 2 Million tonne mound of rocks brought from 40 miles away. It has a passage to the centre where there is a room which is only lit up from the sunrise of the Winter Solstis. Pretty impressive stuff. We then bough some food and had a Picnic on the banks of the Boine River opposite Slane Castle. I even went in for a swim and nearly froze my goolies off. So after an extended break, since the wheather was fabulous and you got to take it when you get it in Ireland, we were on the bus again and soon in Northern Ireland and driving through Amagh, known as "bandit country" very catholic / republican and the IRA enjoys a huge support. The only way in or out of the British army base in the center of town is by helecopter... huge walls all the way around. This was a warm up for us arriving in Belfast. Quite a nice "english" style city, alot better infrastructure but no craic what so ever. I mean even for a Monday night, it could be just the center of town but it seemed that you could sense the tention in the air, or maybe it was just me overreacting about being in the capital of "the troubles" and not too keen on getting shot. But seeing police cars that look more like tanks and barricaded schools didn't really alay my apprehentions. As it turns out we went to a university bar "the bot", it was pretty lively and had good beer. Just what the doctor ordered.

Day 2. Up early for a Black Cab Tour. The best (and safest) way to see the witnesss the extent of hate and segregation. First we went to Shankill, an extreme protestant area. Our cab driver told us to go and walk about and check out the murals on the walls of the houses (he was Catholic so didn't feel safe getting out). This was the first time I'd really been exposed to the violent protestent side, the para-military opposing the IRA. These are known as the UFF - Ulster Freedom fighters. Now I had probably heard of these fellas before and assumed that they were a IRA splinter group, I don't think the media is all that clear on this distinction. There was a group known as The Shankill Butchers who would kiddnap random catholics and brutally murder them back in the 1970´s for no other reason than their religion. If you look at my photos then you'll see some of the murals - very disturbing. One has the Grim Reaper carrying a machine gun and names of catholics on headstones about him they want dead. From there we went to "The Peace Line", not really a peace line at all but rather a 20ft high barrier between the Protestant and Catholic areas to prevent rioting. Behind the barrier on the catholic side are fire proof protective shelters over the backyards and house rooves to stop molitof cocktails... Not a place I´d chose to live, but I suppose thats the point, these people in these areas are poor and this is govt housing. So, we continue on to "The Falls" a extremist Catholic area. Unfortuantly as our driver was catholic he decided to show us the murals for peace and so I felt we got a very biased view of the goings on in N.I. These comprised of dedications to the politcal prisoners of Block H in Amagh who where held for years without charge on suspision of IRA connections, 12 died during a hunger strike while attempting to attain political prisoner status. Another shows the distance at which people have been killed from police fired rubber bullets - the closest at point blank range. We were then made aware of how the catholics were treated as second class citizens, much the same as the blacks in South Africa. The tour ended with us in the Sinn Fein Head office and book shop, I did get to see some of the more extreme murals on postcards and in the books here. But now I was even more confused than before about the troubles. Are the IRA really as bad as we have been led to believe? The British Govt are probably more the cause of the problems than they care to admit, and it seems to me that the Ulster Unionist are a bunch of antagonists thowing fuel on the fire. One thing is for sure, the people in both Shankill and the Falls are poorly educated and taught to hate each other praticaly before they are taught to walk. There will not be an end to the probelms here for generations to come, regardless of politics or powersharing agreements.
But time now to leave such deep contemplation and Belfast behind us. It is midday and we drive to a National Park an hour or so from the city. The attraction here is rope bridge crossing between cliffs on the mainland and a small Island where rare birds nest. Not too interested in the birds, but walking across that narrow bridge in the strong wind certainly got the adrenalin pumpin !!! Straight out of Indiana Jones... but without the Mongolian worrier trying to chop the ropes at the other end with his scabre.
On to a nice little village Port Rush, to have lunch on the harbour and a kick of the footy on the beach.
The Giants Causeway was the next stop, Legend has it that Finn McCool the Irish Giant was building this causeway/landbridge by driving rock pilons into the gound and out to sea toward Scotland so he could fight the Scottish giant Ben Lomond to see who was tougher. But when Finn saw Ben who was twice his size he ran back to Ireland destroying the bridge as he went.
We finished the day in Derry ... or is that Londonderry??? Well it depends, are catholic or protestent? From the North or South? The politically correct set call it Derry slash Londonderry or just slash city. The obligitory evening drinks were had in a kareoke bar not far from our hostel - no I didn´t sing.

