A Long Day

Crammed with 50 strangers on a humungous bus is not my favourite way to travel, but it'll do in a pinch. If it's the only way to get you where you want to go.

Which, today, was the Giant's Causeway.

But some other attractions got thrown in, and that made it a long day.

This is how the day started: grey skies, thick mist and rain. 

It hadn't cleared by the time we got to Belfast.

So the visit to Dunluce Castle (famous from Game of Thrones,
 though you couldn't prove it by me) was a bit of a bust. 

By the time we got to the causeway (and the thrill of my life),
 the day was less misty, but still grey.

And then the clouds cleared away.

So when we drove further down the coast we could see Scotland, 20 miles in the distance.

Then the day took a strange turn. The blurb on the website made me think we'd get an historical tour of The Troubles in Belfast. My mistake was thinking The Troubles were history.

A former member of a Republican militia took us through the fresh, gaping wounds, starting from 1916, that are Ireland's struggle for freedom from the English. He showed us the wall posters that honour the heroes, the security gates that close off the neighbourhoods and the "peace walls" built fifty feet high to prevent the firebombing of people's homes. 

This is the Catholic side of the wall.

Then he took us to the protestant side and asked us to sign our names.

Thanks for reading.

Karen