In my last post I shared my travelling adventures in Galway and Dingle. Now it is time for me to let you know about the other cities we visited. A trip I still remember very well was the one to Northern Ireland. In contrast to the others it was a very emotional journey. The last trip we took with our Erasmus group was to Limerick and Cork, from which I returned to Dublin with a rather uncommon souvenir.
3. Northern Ireland – A disturbing journey to a troubled place
It was another early Saturday morning when we all headed off to Northern Ireland. Fully prepared by exchanging our euros for pounds, we left the Republic of Ireland to pay the good old United Kingdom a fair visit. First stop: Belfast.
Our bus driver agreed to take us on a tour and explained all the important historic places and sights. In contrast to the other cities we had visited before, Belfast wasn’t necessarily a pleasant place to be. The city is lined with bullet holes and graffiti from the civil commotions between Catholics/Nationalists and Protestants/Unionists. The city is still separated by an ‘invisible’ line. The Nationalist side is held in green colours, the tricolour represents the people’s attitude towards the UK and many places have Irish-Gaelic names. The Unionist side on the other hand is held mostly in blue, a prominent feature is the Union Jack and there is not a single Irish pub to be found anywhere. There is a gate between the two parts which is still closed when the heat turns up and riots are expected. The saddest place we saw was the cemetery that is protected by a huge wall in case anyone plans to go on a rampage and destroy the graves. This was something that I found extremely upsetting. How can two groups of people hate each other to such an extent where they would do something that disrespectful?!
Our next stop was the place where we spent the night – Belfast was considered too dangerous last year – Derry. The city’s official name is actually Londonderry, but it is more commonly known as Derry, which is an Anglicisation of the Irish Daire or Doire. Like Belfast, Derry is unofficially separated into a Catholic and a Protestant part, the border being the river. Our hostel was in the Catholic part and we didn’t cross the river because we felt perfectly fine around Irish pubs and didn’t really feel keen on taking a closer look at the Protestant part. Derry was the city where the infamous shootings in 1972 took place, the ones referred to as Bloody Sunday. If anyone is interested in the riots, I can highly recommend watching the eponymous film, because it provides a historically accurate insight.
After a good sleep, we moved on to a much happier place – a natural spectacle called Giant’s Causeway. The weather was really good so we spent the whole day walking around and enjoying the view. What’s so fascinating about it are the (mostly) hexagonal stones. Highly amusing though is the legend surrounding Giant’s Causeway: We were told that an Irish warrior built a path in order to fight his Scottish enemy. When he didn’t show up, the Scottish giant crossed the path to look for him. His wife dressed the Irish warrior as a baby, so the Scottish giant fled because of the “baby’s” size, thinking this child’s father must be truly gigantic. There is probably not a lot of truth in that story, but it is really entertaining.
4. Limerick & Cork – how to catch a black eye without any effort
Limerick and Cork were definitely happier chapters in the course of the year than Northern Ireland.
According to my Irish classmates, Limerick is one of the shabbiest and most dangerous cities in Ireland. There were incidents reported by the media involving stabbings and women being raped in usually crowded places. So we decided to only pay Limerick a short visit. Basically, we just wanted to see what it looks like and then get the hell out of there. Much to our surprise, Limerick turned out to be a beautiful city with a great infrastructure and surprisingly friendly inhabitants. I was constantly asking myself whether this was indeed the same city I had been told so many negative things about. I guess you should never judge a book by its cover.
I definitely shouldn’t have judged Cork by its cover. Although it is an unbelievably beautiful harbour town, it turned out to be a bad idea to stay there for the night. I will let you be a part of this rather unlucky moment in my life. We were at a club that night and had a great time. Anatomically predetermined, every person has to go to the leithreas every once in a while after he or she has consumed a certain amount of beverages. At this point of the evening I found myself waiting in front of the only (!) toilet in the whole club. The girl inside the toilet I was so desperately waiting for took her time. A lot of time. Naturally, I knocked and asked if she was okay. My sincere concerns were answered when the door opened and suddenly a fist hit my left eye. She obviously felt that my eye and her fist were a great match. I was so shocked that I didn’t even know what to say – which is extremely unusual because I tend to be quite quick at repartee. They don’t call them the fighting Irish for nothing.
Unfortunately, this tragic event brings me to the end of my travelling adventures. Every single one of those trips was unforgettable and I wouldn’t want to have missed a single one of them.
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