Blogs from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe
Yacht Breeze of Weymouth new travels in the UK
Published: April 26th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast
April 26th 2012
Since buying Yacht Breeze of Weymouth, a Hallberg rassy 53 we seem to have spent a lot of time working on her, to get her exactly how we wanted. First we added a large gantry with big solar panels, which supports the dinghy as well. Then we had the mast taken off and the rigging replaced and all fittings checked. Next airconditioning and reverse cycle heating fitted, and then the boat out of the water and copper coated. So all in all a huge amount of time to get her ready. What follows is the first part of our trip to Scotland. This is a domestic blog, rather than a sailing blog, and is really just to let our friends and family know what has occurred. Journey to Scotland, April 2012-04-09 We left Weymouth after a ... read more
Finding Giants' at the causeway and a 350 year old bridge!
Published: May 26th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast
April 21st 2012
Ireland day 6 The day began with a walking tour of Londonderry. I tried very hard to listen to our guide through the sound of my teeth chattering and body shivering as it was bitterly cold and even though I had rugged up it wasn't making much difference with the wind chill. It then began to rain lightly, then harder, then it was pouring and windy and bitterly cold, my umbrella desserted me and turned inside out, and my concentration levels dimmed somewhat. We did see the Bloody Sunday memorial and learnt that the term catwalk originated in Ireland as they have a long walkway at the topnof a hill that the aristocrats used to walk up and down parading their finery and the peasants below used to call them the fine cats - hence the ... read more
What do you call an irishman whos been dead for 50 years? Peat!
Published: May 26th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Fermanagh » EnniskillenApril 20th 2012
Ireland day 5 What a better way to start the day than finding not 1, but 2 rainbows! Our first stop was at Gaynah's bar for Baily's hot chocolate at Killary Harbour, Ireland's only inland Ford. The fireplace was welcoming, the chocolate hot, the Baily's potent... Hmm 10am is usually a little early for alcoholic beverages though! We had lunch at Mayo county with our smaller group of now only 4 (myself, Candra, Neil and Claire) as we lost Shannon and Nathan to the 5 day group. We got together for a yummy lunch sitting on the steps of the statue at West Port which was founded in 1780. We then went through Sligo county to the Glenn Carr waterfall which was made famous by W.B. Yates who wrote 'The stolen child'. It is 'spring' (ie. ... read more
March 26th 2012
I was planning to go somewhere for two nights with my girlfriend and then came up to my mind ''why don’t go to Northern Ireland?'' So, basically we went there for 2 days, one we spent just in Belfast and another one in the causeways. Here, I’m gonna write just about the causeways. If you wanna go there with some tour agency you can find plenty of information on the internet. Otherwise, if you wanna go on your own the things get a little bit more difficult, cause the website of public transportation (http://www.translink.co.uk) is not so clear. Anyway, I was looking in some web forums and I found out the way to get there (taking a train from Europa train station in Belfast to Coleraine and then take the bus service 172 to the Causeways). ... read more
March 20th 2012
I finally made it, Ireland, I've wanted to make a visit there for as long as I can remember, so long I can not pin point the trigger. So after 2 years and a near expired UK visa, all it took was a 1 hour flight - easy peasy. For the next 9 days we will be doing a Paddywagon 6 day All Ireland tour - (a slight deviation form our original plan as we had booked on the 6 day Southern Ireland tour only to find this was cancelled the morning of departure) Insted we had a couple of additional cities to visit in Northern Ireland, Belfast and Derry, on top of Galway, Dingle, Kilarney and all the amazing bits in between. All followed up by a couple of days in Dublin over St Patricks ... read more
A Brief but Titanic Visit to Belfast
Published: April 12th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast
March 18th 2012
This morning, needless to say, was a bit slow. We dragged ourselves out of our room around lunch time and caught the train to Belfast. Having the train station across the street turned out to be very convenient, and in 2.5 hours we reached the other side of Northern Ireland. Because it was so late in the day, we didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything, we just wandered around to see what Belfast is all about. Belfast is a very new looking city, due to bombings related to The Troubles and World War II. The city centre was pretty much closed since it was Sunday, and everyone was nursing their hangovers, so we just strolled through and spent a bit of time looking around their city hall. The big claim to fame ... read more
St. Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland
Published: April 11th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Londonderry » Londonderry
March 17th 2012
Today was the reason for our trip to Northern Ireland: to celebrate St. Paddy's Day in Irish style. We wanted to come to Derry for this occasion primarily because flights were cheaper than going to Dublin (we thought some of Mike's friends from school would join us, but they bailed), but also because we thought there would be less tourists and more of an authentic St Patrick's Day experience. Apparently the celebration of St Patrick's Day has been suppressed in the north more recently because of The Troubles, but the last few years it has been getting popular again. How could they pass up the opportunity to have a huge party? Before the festivities got underway, we wanted to explore the city of Derry (also known as Londonderry). The reason behind Londonderry is because of the ... read more
Northern Ireland, First Stop: Giant's Causeway!
Published: April 9th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Bushmills
March 16th 2012
This morning, we got up super early (4am) and caught a 7:30am flight to Derry (1 hour flight), Northern Ireland where we were going to spend St. Patrick's Day, Irish-style. We had heard that the weather over the weekend was going to be rainy, so we were happy with the little bit of cloud cover that we saw when we arrived. We tried to check in our hotel, but the door was locked and the bar attached to it was still closed, so we were happy that we packed our backpacks lightly, because we carried them around with us for the day. We quickly realized that Derry is a small town that likely doesn't warrant the three days we planned to stay there, so we decided to head out of town for the day, to the ... read more
de eerste stageweek
Published: March 4th 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast
March 4th 2012
Hey allemaal! Ik heb net mijn eerste stageweek achter de rug. Zoals de meesten al wel weten sta ik in St Clare's, een lagere school op een klein kwartiertje wandelen van hier. Mijn klasje is P5; dat wil zeggen dat ze 8-9 jaar zijn. Ze zijn allemaal heel schattig, maar het is wel een erg grote aanpassing. Ik moet er rekening mee houden dat er leerlingen in de klas zitten die amper kunnen lezen/schrijven... Ik heb deze week nog maar 1 lesje gegeven; eentje over België. Voor de rest van de week was ik benoemd tot 'classroom assisstant, dat wil zeggen dat ik meestel met een leerling werk die problemen heeft met een bepaald vak. Het grootste deel van deze week heb ik Michael moeten helpen, een jongen die het heel moeilijk heeft met lezen en ... read more
Welcome to Belfast: Home of the Friendliest Terrorists
Published: February 23rd 2012Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast
February 23rd 2012
Last week was midterm break at Calderstones Secondary School, so Lindsay and I packed a change of clothes and flew 30 minutes to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Last summer, I went to Dublin, Ireland. I found Belfast to be a very different experience. While Dublin was a bit of a tourist trap, Belfast was authentic and filled with recent history. The city is known for its terrorist activity during “The Troubles” from the 1960s into the 1990s. Once a dangerous city to walk around in, I could sense the city is beginning to breathe freely once more. Within an hour of arriving, Lindsay and I ran into two tour guides of the city who greeted us saying “Welcome to Belfast, it’s the home of the friendliest terrorists!” I was unsure if I was supposed to laugh or ... read more
