bustin' outta belfast

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so, first to answer a few questions...the hostels aren't sketchy, just full of character 😊 and sunday bloody sunday was written about one of the bombings, not sure exactly which one (brent, nicole and charlie can answer that one), but i think it was in '71. and it's wild to hear U2 in ireland, just seems really right (oh, and i'm drinking a guinness as i write this). so talking to trevor, the guy i'm staying with in belfast, he said that the people side with either the 'catholic' or the 'protestant' football teams, which ironically are both from scotland. and the national team's home jersey is green, so this presents a dilemma for the protestant fans, because green represents the catholics. and then we asked trevor if he would just wear a green shirt, like a t-shirt, and he said that it would depend on what shade of green, but probably not. alot of the division is among the working class in the rowhouses, the upper class don't have to interact and live so closely with eachother so it's not nearly as big a deal, but two police stations have been heavily vandalized because the sinn fein, a militant faction of the ira, was allowed into parliament as their own party, so it's like the terrorists (or freedom fighter, depending on the side) are now the police. as an outsider it's hard to fathom the apparent blind loyalty that people ascribe to - but i'm sure that if i had grown up here i would have a much different opinion of the matter - interestingly, a lot of new construction is going on in the city, before the peace talks people were afraid to invest because the ira would simply bomb any new building. last night we passed by the europa hotel, the most bombed building in europe, bombed 31 times by both sides, the protestants and catholics. on july 11 there will be huge bonfires (like 3-4 stories tall) in the protestant quarters commemerating the victory of prince william the orange over king charles....in 1690, so the divison goes back a long way. its just fascinating to be able to experience a tiny bit of this.

today was a bit mellower, and perhaps more typically irish. the weather was gray and a bit dreary, we drove up to giants causeway, which is an outcropping to 40,000 basalt hexagonal stones that you can walk on, like a crazy maze of stepping stones. legend says that a giant in ireland was mad at a giant in scotland, so this was built...anyway, it was crazy in its regularity, it's a bit like joshua tree in that you know that all kinds of cool stuff is hidden under the hills, it just needs to be eroded away first. so we spent a bit of time there, oh, and before that we went to carrick-a-rede, a rope bridge connecting the mainland to a small island. saw irelands tiniest church, probably 5 x 8 feet, and that's pushing it. and i had authentic fish'n chips...mmmm, fried goodness. and of course i had room for dessert.

so i leave ireland tomorrow, i'm hoping to be back at the end of my time in europe, if i manage that i'll probably go to the west coast, out to cork and galway and just traipse around. i've had an amazing time in both cities, dublin for it's beauty and U2 and pubs and U2 and classic irish feel and U2, belfast for it's history, which is still being written. unlike other cities, which seem rather tame and predictable, belfast as it is now is a new city. peace hasn't been here for that long and people are still figuring out what it's like to live a 'normal' life and not have to look over their shoulders (interestingly, both men and women are heavily tattoed here - i would bet a lot of the tattoos are very pro-ira or uda, it's not like tattoos in the states. though everyone has them, a surprising number of middle age and older men and women had a dozen tattoos on their arms, and that's the generation who lived through and fought in 'the troubles.')

so tomorrow it's off to the netherlands! hopefully i'll get mistaken for a native

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