Northern Ireland. The first place to really leave me confused on how I felt after visiting. It's incredibly hard for me to put into words how I feel about Northern Ireland; the cities and countryside are absolutely breathtaking but it was so surreal to hear about its tragic history and walk in the steps of where people were murdered. But first, I'll discuss how I ended up on this weekend trip in the first place. Irish Experience Tours is a tour group run for students (same company I went to Dingle with) & the Northern Ireland weekend is one of their most popular 3-day weekend trips. As a side note, I am a HUGE Game of Thrones fan and a majority of the scenes in the beginning seasons were filmed in Northern Ireland. This is what the tour advertised heavily so naturally me and my fellow GoT friends decided to go on the trip. Originally our first stop was to be Belfast but a change in itinerary and an 8 hour bus ride instead of 6 we arrived in Derry. Derry is an incredible city but with a really horrible past. When I was born the conflict between the Irish and the English was still occurring and it was very dangerous to visit. Nowadays, the conflict is gone but the tragic events remain. We had a brilliant tour guide who absolutely loved his city and gave us a heartfelt tour of the areas where the war really raged. Below in the slideshow are photos of Derry's City Hall and the mural walk in Bogside where Bloody Sunday and other devastating events occurred. The murals were painted to reflect peace in the area where many died including a 14-year-old girl (Murals Pt. 4) who got caught in the crossfire walking home from school. I can't say why or exactly 'put a finger on it' but something about Derry and its history didn't sit well with me. I just couldn't imagine that only 20 years ago terrible events were occurring yet here I was walking through there without having known anything about it. I feel better now that I'm informed but still it was a feeling I never had experienced before. The rest of our time the next day would be spent on the bus until we arrived in Belfast later that night. Here was when we would be able to see all the Game of Thrones scenes!!! We would also see a UNESCO World Heritage Site which I was excited about. The first place we stopped was at the castle pictured below and was used in the show but with heavy CGI and we couldn't go any closer than this due to time constraints. Our next stop was at Giant's Causeway. This was the UNESCO site and it was SPECTACULAR. Truly breathtaking, even the long walk down to it was incredible. Below the first photo is of me, my roommate Liv, and Hunter and the 2nd is of the Causeway (it was a wee bit windy the day we went, haha). There is a really cool Irish folk tale that explains how the causeway came to be & it involves an Irish favorite, Finn MacCool. The next two photos are of Game of Thrones scenes but were taken from two different locations on my trip. The first is where Renly Baratheon's camp is held and where he dies but is now a car park for the famous Carrick-a-Rede bridge (more on that later). There is a sign located at the front of this location explaining the scene in-depth with images from it. The second photo is of Ballintoy Harbor aka the Iron Islands. The very last photo is the infamous Dark Hedges (King's Road in the show). It was so cool being able to walk through the exact scene and it is very easy to picture yourself in Westerns. Back to the spot where the camp was located the bridge is a famous rope bridge where you can see an incredible view of the coastline once you cross it. Below is the bridge as Liv is crossing it. She made me take a video of us crossing on the way back over so everyone could see how far below the ocean was; I don't usually get scared by heights but this was terrifying trying to cross with only one holding onto the rickety bridge and the other occupied with not trying to drop my phone. It was definitely worth the wait and a place I highly recommend visiting. After our all-day adventures around the countryside of Northern Ireland, we made it to Belfast late in the evening. We had the evening to ourselves once we settled into the hostel. Both of the hostels we stayed at this weekend were very interesting... The first that we stayed at in Derry had triple bunks LOL. I will forever remember Liv running and diving into the middle bunk because that was the only way to get into it. However, the hostel was very nice and well-kept so there is no complaints over than that. The hostel in Belfast was much larger and had an incredible common room, kitchen area, and social areas. But, the downside was that we had to sleep in a 20 PERSON dorm room; that was a new experience especially considering that in this day and age everyone has electronics that need plugged in at night but there were only 6 outlets total for all 20 of us!!! We made due and a few friends and