Aye! Was good Craic like

---

To start with - those that don't know there are two parts to Ireland - Northern Ireland (capital - Belfast), which is part of the UK and there is the Republic of Ireland (capital - Dublin), its own country but part of the EU. Dan and I have spent the majority of our time in County Armagh - in Northern Ireland. We have been staying with his family, which has saved the bank balance ALOT!

We caught a train down to Dublin the day after we arrived in Armagh from Denmark and spent the day and night down there. I am having trouble getting used to the size of places... I mean drive for an hour and be in another country!!! WHAT THE?? Dublin was a VERY busy place. We got on a 'hop on hop off' open top double decker bus tour. It was really handy as we got to see alot of Dublin in a day. Some of the places we saw were St Patricks cathedral - where St Patrick first converted the irish to christianity, Trinity College - where the book of Kells is held and of course the GUINESS STOREHOUSE!!!

The history of Guiness was really interesting - the Guiness family pay £45 a month on a 9000 year lease! The Guiness family is responsible for funding the restoration alot of historical sights in Dublin - if it wasnt for them, we wouldnt have seen much on the bus tour! You go on a self guided tour around the store house and see how it is made, at the end you go to the 'Gravity Bar' which overlooks the whole of Dublin - you get a free pint of the 'Black Gold'. I tell ya what.... it tastes 100000000 times better than anything I ever tried in Australia (Oz brews its own Guiness)... and NO the Irish don't use the dirty water from the River Liffey in Dublin to brew it 😉. It was so much more crisp and not as bitter as Australian Guiness is. Dan even had a pint hahah first time for everything!

Did you know that Dublin has over 600 pubs in the city alone? We saw streets with maybe 4 or 5 pubs right next to each other - I mean in Perth, you go to a pub because its near you. I dont know how you choose in Dublin! The big thing on the news there is they are bringing in 24 hour drinking laws. So basically pubs can be open for 24hrs. This is apparently to stop the hoards of drunks on the street at 12am and also to cut down on binge drinking - ie the irish try to drink as much as possible in the little time the pub is open. Of course family groups are up in arms over this law.

We walked around Dublin a bit and got very lost trying to find the statue of Molly Malone (Fish Monger by day, Prositute by night) - which happened to be right across the street. The city was so busy and the streets are all windy and don't meet up and GGRRRR Alot of the signs are written in gaelic as well with english translation. We caught an irish show while we were in Dublin - they had singing and dancing. Was very expensive, and Dan and I didnt feel it was worth the money.... but hey... we can say we saw Irish dancers in Ireland now.

Next we caught the train up to Belfast to hire a car. Belfast is alot like Perth... and we found our way around ALOT easier. We much preferred it to Dublin. There are two roads in Belfast that are a tourist attraction for the wrong reasons - Falls road (catholic) and Shankill Road (Protestant). Falls road has all the muriels painted from when there were really bad troubles in Northern Ireland - which are interesting to look at but you wouldn't get out of the car to look up close. The girl at the hire car place told us not to drive on those roads after dark as it wasnt safe because of the fighting. Belfast itself is full of beautiful old buildings. You think back to Perth - and a building 100 years old is considered heritage.... some of these buildings in Belfast are over 100's of years old. There was a very moving memorial for the Titanic (built in Belfast). It has an angel with water Nymphs lifting the dead souls from the ocean to her. It lists the names of those who died on it.

Once we had the car - we were OFF! We went driving the north east coast of Northern Ireland. It was very green! Not like WA country side. We visited Carrick-a-rede - you walk across a rope bridge to this rock where fisherman would go to catch atlantic salmon on their migration.
Next we went to Giants Causeway which are rock formations caused by the slow cooling of lava. The name comes from a myth that a giant from scotland and a giant from Ireland called Fin MaCool had a fight and those rocks are whats left of the bridge they built to meet each other. We drove through alot more places on the way to Dan's Aunty's house in Enniskillen. The roads on the map look like a main road, but its a single lane windy road with a tractor holding up the traffic! The roads would be perfect to take the Skyline for a race and test its cornering ability - woohooo. hehehe Once we got to Dans Aunty's house... first thing we are offered is a drink of Poteen (potch-cheen). Its a illegal drink made from potato skins and is about 90% proof. Bloody dodgy irish! An old wives tale says if its brewed incorrectly you can go blind. This stuff is crazy - one shot of it and you are smashed. There is no in between of tipsy - just instant drunk!

We have eaten some bloody dodgy food here. One lunch we had sausages, peas and champ covered on gravy. Champ is mash with spring onions... quite nice! Another time we had sausage supper - just the name just sounds dodge... its chips, sausages and curry sauce. SPEW! I think they do a slimmers pack version though. :p This is our last day in Northern Ireland before heading to London. We had a look around the town of Armagh.... the police stations here are like Fort Knox. Huge high fences to stop the IRA shooting in rocket propelled grenades and petrol bombs. There is a watch tower near us that the British army use to watch for the IRA, they get lifted in by helicopter because its too dangerous to drive there. In morning we see the British army patrol vehicles with guns aimed driving down the street. Its crazy! The paper has reports of shootings every day. Despite all this, Armagh is a lovely place and the people are very friendly.... even if they can't understand our accents and we cant understand theirs! Dan and I have picked up some new sayings.... like
'Ach Liz' - means kinda like your full of shit
'Are you away' - are you leaving
'Aye' - yes
'Are you yerself' - How are you
'arr' - hour
'Craic' - kinda like good time or whats happenning - ie Was good craic or whats craic.
'N'orn I'ron' - Northern Ireland

So flying off to london tomorrow morning. EEEK.... now the bank balance will really suffer.

---