Sunday:
We arrived at the Copenhagen airport bright and early for
our fairly short flight to Dublin. As soon as we arrived, we boarded a bus to
Belfast! The countryside was absolutely beautiful! It was very stereotypical
with rolling green hills and lots of sheep, and it was a lovely change from
grey Copenhagen.
After checking into our hotel (no hostels on this trip!), we
split into groups for sightseeing on Shankill and Falls Roads. Shankill Road is
the predominantly Protestant area, and Falls Road is the predominantly Catholic
area with the Peace Wall separating the two. The Peace Wall is actually the
longest standing wall separating communities. The information we learned from the
tours would fill at least five blogs so I won’t write it all, but I got a lot
of pictures of murals and I was able to sign the Peace Wall!
We went to an awesome restaurant for dinner and had some
delicious Irish food (DIS feeds us really well!). It was really rich and
flavourful, and I think I prefer it over Danish food (though I do love Danish
pastries!).
We had some free time in the evening, so a group of us went
to a pub called Fibber Magee’s for a while. It looked exactly like what you
would imagine an Irish pub to be, and they had some really great live bands
playing.
Monday:
Thankfully we were able to sleep in after our early start
the previous morning, and we began with a tour of BBC Northern Ireland. We got
to go inside the newsroom and talk to some reporters about how they remain
objective when covering news on the local conflict, which was really
interesting!
We went to the Titanic Museum that had just opened last
year. The Titanic was actually built in Belfast, and they’re really proud of it
(you can tell if you go into any souvenir shop). The museum was huge and really
interactive, so it was a lot more fun than I was expecting! There was a lot of
information on the history of Belfast and how it came to be such an industrial
city. The only reference to the 1997 museum was at the end of the exhibit where
they had the outfits that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet wore in the final
scene.
After the museum, we went to the East Belfast Mission, a
Methodist organization that works in both Catholic and Protestant communities
to try to bring them together more. The discussion we had with the minister was
really interesting, and we learned a lot about the different efforts to try to
resolve the conflict in the future.
It was one of the girls in my class’ birthday, so a group of
us went out to dinner at an Irish restaurant. The food was delicious (as I found
most Irish food is!), and we had a lot of fun!
Tuesday:
This was actually my 20th birthday, so I was
really excited to be spending it in Ireland! We started off the day going to
Derry/Londonderry, which is where Bloody Sunday took place. We had learned that
four bombs had been apprehended there on Sunday, but we were told it would be
safe to go. We got a tour of murals in the Bogside area by two artists who told
us their experiences growing up.
The sun was finally shining, so we were able to eat lunch
outside along the wall (Londonderry/Derry is the oldest walled city in Northern
Ireland). Then we went to The Playhouse for the Theatre of Witness. A lady works
with victims and witnesses on both sides of the conflict (including former IRA
members and police officers) to put on a production to share their stories
across Northern Ireland.
Afterwards, we had some time to explore, so I walked along
the wall and looked into local shops with some friends.
After a really depressing day hearing tragic stories and
watching the Titanic to and from Derry/Londonderry (my first time seeing it,
and no, I didn’t cry!), we went to a comedy club back in Belfast, which was a
lot of fun! We had eaten dinner before the show and our tables were front and
center next to the stage, so we became the butt of the jokes for the evening.
It was all good-natured and pretty hilarious, so everyone had a lot of fun.
Since it was my birthday, my class found a bar called Filthy McNasty’s to go
celebrate. The name was really deceiving since it was actually a really nice
place with a beautiful garden in the back!
Wednesday:
We had another long day that started with a discussion with
someone at the Rainbow Project about the conflict. Afterwards, we had a
delicious lunch and had a discussion of what we’d learned so far.
