Ballinasloe to Belfast

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August 20 Ballinasloe to Belfast - Today I caught the train from Ballinasloe to Belfast. I wanted to follow the same route that my mother took when going to England during the war to train to be a nurse. She took the train from Ballinasloe to Belfast. Then from Belfast she took the ferry across the Irish Sea to Liverpool England. From Liverpool she went by train to Cambridge for her nurses training.

So I caught the train from Ballinasloe on the same platform of the same station that my mother left from during the war to England and then again after the war in 1946 when she went to America to join my father who had already been shipped home by the Army Air Corps.

The journey to Belfast was quite a trip but relatively comfortable since the trains had tables and internet access so the time passed quickly but I must confess when I got to Belfast I was not sure how to get to the hostel although I figured out what street it was on. I didn’t want to be lugging that suitcase and bag around so I just took a taxi. The taxi was quite expensive here compared to the south and cost me £8. Still it is a luxury I can afford. The cab driver didn’t know where the hostel was so we just went to University street and looked for it. He drove right by it but I saw it and we turned around.

The hostel I stayed at was Vagabonds at 9 University Road and it was quite nice. There was also a convenience store next to it which was nice as well…..and a KFC down the street!!

Tomorrow I will call a cab again to take me to the ferry port to go to England.

So here I go again leaping off into the unknown….

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