Ireland trip day ten

Ireland trip day ten, 6/7/10 Monday

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel. Then we went to the Museum of Free Derry. Not really knowing what to expect, we thought it would take 5 minutes to breeze through and maybe buy a souvenir. We knew we were wrong as soon as we stepped inside. The guide that took our money (3 pounds each) told us briefly about the events of Bloody Sunday and then let us know that his brother was Michael Kelly, one of the twelve killed that day. For some reason, being so close to the reality, it made an impact on me.

As you walked through the museum, there was a sound track playing of the actual events of Bloody Sunday. A reporter had captured all of the audio and donated it to the museum. There was an amazing amount artifacts. They had propaganda from the early 50's and told the entire story of "the Troubles". There were pieces of clothing that some of the murdered were wearing when they died with arrows pointing to the bullet holes. There was a video and pictures from Bloody Sunday. That coupled with the paper materials, physical artifacts, and the sound track, we were very moved. It reminded me of going to the holocaust museum in DC. It is amazing how inhumane humans can be and can get in a mob mentality. The museum was also not completely one sided. They acknowledged the UK citizens that were killed by the IRA and gave a really nice retrospective on it all.

After all that I felt the need to pet some puppies and kittens but instead we went to visit the Giant's Causeway. North of Derry and on the way to Belfast we headed over to the northern coast. A long, long, time ago a volcano or a glacier or a giant created this natural wonder. There is a real reason why this particular physical feature exists but I don't want to bore you with the details. To make a long story short, there are hundreds of hexagonal columns extending out into the sea. They are all at different heights and it feels like you are walking on stepping stones. We got to view them from the cliffs high above and also got to walk all over them into the ocean.

Finally we hit the road to Belfast. This is by far the largest city we have been to yet at 350,000 people. That may not seem like a lot by American standards but it is huge for Ireland. We walked ALL over Belfast. My feel and legs were super tired. But we made some great discoveries. We walked down to the Shankill area and got to see some more inspiring murals about the struggles in Ireland. We got to see all of the shopping in the city and we came across some names that were familiar:
McDonald's
Burger king
Yankee Candle
H and M
TK Maxx (not TJ)
Pizza Hut
Papa Johns
TGIFridays
Subway
Claire's
Build a Bear
Disney Store
KFC
Starbucks
Costco
Ralph Lauren
and although it is not American we also saw IKEA
We were amazed at how many store names that we recognized. We felt right at home.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know about the smells we have been experiencing. The country side has a distinct natural fertilizer smell but there are times when it feels like the sheep/cow/horse is in the car with you. It is almost paralyzing and difficult to breathe. Then when you get close to the coast and it smells like salty air. You can taste the salt in the breeze. And then there are the cities. There is a combination of sulphur, dirt, garbage, and beer. One time we were directly outside of a distillery and could really smell the alcohol. My nose may never recover from all the rich smells. I just wanted to let you know because my pictures won't give you the full experience.

Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for our adventure to Scotland.

Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog.