Nobody Knows The Troubles I've Seen

I had mixed feelings about this weekend away. David and I were looking forward to seeing the sights of the North with Kath and Mick yet knew that this would be the last touring of Ireland we would do. 

We set off on Thursday afternoon after David got home from work to pick up the hire car that was to take us to Belfast and around the coast to Derry in Northern Ireland and further on to County Donegal.

Our first stop was in Belfast, in accommodation that overlooked the water and towards the Titanic Experience. The first challenge we faced was finding our way into the apartment block. We entered into one apartment block, to find the reception was actually located in a different complex.  Once we had found reception and checked in, it was back to the original apartment block and up to the ninth floor to our apartment.  We settled in and then were soon off into town for dinner.

We had a full day planned for Friday. David was off to give a talk at the University of Ulster while Mick, Kath and myself were heading firstly to the Titanic Experience. This was a great exhibit. Although based around the Titanic and its construction by the White Star Line in 1911 and its subsequent demise, it also highlighted Northern Ireland's boom in engineering, ship building and linen making in the early 20th century.

We had an hour to wait between this and our Black Taxi Tour so we headed off for something to eat at a nearby cafe. The Dock Cafe operates on an honesty system where you pay what you believe your meal is worth. I had read up on this cafe and had found that it had an interesting philosophy. Established by Chris Bennett, the chaplain of the dock, this cafe was created to bring a new kind of church to the people. It offered a place for prayer and reflection but was equally a place for people to come together in a social context and just take some time to sit. We found it to be a thriving venue with people of all ages. Obviously the locals knew of its existence yet others, like us, happened to stumble upon it and enjoy its eclectic style and vibrancy. 

The Peace Wall

We were to be picked up by our Black taxi guide under the "ic" of "Titanic" for our Black Taxi Tour of the political areas of Belfast. Our tour guide was a lively character who wanted to know how Mick was fortunate enough to have two women! He kept us entertained and could tell a good yarn. In fact, I'm not sure if what he had to tell us was the truth or what he thought tourists wanted to hear about the "troubles" and Northern Ireland. I had been around Belfast on our visit in 2012 and found nothing had really changed in regard to the peace wall and heard similar rhetoric about peace.

It was therefore poignant to read this quote by Chris Bennett, the founder of the Dock Cafe who would like to see a new Belfast. "Belfast has been the example of the danger that religion can bring. How wonderful instead to be an example of the healing of faith."

Mick cleaning the floor
in Crumlin Road Goal

Wall mural in Belfast

After our tour and lunch we headed off to Crumlin Road Gaol where we toured various parts of the gaol including the cells of the condemned and execution cells, gaining some insight into the political segregation. We met David after our tour and walked around the town before having dinner.

We awoke the next morning to a cold and wet Belfast and a severe weather warning. We were never sure what happened to this weather warning but it never eventuated and in fact the morning cleared to a lovely day!  David had been told of the beauty of Glenarrif Forest so it was to be our first stop. We parked at Laragh Lodge where we ate some delicious scones before setting off on a 45 minute walk in the lush forest with the clover and ferns still glistening from the recent rains and beside waterfalls rushing over the rocks down through the valley. The only downside was finding that someone had dented the hire car on our return.

David had also heard about the Dark Hedges. Intrigued by the name, we travelled the Irish country roads in search of this tunnel of trees seen in the Game of Thrones. The gnarled trunks of the trees and branches reached up to form a canopy over the road but were not as dark as we had expected and the name leads you to believe.

From here it was on to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. A breezy walk along the coast took us to the bridge. It was first erected many years ago by salmon fishermen to join the small island of Carrickarede to the mainland. It spans the two areas 30 m above the water and had amazing views in the distance along the coast and over to the Mull of Kintyre on the Scottish coast.

Our last stop for the day was the Giants Causeway. After paying 9 euros each to enter through the Discovery Centre (to later find out that it is actually free to visit the causeway alone) we walked down the road with the view of a beautiful rainbow in the distance, to this UNESCO World Heritage site, of polygonal shaped blocks sitting on the waters edge. It is described as " magnificent and mysterious" and was certainly an interesting place to visit.

So after a full day of travelling and taking in the sights in what you should probably take 4 days to do, we settled into our B&B in Derry. It has been known when I have travelled with Kath and Mick in the past that I have got the accommodation with the disabled shower - a shower where there is no lip to contain the water and consequently water goes everywhere with seemingly little going down the drain. We were given our two rooms with each of us feeling we had scored badly gaining the disabled shower! As it turned out both our showers were either for the disabled or that was the room design! ( I suspect the latter given there was a flight of stairs to ascend to the rooms.)

Derry or Londonderry as it is officially known is a walled city on the River Foyle. On Sunday morning, we walked the walls with its canons and gun placements, taking in the view and skirting the German tourists who walked on mass to every vantage point we seemed to be. The city was very quiet, being a weekend, with the only noise (apart from the tourists) being the tolling of the bells for matins. The walls were broader than others we had seen with notice boards for David and Mick to read about every aspect of the history of this area. Once having circled the city, we walked towards the Peace Bridge. It was a curved pedestrian bridge which spanned the river. Colourful flower boxes lined the banks and it was here we noticed the first leaves of autumn in shades of red and golds on the ground in the park.

