J&J's European Adventure

3 August

Belfast, North Ireland

After another hearty hostel breakfast of toast and jam, we headed for the train station. Along the way, we traded what Euros we could for British Pounds and spent the rest on snacks. We must admit to not seeing much on our train ride to Belfast, but we had access to newspapers, and it was such a treat to be able to read something in English that we didn't spend much time looking out of the windows. A lot of the paper related to ongoing investigations into riots that occurred in NW Belfast on July 12th.

When we got to Belfast, we had to make a quick connection to get across town. Our hotel was right next to the station. We walked to the town center, passing the most-bombed hotel in Belfast along the way. The hop-a-bus was strangely interesting. Other than a leaning clock tower and a few churches, nearly every point of interest was where something blew up or a bunch of people were gunned down. Another thing was the "Peace Walls", which are Berlin Wall-like structures erected to keep the feuding factions apart. The whole thing just seems insane to me. The bus tore around at a pretty fast pace and only stopped if someone requested it. We don't know – but suspect – that they want to present as small a target as possible. And to top it all off, we found out this afternoon that a bomb blew up this morning in Londonderry, not far from here.

On Belfast's behalf, I must say that everyone we talked to was extremely nice and friendly. Even the drunks we encountered on the street were unobtrusive. We had a nice light supper in a local landmark pub and tucked in for the night.

Daily miles: 5.49

Expenses:
3.67€ (snacks in Dublin)
£35.80 (tour bus, supper)

Dublin, Ireland