We had some time on our own, so Hannah and I browsed around downtown
and found some neat shops. We went to the Parliament building Stormont Estate, which was pretty far outside of Belfast. Once the bus dropped us off,
we had a mile hike uphill on the huge estate. Once we finally reached the top,
we got a quick tour and met Chris Lyttle, and MLA and one of the members of the
Alliance Party, to ask him some questions about what he does and hopes
to accomplish. Then we hiked back down in the rain and had to wait half an hour
for a bus to finally come. The transportation is nowhere near as efficient as
Copenhagen’s!
Jen, Clara, Hannah, and I got tickets to see The Script that
night, which was a ton of fun! Unfortunately, my camera was confiscated since
it was “professional,” so I couldn't take any pictures.
Thursday:
Again, we started off early and headed to Queen’s University
of Belfast to talk to two professors about the conflict. They were really
engaging and energetic, so we had a pretty interesting discussion. Afterwards, we spoke to the president of the
student union, so it was neat to get the perspective of someone our own age and
who wasn’t alive during the riots of the 70s and 80s.
We drove to Dublin through the thickest fog I’d ever seen!
At some points, I wouldn’t be able to see my hand in front of my face if I had
been outside. When we could see, the countryside was beautiful!
After checking into our hotel, we went out to dinner at
Ireland’s oldest inn and second oldest pub called the Brazen Head. It opened in
1198, and the only pub that is older opened around 900 outside of Dublin. I had
the best chocolate fudge cake I’ve ever tasted there! It may have topped the all
Danish pastries I’ve had.
We went on a musical pub crawl after dinner with two Irish
musicians. We hiked through the rain (I don’t think it stopped raining all day)
to some pubs where they would play old Irish songs on the violin and guitar. In
between songs, they gave us some Irish music history and social rules. For
example, it’s considered rude to clap when a musician is performing, and
stomping your foot to the beat (called “playing the boot”) and yelling is
encouraged. There are three native Irish instruments: Uillean pipes, Bodhran (a type of drum), and Celtic harp. They told us that
a real Bodhran is made with goatskin, and the cheap ones sold to tourists are made
of cowhide, which is cheaper because there’s been a surplus since McDonald’s
and Burger King became popular. Irish pubs have “lock-ins” where they literally
lock people in (we learned that it is possible to get out if necessary) during
performances. The Irish also have sing-along type things where people will
randomly start up a song, and everyone will join in. We tried our own American
version and got The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, Wagon Wheel, and Ain’t
No Mountain High Enough going in our group. The music that the musicians played
was excellent, and it was really neat to experience Irish music first hand! It
was my favourite night by far!
Friday:
We began with a lecture at Trinity College with a professor
who studies speech and is creating technology and robots to interact with
people through speech. What he does reminded me of a modern day Henry Higgins
(#MyFairLadyReference), but he didn’t sing or say any witty insults.
We went to an Irish dance museum and learned how to river
dance! We found that we were pretty horrible, but it was a ton of fun! We also
got to see performances by two Irish dancers, which was really neat to see in
person!
We had our final meal together at a really nice restaurant,
and I got a burger with blue cheese and bacon, which turned out to be a superb
combination! We also got Knickerbockers Glory, which is actually what Harry
Potter ate when he went to the zoo with the Dursleys in the first book!
We had a couple of hours on our own before leaving, so
Edward, Hannah, and I went exploring around the city. We started at Trinity
College to get pictures since it had been raining when we were there earlier.
The professor from the morning had told us about the “Harry Potter Room” that
was supposed to look like the Great Hall, but it was a much smaller and less
elaborate version. We wanted to see the Book of Kells, but the exhibit was
closed.
We found City Hall, Christ Church, and St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, which were all gorgeous! We wanted to go inside St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, but it cost money and we wouldn’t have sufficient time to explore. We
walked around the grounds outside, and they were lovely and green!
We headed to the airport where I met Kathleen, one of my
mother’s friends from high school whom she hasn’t seen in almost 30 years. She
was really nice, and I had a lot of fun talking to her and catching her up on
my family.
Then we flew back to Copenhagen! It was an exhausting week in
Ireland, but I had an fantastic time and saw a lot of amazing sites!
