Northern Ireland

i have been taking a class this semester all about northern ireland, beforehand, i knew absolutely nothing about it, all i knew was that catholics and protestants weren;t getting along, i had no idea how deep it was. and going to belfast and seeing the evidence of the struggle was very eye opening. we took a trip to northern ireland, to see the giants causeway, and it was one hell of an experience, we drove into belfast, took a black cab tour and viewed the partitioned catholic and protestant neighborhoods. we first saw the protestant neighborhoods with the various murals, hailing oliver cromwell for his conquest of ireland, and various uda (ulster defense association)and uvf (ulster volunteer force) murals. for those of you that do not know, they are protestant paramilitary groups that have sworn to take out the ira (irish republican army) one mural really stuck out in my mind, and it was called the sniper, and it showed a gunman, and he was pointing a rifle, and it has the mona lisa effect, where no matter where you are looking at it from, it appears as though the gun barrel is pointed at you. i took photos from three different angles to capture the effect.

after we went to the wall that divided the neighborhoods, which at its highest point stands 45 feet tall, bill clinton and the da lai lama had been here, it was a place of mixed feelings, because so many world leaders had been here, but at the same time, they were here for very dark reasons

we all got a chance to write our own messages on the wall, after that we went to the catholic side and looked at their murals, and they had a very different feel to them, the one that stuck out the most although i couldn't take the best photo of it, was a mural of remembrance for the hunger strikers that died trying to gain status of political prisoners.

after looking at the other murals we headed out of belfast (our professors didn't want us spending the night because car bombs are not frequent but they can happen) after leaving belfast we went into a small town under the name of ballintoy, little did i know the magic that would unfold later in that town. we were told that there were not too many shops but there were two pubs, one was having a karaoke night, so us being the obnoxious american tourists that we were, decided to flood that bar. after acquiring a new drinking buddy, i was heavily intoxicated as the night unfolded, and i got talked into doing paranoid by black sabbath, not realizing how drunk i already was, my drinking buddy and i did two shots of southern comfort, and i stumbled my way to the stage, the music started, and i knew it was going to be painful, i tried to goto my happy place as i semi mumbled the words, my girlfriend made my room mate come up because she knew the emotional trauma i would experience if i kept going through this alone (little did she know alcohol made remembering being up there impossible so i'm still emotionally sound)

after more fat frogs (the house specialty which ahd 3 different kinds of alcohol, was green, and came in a pitcher)

i decided it would be a grand idea to try and sing killer queen by queen, it was another disaster, but it was karaoke so you were supposed to be bad, i didn't get booed off.....i think.

after another song and more drinks that night came to a close.

little did i know that the night would stay with me the next day, when i awoke i realized that it was too easy and i was still drunk, this was my first time waking up intoxicated so i didn't really know what to do, i went and tried to eat breakfast and get some food in my system, the majority of the day was walking and sightseeing so luckily my morning drunkenness and subsequent hangover wore off after walking a few miles.

we went to carrick-a-rede bridge, which was an old rope bridge that let you out onto an island where you could see bits of scotland. the view of the surrounding area was pretty unique.

after leaving the bridge we headed to the giant's causeway, which way back when according to the myths it was the ways the giants from ireland would use to go engage in battle with the giants from scotland. they are a bunch of basalt rocks that have cooled in a unique hexagonal pattern, it was a really unique place and i really would like to go back. this is where led zeppelin took the photo for their album cover "houses of the holy"

after we left the causeway we went to an old abandoned castle called dunluce castle, and the story behind it was that at a time an extremely powerful irish family had the castle, but the neighboring scottish macdonald clan wanted it, and they took it by force, and still own the castle. although about 1/3 of the castle sank into the sea many years ago, it is in ruins but made stable and into a tourist attraction, apparently a scene from james bond was filmed in the cave beneath the castle. the views and castle were all amazing.

after we saw the castle we headed back to dublin, the trip to northern ireland was fantastic, it was not what i was expecting, but in an amazing way. i would like to go back one day, it is absolutely worth seeing.