Blogs from Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 31

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Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast October 29th 2006

Hey people, How's everyone? I thought I'd give another update. Last time I wrote I think I was heading into County Galway. Galway is another great place and is also where my grandpa is from so that was good to see. I think that would be my favorite place in Ireland with Dublin. I would have loved to stay there and do some sort of bar work but the best my UK visa can do in Ireland is work in Belfast (Northern Ireland). I spent a few days in Galway with Matty (A mate i made on tour). We had started taking it easy and even decided that it would be a good idea to start cooking our own meals. Eating and drinking out all the time has been taking it's toll on the finances (and ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast October 19th 2006

Where to begin? We arrived in Belfast after bussing it up from Cork three days ago. We will fly to Prague on Sunday. Upon arrival to Belfast, we wandered to the Queens University area, in a residential district and discovered Arnie's Hostel. Most hostels we have found, we walk in, wait on reception, and throw our bags down on a wooden slat of a bunk bed. Here, we were greeted by the barking of little Wishbone-like dogs, and invited in by Arnie himself to have tea and coffee. The next day, he booked us and our new California rafting friend Jess on a Black Cab Tour around Belfast. Its impossible to explain the history and struggle of Northern Ireland, but our guide Walter introduced us to the conflict and took us to both the Protestant ... read more
Titanic model staircase
City Hall
Peace Wall to keep the sides apart

Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast September 17th 2006

I spent two awesome days in Belfast, and I will definitely come back in the future. Something about the city is enchanting and it really was a great place to visit. I stayed at Arnie's Backpackers, which was a really cool little hostel. The lonely planet describes it as cramped, but I think it's totally charming. The owner, Arnie, is quite a character, and really makes you feel at home (at his home). I arrived in Belfast after a short flight from Glasgow. I settled in at the hostel, and then after a bit of food set off for a walk through the Catholic neighborhood surrounding Falls Rd. Much of the "Troubles" in Belfast centered around the neighborhoods bordering Falls and Shankill Roads (Protestant). The two areas are divided by the Peace Line, which is a ... read more
Mayor of Belfast
Falls Rd
Falls Rd

Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast August 29th 2006

Our time in Dublin was over, and since we didn’t want to drag our bags on public transportation, we again opted for a taxi to take us to the bus station. I had read some horror stories about long distance buses, but was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to figure everything out. Another example of when my anal retentiveness saves the day: I had done my research and knew exactly what bus to catch and when to catch it for each leg of the trip. This saved us a bunch of time, cause we timed our arrivals at the bus stations perfectly. After stowing our luggage beneath the bus, we boarded our bus to Belfast, which got really crowded at the Dublin Airport stop. The ride was supposed to take 2.5 hours, but ended ... read more
Carnlough
The Incredible Hulk.  Hmmmm.
View from our hostel window

Europe » United Kingdom » Northern Ireland » County Antrim » Belfast August 17th 2006


We are now in Belfast and the weather here is Just like Melbourne, cold and changeable. We traveled through Londenderry and found out about all the strife they have eundured in this part of Ireland, very difficult to understand but it was all caused by a very small minority of hard core fanatics most people seemed just to want to get on with their lives and that is what is happening now, Visited the giants causeway on our way along the coast have just finished a tour of Belfast and we are soon off to Dublin for two nights fantastic meals and accommodation friendleu people what more could we ask for, we are having a ball. Good luck with the EOM Jane I would like to help but I just dont care Thanks fo all the ... read more


Hi everybody, finally the time has arrived that I bought myself a brand new digital camera, and it was about time. Unfortunately, it was not in time to be able to make photo's of the party I had in belfast, during the commemoration of the battle of the boyne. Huge bonfires on the night of july the 11th, and parades on the 12th. It was great to experience such an event, strongly recomended to anyone travelling to northern ireland. I do hope to develop the last role on my normal camera, which will include those photo's as well, but for now you will have to do with this. See you soon, johan.... read more
site of the shankill bonfire
belfast castle
mourne mountains


After having breakfast at the Europa's generous buffet, we went with Rev. Bill Shaw to see the facilities of the 174 Trust. The 174 Trust was established in 1982 by a group of concerned Christians interested in tackling some of the many problems confronting the local community (unemployment, low education, and crime among them). As though the neighborhood problems were not challenge enough, they selected a physical location in an area that might reasonably be called ground zero for the historic "troubles" in Northern Ireland. A demographic map shows that the 174 offices sit right in the middle of a neighborhood where there are Catholics on one side and Protestants on the other. It's difficult for people like us who don't live in Ireland to comprehend how deep the schism has been, and how long it ... read more
Big Fish
The Big Fish at the River Lagan in Belfast
Thanksgiving Beacon


Hello everyone I know its been a really long time since the last update but after my huge adventure in April i took some time to enjoy Glasgow as well as a week trip to Spain where I lounged on the beach and partyed the whole time! I will now give you all a quick update of my last 2 weeks! Now I am on my 1 month backpacking adventure with Carly and so far we have filled our time quiet well! She came into Glasgow on the same day I finished my exams (which all went well i think) then for the next few days we had the huge task of cleaning out my room, packing everything up, saying goodbyes to everyone, partying for the last times as well as getting her unstuck from my ... read more
Belfast City hall
Irish landscape
crazy bridge


hey guys, so after our early flight we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and then decided to check out the city. it seems like a pretty normal place if you are in the middle of the city centre... you don't really see any differences between that and some other european city until someone tells you the history of things that have happened. we basically just did a walking tour of everything and then took the public bus around to both the protestant and catholic neighbourhoods on either sides of the peace line. it was really interesting to see. we were pretty tired that night so we grabbed dinner and then went to bed. the next day we went to the giant's causeway on the northern coast which was amazing! that's why we stayed the ... read more
we found out later this means nothing to the locals
sinn fein from the bus
giant's causeway




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