Blogs from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe

Zoals altijd begint een wandelvakantie na een vliegreis met de zoektocht naar een gastankje, aangezien deze niet mee mag het vliegtuig in. Wat een redelijk goed voorbereide actie leek, werd nog een spannende race tegen de klok in de vroege ochtend. Na een nachtje in ons hostel in Belfast, vertrokken we half negen opgesplitst in twee groepjes. Irma en Baukje gingen gewapend met een kaartje van google met daarop alle outdoorzaken het centrum in en Judit en ik zouden paraat gaan staan bij het busstation om precies op tijd kaartjes te kopen en het juiste perron op te zoeken. Alles is gelukt, alleen niet binnen de tijd dat onze bus naar Waterfoot zou vertrekken... Dan over op plan B, want dat was er natuurlijk ook al. Op naar een treinstation en met de trein naar Ballymena, ... read more

I ran around for years, looking for answers that were buried deep under blood and hate, dirt and shame. Still today, I struggled to control my sense and can't fully understand. I remember the ritual like it was yesterday. You were once again leaving. During a couple of seconds which felt like hours. My world was stopping. My eyes were getting wet, but I couldn't look away. I knew only too well what was coming, but couldn't do better, but look at you as you were leaving. Questions were popping inside my heads and getting lost through a chaos of sadness and incomprehension. I was acting tough and I kept telling people that you were a good man and you were doing this for the better good, but I was burning from inside. Not long before, ... read more

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 ... read more

Lovely day today! We got to sleep in a little bit since we were in no rush to catch busses or anything. We got up around 9am, to the sound of cows gently moo-ing outside our window. Yep, hello rural UK. I had a good laugh though – I love it. (Sidenote: hostel guy was telling us they were late letting them into the gate-area this morning, so they were all bunched up against the fench moo-ing their displeasure. I guess we slept through that) Hostel had free breakky, but like real breakky with eggs, bacon, sausage, beans and toast. After we had our fill we puttered around until 10h50 to catch a bus up to Carrick-a-rede bridge... we decided to lug our stuff around with us because we didn’t trust hostel guy to still be ... read more