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Published: February 8th 2011
Belfast
Belfast! We had the most amazing time staying with my cousin Andrea, her husband Connor, and their very adorable son Finn. I had visited them during my last trip to Ireland, but since they have moved to a new house and Finn is now 3 years old, completely full of energy, and SO cute! We started on our journey to Belfast from Kilkenny, a route that Jon claimed was fool proof...I should have known by now that this was a clear indication that we would eventually find ourselves very lost. A common trend through this trip, we find ourselves deep in silly conversation so much so that we miss all signage pointing us to our destination, ending up in very small and very obscure Irish village, often times very hungry and very in need of restrooms. And this time was no different! Once we finally found our way to Andreas we were greeted by a very sleepy, yet enthused Finn and an amazing pot of Texas style chili...yum! We stayed up talking and catching up for sometime since it had been so long since I had seen Andrea, and since there were just too many hilarious and intriguing family stories to pass onto Jon.
The next morning we slept in a little later than planned, also a common trend while we were in Belfast, and decided to make some plans for our week. We had some late nights preceding our time in Belfast so we really took advantage of the opportunity to rest and chill with family, and of course to chase and jump on beds with Finn 😊 One of our days was spent climbing "Cave Hill", which is a mountain/hill that overlooks all of Belfast city and the port where the titanic was built. Also appropriately named, we ran into a few caves on the way up the hill, which Jon and I both decided were the coolest things ever, and did some exploring inside. We uploaded some pictures from that day, and maybe a video as well, but the views from the top were amazing. You could literally see an entire panoramic view of the city.
While we were staying in Dublin, the receptionist at our hostel told us about taking the black taxi tour in Belfast, which explains the history behind the troubles in Northern Ireland and shows you landmarks and historic sites throughout the city. The tour was really, really neat and super informative about the interactions between the Protestants and the Catholics throughout history until present day. The driver took us to what he called "peace walls", which are walls built between major Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods by request of the citizens in order to shield each other from the violence of daily interaction. And what we found to be really interesting about the walls is that almost half of the 31 walls have been built after 1998, following the declared cease in violence and peace operations. We had no idea that this level of segregation still occurs in Belfast, and the taxi driver was really great at showing both sides of things and giving us a fairly unbiased representation of the current state of Belfast. He stopped along the way so we could get out of the car to check things out, and while we were at the longest peace wall he gave us a marker to add to the art and graffiti that covered the barrier. We decided to leave our mark by writing "peace, love, happiness, and joy"... Also signifying a little hello to Joya by borrowing her version 😊 We figured it was only right, seeing that she loves guinness more than anyone we know!
The last little Belfast highlight is our last night at Andreas. The night before we all went out to dinner and scored amazing Chinese food, a very pleasant break from the traditional irish food that we had been eating for weeks, and our last night happened to fall on the NFL playoff games between the jets steelers, and packers bears. Jon and I have known that we were going to miss the superbowl this year, so we were ecstatic when we heard that Andrea had the sports channel showing the games. A little tired from pubs following the chinese food the night before, we decided to stay in and watch the games at home. Our brains were moving a little slow however, and 30 minutes before the games started we realized we had no beer. Blasphemy. We also realized at that moment that it was a Sunday, and we had approximately 3 minutes to get to the shop before they closed and we were left to suffer through many hours of football watching beerless. Well, that was all I had to say to Jon before he literally sprinted jacketless outside to start the car. I jumped in, and we torpedoed down to the store to find an employee, very ready to get off work and go home, guarding the door. I ran to him, panting, and begged him to let me buy beer to watch the game...luckily his Irish blood sympathized for the beer desperation that i was exhibiting and he reluctantly let me in. We got the beer and pizza and happily headed home. I can easily say that the way Jon looked at me as I walked out of the store with beer and pizza in hand will go down in my top 5 moments where I have felt genuinely loved. And the night only got better from there! Andrea made awesome onion rings and nachos, and we watched the playoffs in true American style.
We were bummed to leave the comforts of Belfast since we had not only grown to appreciate the city's history, but also got pretty attached to Finn and his hysterical daily antics. I think Jon especially misses his little buddy, and the constant amusement and entertainment he provided. We were so grateful to Andrea and Connor for opening their home, yet again, and giving us a comfortable place to stay. Well be heading back to through Belfast on our way home, and we can't wait to see Finn and his new brother or sister!
Our Internet at the farm isn't always accessible, but we'll upload more entries about Rome and the farm by the end of the week!
We miss everyone! And thanks for the supportive, kind, and hysterical comments!
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Mom/Pam
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Finn!
It was so interesting to read about those "peace" walls between Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in Belfast! I'd have thought they'd have been long gone since the formal peace agreement. I cracked up at your description of the mad beer run and Jon's total look of loving appreciation of the effort to convince the guy to sell you the needed items to enjoy the playoffs!! We had a Superbowl party here which was great fun with lots of great food and margaritas and a wonderful outcome for our Pauli cuzzes, Jon can explain--hint--they grew up in Neenah where Uncle Dick was his whole career with Kimberly Clark. Don't forget those cute pixes of Finn!! Love, Pam/Mom