I decided to check out the night life in Northern Ireland and visit the famous Filthy McNastys! The pub is massive and we had such a grand time; we even made it into the Belfast Night Life section of the Belfast newspaper! Before we headed to the Titanic Museum, we went on a tour of Belfast and learned about its history with the rebellions and the English. Belfast was also impacted during the troubled times and nowadays a peace wall exists in various parts of the city where the wall separating the Catholics and Protestants once stood. This whole trip has been incredibly exciting but also incredibly moving as we learned so much about how much suffering people endured here less than 2 decades ago. Below are photos of the peace wall. For those who don't know, Belfast is the place where the Titanic was built and thus they have an exhibition focusing on the building of the gigantic ship. The museum is built on the ground where the liner was built and once inside you get a fantastic view of the harbor where it was docked and set sail on its maiden voyage. There is another exhibition in Cobh- I visited this one when my sister came over later on- which is smaller and focuses more on the Irish who boarded as well as the rest of the passengers since Cobh is the last place it docked before hitting the iceberg. It took nearly 2 hours to explore the entire museum in Belfast and it was spectacular! I learned so much about the Titanic and there is even a ride inside! If you made it this far in the blog post, thanks! I know I blabbed for a long time; I saw A LOT in one weekend. I'll end with a photo of Belfast City Hall before we departed for Cork!
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THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF!! Just kidding but I had to quote the famous song from the Lizzie McGuire movie since my first weekend trip to continental Europe was to Rome! Roma, Roma, Roma, what a beautiful place filled with everything my heart desires aka pizza, pasta, and wine. My roommate, Taylor, and I decided to venture to Rome after finding flights that were only 35 euro each way. It was my first time traveling to a country where I didn't know the language; I speak Spanish pretty fluently so Ecuador and Costa Rica were easy as was Brazil because Portuguese is so similar to Spanish. Italian on the other hand was completely foreign to me and trying to find our bus into the city was a hard task. We made it though and arrived to our hostel where we relaxed because we had to take the 1 am bus from Cork to Dublin in order to catch our 6 am flight; to say we were exhausted would be an understatement. After relaxing, we decided to venture out into the city for the first time. WOW, Rome is truly beautiful and the history is just everywhere! Our first evening was spent walking to the Trevi Fountain and just wander. If I have a decent amount of time in one place, I like to simply wander around a city and get a feel for it. I learned quickly that Rome definitely was going to test my traveling skills... this was Taylor's first time to a new country besides Ireland and she relied on me for a lot which is perfectly fine (I love being in charge) but it was way different than following around a tour guide or a high school teacher. Don't get me wrong I love Rome but looking back I have never been cat called or felt as unsafe walking at night as I did in Rome. It could be just the different cultures but it was astounding. The architecture is unparalleled as is the food. It truly lived up to my expectations and even surpassed them. I can't even describe how incredible it was walking through the Colosseum and the rest of the ancient Roman buildings. There was so much to see in just a few days! I think we ended up walking close to 25 miles... My feet hurt so badly by the time we left for Ireland I could hardly waddle through the Dublin airport. I (stupidly) decided to wear my new Birks on Sunday and naturally it poured on us as we tried to navigate our way to Vatican City. My feet were sliced open where the wet leather cut into them after walking so many miles. My roommates called them my Jesus scars getting them on my pilgrimage (I grew up very Catholic as did my roommates so it was quite comical). Above are the Spanish Steps which were one of the last things we saw before heading back to the hostel for the night. On Sunday morning before heading to the Spanish steps, we walked to Vatican City to see the Pope give mass at the cathedral. It was incredible; I mean a true once in the lifetime experience. I didn't understand any of it except the greeting because it was all in Latin. I can't wait to go back to Italy and explore more of the cities and the countryside!
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AuthorThe rambling thoughts of a millennial's adventures abroad Archives
May 2017
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