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Published: April 18th 2011
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After dealing with the ridiculous stay at the Seawinds in Kilybegs we went on with our day. We were going even further north. We started out in Letterkenny, the main event of the day was to go to the Free Derry Museum, but it didn’t open until 1 so we had some time to kill. In Letterkenny we parked and walked around looking for an ATM so that we could walk through a little flea market. The flea market was a bust, but it was a fun time to walk around and see what everyone was selling. The walking around to find cash took a really look time and resulted in us having to go to a Dunnes store, which is fantastic, go ladies go, they have the greatest coats at fantastic prices.
Chris had read about Grianan of Aileach in Co. Donegal and how it is a massive ring fort overlooking a huge spance of the county, it was just amazing how far around you could see. It made sense that this would be a great vantage point to see who is coming over. We got there just as a huge bus was going up the hill, so there
were only a few moments of quiet before we were surrounded by Scottish teens.
From there we headed into Derry. We were a little nervous about going to Northern Ireland only a few days before a young Guarda who was 25 and Catholic was shot and killed. Then only a day before we were to go to Derry a car bomb was found. Tensions were high. The feeling when in Derry was similar, people seemed to have on eye on their destination and another on what was happening around them. It wasn’t that we didn’t feel safe; it just didn’t feel comfortable or good. We entered Derry and were able to find the museum right away, it is in a weird location, technically it is right where Bloody Sunday happened, but more so right next to an apartment complex you park in the parking lot of the complex. Anyway, the area around the museum was dingy and dirty and again just felt tense (this could be because we were stressed to be there too). The museum finally opened and we went in, even though in the north were they use the Pound, we paid in Euro and got change
Grianan of Aileach
This amazing ring fort is in County Donegal. in Pound. The museum was dimly lit and felt cold, throughout there are signs posted and you wander through reading these headlines, accounts and watching TV monitors of the events leading up to and during Bloody Sunday. It was incredibly sad. This was more of a “reading” museum, what I mean is there are more signs to read than items to look at in displays. I think that my knowledge of Bloody Sunday was mainly learned from the U2 sounds embarrassing as that is. So to see this huge part of Irish history was wonderful. We both really enjoyed the museum and would recommend it to anyone who will be in the area to see it. After that we took the map they gave us and drove around looking at the murals in the area. The murals are just so laden with emotion and we didn’t even see them all. Apparently you can get what is called a black taxi and for 20 pound you can be driven all around Derry and be told the history of the town and murals.
After that we left Northern Ireland and headed to our B&B in Buncrana. Buncrana has a very cute
little downtown, so we walked around saw the sites decided on lunch – were we both decided we were tired of eating out (who says that? I know…). Went to our B&B Caldra which is just on the outskirts of Buncrana, it was great we were able to get Zoe a proper nap and relax for a few hours. Then we went out to dinner at Ubiquitous downtown and it was fantastic! The food was so fresh and so good. It was a pleasant change from the mainly pub fare we’d been eating. If I had to rank all of my meals on the trip I would say that looking back it was in my top two.
Tomorrow is our last day in Ireland and we have really mixed emotions about it, we are really excited, but at the same time we are sad to be leaving since this has been such an amazing trip.
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