Blogs from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 9

Our conference was held at Drumaliswhich is the most incredible venue. Our SPRED conference was amazing. Lots of time to reflect, small group sharing, a mass each day with all of us involved. There were two priest there, one from USA and the other from Malta. Portions of the mass were said in Maltese when Father Trevor was celebrating the mass. We had music from USA, Malta and Spanish. One of the masses we were asked to say the Our Father in our own language. I had Spanish one side of me and Gallic the other, which was really powerful to have such a thing in common, and to hear all the different ways to say the same prayer. In our small groups I has 3 Scottish Sisters, 2 other Scots and American and me. The ... read more

Left at 8.10am and arrived very easily at Titanic at 8.40am. Sat and waited for carpark to open and we were one of the first in the doors. For £25 we bought a White Star Ticket which entitled us to a photo, entry to the galleries, a discovery tour and then entry to the Nomadic, the tender ship for the Titanic in France. "Today, the area of Belfast Harbor that once housed the RMS Titanic has been renamed the Titanic Quarter and is dominated by the towering silver façade of the Titanic Belfast, a remarkable building fashioned from four ship-hull-shaped wings. The futuristic building is home to the state-of-the-art Titanic Belfast exhibition, which spreads over 6 floors and includes interactive discovery zones, full-scale reconstructions, real-life accounts and mind-blowing special effects. From the first talks of building ... read more

Er waart een seriemoordenaar door de nachtelijke straten van Belfast. Hij dringt de huizen van zijn slachtoffers binnen, wurgt ze en laat hun ontklede lichamen zorgvuldig opgemaakt achter. Vervolgens: krantenkoppen, persconferenties, onrust die steeds meer tot hysterie uitgroeit. De politie maakt al tijden jacht op de onverlaat, vooralsnog zonder succes. Vaststaat dat hij ergens in de universiteitsbuurt woont – dat wil zeggen, min of meer bij ons om de hoek. Toch hebben Rudmer en ik niets te vrezen, want de Belfast Strangler heeft het alleen op jonge vrouwen voorzien. Bovendien is hij fictief. Ik heb het natuurlijk over de schurk uit “The Fall”, de misdaadserie die ons menig uurtje aan de buis heeft gekluisterd. Voor de verandering speelt de handeling zich nu eens niet in het verre New York of LA af, maar in doodgewone straten ... read more

Geo: 54.5973, -5.93019With DH going through a significant amount of exhausting emotional and physical turmoil, I thought we needed to temporarily shut down our traveling in order to repair and regenerate however, she-who-must-be-obeyed decided that the best healing solution would be to reconnect with the trip we had recently abandoned. So within a couple of weeks we had flown from Barcelona to Nanaimo B.C., and then jumped on multiple planes to make our return to Europe (Dublin, Ireland specifically)-we were well beyond jet lag since we had no idea what time/day/month it was.Rather than fight it, we staggered off the plane in Dublin, picked up our rental car (hereafter known as the honourable Spud), drove to nearby Trim, charmed our way into an early check-in... and proceeded to sleep for close to 24 hours non-stop. We ... read more

Belfast in my eyes is an up and coming city, there is so much to do in the city and has a great atmosphere and really interesting history. I never knew a lot about Belfast like it used to be a top producer of linen, or that the Titanic was built here (I know I should know that but I didn’t!) The history of the troubles in Belfast is complicated so wont go into that. As you travel around the city you will see glimpses of the turbulent past. With the peace wall still erected and areas of the city shut at night to stop any violence. The city itself now is safe, clean and the people are incredibly friendly, welcoming and keen to point out any points of interest. The first day we arrived we ... read more