Two easy lessons in learning how to teach the Irish gig. 1: Serve alcohol. 2: Lock toilet doors!

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Ireland day 7/8

Ournfinal day of tour began with a black cab tour through the catholic and protestant areas of Belfast. This was quite enlightening as although I knew about the troubles of Northern Ireland this certainly made it a lot more real. It was good to have the conflict spoken of by both sides of the story. There are many murals that symbolise what the different groups went through and one particular mural won an award as no matter where you stand in front of it, the sniper in the photo is pointing his rifle at you. Very erie. The two gentlemen taking the tours for us only spoke to eachother when required to, there is still a very serious divide between these two peoples. They have not and according to both our guides, will not remove the wall dividing Belfast. It is huge, there are homes backing onto the wall which still have iron cages on the backs of their properties which were originally built to save them from damage from hand bombs. There is not enough trust between the protestant and catholic people yet and they are happy to live with these structures still standing around their homes. It made me very uneasy.

The rest of the daynwas spent exploring Belfast, we kissed a giant fish, took an elevated up to the globe on the top of the shopping centre, ate more chocolate than was good for me at the market shops below, also had a cupcake blowout....chocolate deliciousness!! We then headed for the local markets for lunch and I was in foodie heaven....not only were the stalls amazing, they had taste testers! Everywhere! There was 12 types of popcorn, cheeses, cakes, dried meats, brownies, biscuits, curries, sweets, savory.....heavenly! I chose a mixed platter of 3 curries, rice, chicken wings and yoghurt and mint sauce for 7 pounds....it really could have fed two people but I made it fit in my own (somewhat growing) tummy. It was so delicious.

We got back to the hostel and spent time relaxing and winding down (this touring is exhausting!) Then Candra, Myself, Amy and Mal met for a quick dinner before spending our last night together at an Irish bar watching some amazing traditional music and dancing. Hopefully after much practise I will be able to play a folk tune or two on my Irish tin whistle! They played great songs, some Mal and I could even sing along to! So I had my last hot whisky and said goodbye to Mal, as he now had to take a VERY late bus back to Galway and back it up with work the following day, but we all had an amazing time. :-) Hopefully I will be back here in Ireland one day.

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