We started in Belfast, which is in Northern Ireland, the region that is still a part of the United Kingdom. We got there early in the evening, checked into our hostel, and then just wandered around until we found a good pub, and when we did, we found a good one. There were five of us, and we all agreed that it was the finest pub food any of us had ever eaten.
We got up early the next morning so we could have a full day. Our first stop was a walk along the river, and what should greet us on our first morning in Ireland, but an Irish rainbow. No sign of leprechauns or pots of gold, but we did find our way to the oldest covered market in Ireland where we bought bread and cheese and fruit to get us through the day. From there, we set off to see the Ulster Museum. It was interesting because it was not a huge museum, so it didn't focus on any one area in particular, but instead it was filled with art, sculpture, history, anthrology, science...basically anything you could imagine. There was even a fashion art section. It was an incredible museum. After that we lunched and then wandered around in the botanic gardens next to the museum.
When they started closing the hot-houses, we left and started heading into some of the more historic areas of town. Belfast has been a pretty volatile region both politically and religiously, and we walked through some of the neighbourhoods that have been the centres of the conflict in the region. It was eerie being there and feeling the tension. They had these murals painted all over the place, and a lot of them were signs of remembrance for people who had died in the Troubles. There was a lot of anger in them, and some of them even seemed to glorify paramilitary activities. It was surreal, especially for my friend Kate who had been studying Irish political history for the whole term.
When it started getting late we headed to the bus station and bought tickets to Dublin. While waiting for our bus, we finished off our supplies from the morning shopping spree. It was a two-and-a-half hour trip from Belfast to Dublin, and we spent it in quiet conversation, and possibly a bit of dozing off (we had done a lot of walking). By the time we got to Dublin, we were pretty beat, so we just tracked down our hostel and crashed. That night was when the British isles moved the clock forward for their daylight saving time, which one of our rooms forgot, but still got ready a half-hour early, while the other remembered, but slept in a half-hour, meaning we started the day late, but together. This hostel had breakfast provided, which was nice, and set us off for a good day of exploring. There are memorials and monuments all over Dublin. It seemed like every corner had its own famous person to visit. One of the first we saw was a statue of James Joyce, which was cool.
We made our way through these icons of history to Glasnevin cemetery in the north of Dublin, where almost every famous Irish political figure is buried, including the likes of Charles Stuart Parnell, Daniel O'Connell, and Michael Collins. We wandered through the packed cemetery (over a million graves) for quite a while and eventually met a charming old Irish fellow named Freddy Daly who took us around and showed us some of the less well known figures and told us their stories. He actually knew some of the people buried there. It was a startling juxtaposition of living and dead history, but in a completely different way than we met with in Belfast.
After the cemetery, the five of us sat down for a splendid Chinese feast in a local buffet. By that point, we had been on our feet for about four and a half hours, most of which had been spent walking, so we took full advantage of the "all you can eat" invitation. Perhaps not the best choice with all of the walking left, but these are the choices that fill our lives.
The rest of the day was just seeing the sites: political centres, cathedrals, a park (which just so happened to have plaques commemorating some of the great Irish writers including the likes of Shaw, Synge, Joyce, Wilde, and my personal favourites: Yeats and Beckett). My favourite thing we saw in the afternoon was definitely the Famine Memorial on the banks of the River Liffey. It is one of the most moving sculptures I have ever seen in my life. I could have studied it for hours. As evening approached, our group split, and the three of us going back to Oxford in the morning drifted back toward the bus station to catch a return bus to Belfast. It was another two and a half hours of good conversation, and good rest for our feet. Once we got to Belfast, we had a short while to gather provisions for dinner and the inevitable fourth meal we had planned to eat while staying awake in the airport (to save money, we hadn't booked any accommodation for that evening) and for breakfast. Then we caught the shuttle to the airport and camped out. We got on our flight at 6:00 am. When we landed in London, we came straight back to Oxford. It was so weird to be sitting in a lecture with everyone else when we hadn't slept that night, and we still had the smell of Belfast streets on our clothes. Another very surreal experience.
Since then, I have mostly been catching up on work. We have been going on field trips with our program seeing different cities and old churches. However, we are coming to the final stretch and there are just a couple of massive papers looming between me and a week visiting three of Europe's greatest capitals: London, Paris, and Rome. After that, it will all be done. Strange.
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