Day 3. Started the day with a walkiing tour of the city and perhaps a further insight into the troubles. Part of the tour took in an area known as "Free Derry", this was a Catholic Area in which the locals stopped the Police and Army from entering. Originally the Army was brought into Northern Ireland because the Police who were Protestant (The Royal Ulster Constabulary) were thought to be biased againsted the Catholics. However soon they felt that rather than protecting them, both the army and police were more of a threat. This was proven on "Bloody Sunday" when some 20 years ago English Paratroppers opened fired on peaceful demonstators in "Free Derry", in a rally for Equality. About 15 (I can't remember exactly) unarmed young men were killed. That evening the IRA recruited hundreds more men. And after such a massacre and the hand of those ment to protect them, who could blame them.
So, now even more confused we jumped in our magic bus and headed out of UK territory back across the border into the republic. On the way out we poped into a supermarket and bought a disposible BBQ, some snags, salad, and a couple of seasoned chooks. Drove up a hill overlooking Derry and sat in the middle of an Ancient Stone Circle much the same as stonehenge and cooked up a feast. Now, you may be wondering how the attendants at such an important historical and tourist site would allow us to do this. Well the truth of the matter is that in Ireland these places are so common that we were actually on a private farm and sheep were wondering about us on the stones and all sorts. After all the site only dates back over 5000 years.
Next stop the Highest Cliffs in Europe "Sleave League" in the west of beautiful County Donegal. The afternoon was spent walking up the cliffs and about mountain lakes above the ocean in the National Park there - fantastic!!
Ended the day with a few bottles of wine in a hostel on a Farm.

Day 4. A fairly relaxed day, wondered about Donegal Town, played football on the beach and had coffee in a village where Author/Poet James Joyce grew up, also checked out the Chuch where his father was the pastor. Then up another hill for another picnic lunch. Atop this one was a huge pile of rocks and is supposed to be the burial mound of some bitch of a celtic queen. Finished the day in Westport listening to Trad music in a Pub... much alcohol was consumed.

Day 5. Woken up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 feeling like death. Then it hits me like a freight train we are off to climb Croag Patraick a 2500ft pilgraimage mountain. Now, I'm not religious at all, but I did scream "Oh god" more than once as I dragged my pathetic dehydrated pickled body up the side of that rock. Thousands of people come here each year to climb it, some who think that isn't tourture enough do it barefoot but few are stupid enough to do it after a massive night on the sauce.
Did I mention we were on a time limit so no taking it easy on the climb. We had to be back down in 1 1/2 hrs to be back in the bus so we could have a shower and off then catch a ferry at 1pm over an hours drive away. Started the accent at 8 am and managed to make the ferry by the skin of our teeth. The climb was well worth the pain though as we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful views in ireland.
Our ferry was to one of the Aran Islands, Anish Mann I think. And just when I thought I could do no more exercise I was given a rental bike to ride UPHILL to our hostel bags n all. But that was not enough, because the only way to see the island was to ... you guessed it - ride about, and we were leaving first thing in the morning ... BUGGER. Again however we were rewarded with magnificent view and spectacular natural sights. Most notably the Serpants Hole, where sea froth spirals into the air from this ocean pool.
At the end of teh day I rewarded myself with several Bulmers - a yummy apple cider.
Last Day (Day 6)
Caught the 9am Ferry off the island, jumped back on the magic busand headed to Galway for brunch. It was my 3rd time to Galway and although it's a lovely place it's a wee bit small for my liking. Big drive back to Dublin throught the bog land and a stop a Clonmicnoise - a monastory on the River Shannon.

I think that's about it, hope you weren't board to silly.

Next stop Paris...