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Published: January 26th 2010
One of the many murals in Belfast
One of the many murals expressing religious or political views. This one is about the martyrs from an independant english group who came to Northern Ireland to help the protestants fight the catholics. Je devrais etre atteint de cessite tellement j'ai vu d'endroits magnifiques et je devrais en etre a oublier mon nom tellement j'ai appris de nouveaux trucs depuis le debut du voyage. J'aimerais en dire autant pour la bouffe mais dans ce coin du monde, ce ne sont pas les talents culinaires qui attirent les touristes. J'ai essayer le met Ecossais traditionel. Du Haggis, une vrai saloperie : tout le systeme digestif du mouton ecrase, hache et ensuite envellope dans l'estomac de celui-ci. Le tout frit!! Anyway, voici brievement ce que j'ai fait ces derniers jours ...
NORTHERN IRELAND
Here the natural features are as nice as in the Republic but people are different. The accent here is distincly different and the currency is the pound sterling. In Belfast you can feel that you are now in the UK. It is not the same vibe at all. And even if the peace between Loyalist-protestants and Republican-catholics was signed in 1998, we can still feel some hate and hear hostile comments. Habituellement, apres quelques verres ou meme apres un "cup of tea", les langues se denouent assez rapidement.
SCOTLAND
Wow, wow and wow again!! I was expecting a lot from my visit here but not that much. Le vibe dans les deux grandes villes, Glasgow et Edinburgh, est vraiment tres bien. Tandis qu'on se sent comme a Montreal a Glasgow avec sa scene musicale et ces festivals, Edinburgh est vraiment une ville hors pair.
Edinburgh just made ifself a place in my top 5 of the cities that I would live in. With Berlin, Budapest, Florence and of course Montreal, Edinburgh in my opinion would definitily be a great place to live. The New Town is like the Old Montreal but 20 times bigger and grandiose. As for the Old Town, it is simply exquisite (yeah Jerry I used the word). People are very friendly and the lifestyle just looks right!! I've done a few daytrips from these two cities : Stirling (where Mel Gibson's troops exterminated the English army), St-Andrews (Catedral, Castle, Harbour, ...), Melrose and Jedburgh (Abbeys). I really enjoy spending hours in some old important ruins trying to figure out how it was back then. I'm easily impressed by any single detail.
Finally, certainly one of the highlight of this whole journey : an amazing roadtrip in the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye. I just love roadtrips!! And when you're in good company, laughing, stinking and eating as if all the medical advices given by experts regarding bad food were wrong all these years, it's even better. To this, you add some of the best sceneries that I've seen in my life and you've got yourself one hell of a roadtrip! Nous etions 4, un Canadien, un Peruvien, un Francais et un Sud-Africain. Aucun de nous n'avait l'Anglais comme langue maternelle. Anyway, belle gang!!
Le seul hic en Ecosse etait la meteo et les nuages. Les photos ne sortent pas aussi bien que je l'aurais espere. Mais en meme temps ca faisait parti du charme du decors.
Sur ce, prenez soins de
vous et donnez moi des nouvelles.
And cheers to all the nice people I met in Scotland ... ho! and in Belfast as well!
With a lot of love,
Nikolas xxxxxxxxxx
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Mathieu
non-member comment
NICE
j'avoue, les roadtrips, c'est toujours gagnant. Man, j'suis jaloux ! Mathieu S