liffey

we've just arrived in belfast. our hostel is really great. super chilled and quiet - only 3 other guests. brendan is playing on a hostel guitar while he waits his turn on the computer. there's a pool table too and we're going to play later. i said to brendan "we've never played pool together before" to which he said "ya, i've never beat you at pool before" :S

we're having a great time. i'm feeling a little jet lagged still, but on the whole things are fab :) the weather is really perfect, today we went out walking without coats, and i had barefeet in sandles!

yesterday we explored dublin by way of a hop-on hop-off bus that took us to many of the main sites we wanted to see. our main highlights were... visiting the guinness storehouse, where we learned about the history of guiness, and got to drink a pint at the end from the top of the storehouse that provided a stellar view of the city. i have to admit, i'm quite a fan of guinness, it's very smooth. it may become my beer of choice (even though it's a stout). we also went to kilmainham jail where we learned more of the history behind the fight for irish independence.

one thing that has really surprised us that (at least in dublin) all the signs are bilingual - first irish gaelic, then english. we even came across an irish newspaper so there must be people who speak it! irish bares no resemblance to english, so you can't just guess at the words. like "grianghrafadóireacht" means photography. the accent in dublin is quite different to the accent in belfast, and on the whole the dubliner accent is much harder to understand.

this afternoon we went to the ulster museum here in belfast and learned about the troubles in belfast. after learning that history more in depth i'm not that surprised that there is still a police-state here in belfast since the last bombing was a little over 10 years ago. i couldn't help but notice that the last many of the countries i've visited in recent years experience mass amounts of violence during the 70s and surrounding decades. it both gives me hope that the parts of the world that are war torn at the moment will experience peace in the coming decades, while at the same time feel discouraged that it may take 30+ years.

when we left kilmainham jail (gaol) yesterday, our guide said "enjoy your freedom". it was a good reminder that freedom is not for taking forgranted, and that around the world people have fought for it, and died.

ireland is very beautiful. as brendan said "you can't take an ugly picture of this city". i'm slightly surprised by how multicultural it is, for some reason i assumed there would be mostly english-speaking folks, but there is a very large polish presence here, among others. and at our last hostel it was predominantly german guests. we were some of the few regular north american travelers. which again surprises me.

it's neat to see how common the name brendan is here. upon exciting the airport we passed a man holding a sign that said "brendan vacations" - the name of a tour company! we were tempted to take his photo.

our two hostels have been great so far. but at yesterday's place we had a room with two single beds that we had to push together - that's happened before. in cambodia 2 of our 3 hotels had arrangements like that. it's ok, but we were happy that this hostel has a regular double bed.

tomorrow we're heading to (london)derry. so fun! and educational :)

where the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes.