Worth 1,000 Words

Ballyliffin Co. Donegal- Republic of Ireland

 

Giant's Causeway Co. Antrim- Northern Ireland

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Final Irish adventures:

After leaving Sligo, we got a chance to visit the grave of W.B. Yeats, one of my very favorite poets. I couldn’t resist buying small collection of his poetry while I was there. As I was walking back to the bus, I couldn’t help but think that there is something terribly romantic about carrying a book wrapped in brown paper.

We also took a daytrip to Derry/Londonderry, a city on the border of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. 

One of the Derry Bogside Murals

As you can imagine, the city has been a contentious place for many years. Although the Troubles have been over for a while, we were encouraged to stay inside the walled section of the city, which was safer.  I, however, couldn’t resist wandering outside a little to see a few of the famous Bogside murals and the newly opened peace bridge.

We ended up our time in Ireland with a visit to Belfast. I was not expecting to like Belfast as much as I did- in fact, we all fell in love with the place. Once categorized along with with Baghdad, Bosnia, and Beirut as one of the "4 B's" for travelers to avoid, Belfast has come alive in the past ten years.  We spend a lot of time in the outdoor/quasi-indoor Victoria’s Square as well as the Queen’s College area of town, which offered a plethora of independently owned shops and restaurants.