Earlier this year, Mick and I had both read in the Sydney Morning Herald about a pub with a view in Donegal. Neither of us could remember its name or where exactly it was but a search on the Internet (while we waited for Rebecca to search Mick's study at home for the article), came up with a different pub called The Beachcomber Bar at Rathmullen, North Donegal. It boasted the best beer garden with a view and indeed had a fantastic view over Lough Swilley and the Inishowen Peninsula. Mick and I ate a huge bowl of mussels for lunch.

Mussels and a Sav, now that is a great way to spend a late Sunday lunch!

After a walk along the beach, little did we know, we were heading towards one of the funnier moments of the trip. Chief navigator on this leg of the journey was David who doesn't always believe the Tom Tom knows best and is always interested in the alternative route! In fairness I should also remark that he had found reference to the Glenfries Harvest Festival so it was through Glenfries we were to travel. As we approached the town there appeared to be a traffic delay and we patiently sat in the queue wondering what the hold up was. In actual fact we were in the queue for the parade floats and felt if only we were armed with some Australian memorabilia could easily have pulled off the Australian contingent in the Gelnfries Harvest Festival Parade!

Not one to miss a good parade, we parked the car and walked towards the town, to the parade of floats and bands. A man also caught in the queue just got out of his car which was double parked, locked it up and left it with all the floats blocked in behind it. Some highlights were the "turf no hay" float, the "Tazetta Mink Farm" float, "Leo's Bog Drying Service" float and the tractors all decorated with hand made signs on bits of cardboard. We were amused by the man who halfway through the parade decided to drive his car which had been parked by the side of the road, through the parade in the opposite direction as it was processing through the street. 

Having decided to push on towards Donegal, David found an alternate route around the town. We were driving a very narrow back road, obviously used only by local residents. Once again we encountered a road block only to find the parade had turned around and was going back up the street again. A half hour extra took us back on route to Donegal.

A truly funny Irish experience! 

Exhausted by our day of travelling and arriving later than planned we arrived at our B&B in Donegal. We had previously indicated in our booking request that we would arrive earlier in the day. Consequently we were gently reprimanded by the manager for arriving late! Despite this, the very serious manager ( I would think she is probably a control freak) directed us to our rooms (with specific instructions about the use of keys ) and later greeted us warmly for dinner at the restaurant.

Donegal is a lovely town, bigger than I expected, with its confusing history about Red Hugh! He was the King of County Donegal who led a rebellion against the English government from 1593-1602. We saw multiple references to Red Hugh with conflicting dates to add to our confusion. As it turned out there were a family of Red Hugh's so our confusion was settled and history restored! We looked around Donegal Castle and the remains of the friary before moving on towards our lunch stop at Smugglers Creek Pub.

We were fortunate that Rebecca had found the newspaper article as this was the pub we had been searching for. It was lovely and certainly did sell tasty oysters and seafood chowder as the article suggested.

The view looked over the beach where you would have needed to walk quite a distance to reach the water as the tide was so low. We watched the paddle boarders practising their skills braving the cold temperatures as we sat in the warmth of the pub with old timber seating and large glass windows to take in the view.

Dermot, David's colleague from Dublin City University, had offered us his house in Carrick for a night. Away from the main tourist route we were looking forward to seeing this North west area of Ireland. With explicit directions we found our way to this small village and after a quick drop off of bags headed to the Cliffs at Slieve League. These wind swept cliffs were spectacular, probably the best we have seen and for once there was no admission to a Discovery Centre or parking lot and consequently few tourists. We climbed to the top where you could stand on the edge of the cliff face with huge sheer drops to the wild Atlantic below. One cliff top led onto another and on the other side of the mountain small white houses set amongst farming land could be seen like dots in the valley far below.


Invigorated by our walk we returned to Carrick and took a short walk to the local pubs for dinner and music. We joined the locals for dinner at the Siabh Liag pub, then moved to the pub across the road for an evening of 70's Irish music with Billy Fury. It was a very enjoyable evening before our final day and drive back to Dublin.

Before finally heading back to Dublin we drove to Glencolumbkille. This is a farming area where woolly sheep wander the roads with few fences to contain them. It's an area known for its Neolithic markings and wild countryside. Tractors manoeuvred themselves through the narrow lanes and there was almost a feel of a primitive existence with farmers going about their daily life. I loved this area with its remoteness and white stone houses! 

It was a great 5 days away with great company, (thanks Mick and Kath) and an area of Ireland that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I am only left to announce the MAD K AWARDS 2015 as voted by Mick, Anne, David and Kath:

Best pub with a view... Smugglers Creek Hotel.

Best Meal ... all of them but the mussels and oysters were hard to beat.

Best Accommodation ... Too hard to pick they were all lovely and all had something that made us laugh (Apple Apartments - finding the entrance was a challenge, Derry - loved the disabled shower, Donegal - got in trouble from the owner for arriving late).

Best Drink ... Guinness and Sav Blanc.

Most Humorous Moment ... Accidentally joining the queue for the Harvest Festival parade in the car.

Best Entertainment ... The Central Bar, Carrick for Irish 70's music.

Best Tourist Experience ... Slieve League for an amazing walk and view of the coast and it was free to visit!

Most Annoying trait ... David and Mick reading every information board about the history of every single place we visited and if there wasn't an information board  looking up the information on their phones and reading it out loud to us.

Best driver and navigator ... David and Mick (as voted by themselves).

Best Travel Sweet ... Werther's original.