Blogs from Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 19

So I arrived in Belfast yesterday, and was greeted by some cloudy, misty weather. I arrived at the hostel, checked in, and then headed into the city centre to check out the tourist office and book my tour to the Giant's Causeway. They also had a big souvenir shop in the tourist office, so I thought that I would check out other shops and then maybe come back. Shops here seem to be open a little later than in England, until about 7pm, or at least on a Wed. night. I also saw the funniest of sights.... TIM HORTON'S COFFEE! It wasn't a regular restaurant or anything, but they were selling Timmie's coffee and donuts at the Spar convenience store, in at least two Belfast locations. What a surprise! I thought last night that I had ... read more

Monday brought the second night of the gospel meeting. Several more members from area churches were present. To this point, we haven't had a single visitor from the invitations we distributed, which is somewhat disappointing. Nonetheless, we have done what we could. Hopefully, though, we'll have one or two in the final two nights of the meeting. Regardless of whether or not anyone comes as a result of the invitations, we are accompishing the other main task we set forth in this mission effort -- namely, the strenghtening of the local body. The combination of Bill's "how to" personal evangelism sessions, the gospel sermons during the meeting, Kelly's ladies Bible class (forthcoming), and the edification through fellowship is having what we hope will be a very positive impact on the member's of Christ's church in this ... read more

Well today was our big tour to up the coast of Northern Ireland. As many of you heard, there is this rope bridge that is over the North Atlantic that mom wanted to cross and I thought "are you freaking crazy". Well.... we got to it, there was a bit of rain and some wind.... but we both crossed it! We pretty much looked straight ahead and crossed over.... then did the same thing on the way back. On the areas that weren't on the bridge, the scenery was fantastic! Took lots of pictures and even got a certificate saying we crossed the bridge (that's for all you skeptics who don't think we did it!) Next was a quick stop at Bushmills, where to my disappointment we did not get to go on a full distillery ... read more

I obviously had way to many Jameson's and cranberry.....not only did I get the pub's name wrong but also it's history!!!!! So, we were really at a pub called McHugh's that was established in 1711 not 1171!!!! Sometimes, I make myself fall over laughing.....not at the pub tho'! McHugh's is registered as the oldest city building in Belfast from the 18th Century (found this on the internet)! So there you have it.....sorry to all you Belfast citizen's out there. If you are ever in Belfast..please check it out. Cheers Sande... read more

On the bus to the ferry, I met a man from Congo. He wanted to start some kind of tourism business in Congo, so he was in Northern Ireland and Scotland trying to drum up financing. He helped me find my hostel in Belfast. I decided since I only had 2 days in Belfast, I would take a tour bus to see Derry and Giant's Causeway. It was a rainy day and the Causeway was very slippery, so I had to be very careful walking on the stones. The murals in Derry from the time of the "Troubles" were quite moving. It wasn't that long ago that Northern Ireland was rife with strife. I really liked Belfast, much more than I expected to, in spite of the miserable weather.... read more