BEEF!!!!!!

I returned home on Friday, March 23rd. So on Saturday Scott & I had fajitas. Not only was it beef, but it was Tex-Mex and I'm 100% sure it was better than the Mexican they were serving in Dublin. I was so VERY happy!

Not posted photos

Here are some photos I wanted to share.

The photos are:

Belfast
Belfast
Super nice guy I met on tour - his girlfriend is doing a semester of college in Ireland and while visiting they broke up, so he was winging it
Rope bridge
Rope bridge
Scotland in way, way, way distance
Gardens at Dublin Castle

My Last Day

I got up early this morning and caught the 7:00 train back to Dublin. We were a very full train after a couple of stops with the commuters. The seating arrangement was 2 chairs facing 2 chairs and a table in between. Some very nice people sat with me and I really enjoyed visiting with them. Everyone is very friendly! One of the guys said that due to American TV, his children speak like Americans by using our lingo and he has to correct them.

I forgot to tell this story. Yesterday while getting a hot chocolate during a 15 minute break of the hop on & off bus, I met a waitress at California Coffee in Belfast. She told me he loved Americans and wanted to know which state I was from. When I told her Texas, she told me she loved Dolly Parton & Miley Cyrus. Uhhhh, neither of them are from Texas. I don't think she cared. She asked me if I liked to "lane dance" and I told I had never heard of it. Well, she was saying line dance. ;).

I caught a cab to take my luggage to the Holiday Inn Express. I only booked here because it is right next to the airport and my flight leaves at 8:00 am tomorrow I got a single room and while it is clean, my dorm room at TTU was larger. :)

There were a couple of things I wanted to do today in Dublin. I saw Dublin Castle which was okay, but not a highlight of the trip. I had lunch at The Clarence Hotel which is owned by Bono and Edge of U2. I managed to hit the "cookie" store before I left.

I leave in the am, so I hope to see or visit with you soon! Thanks for reading!

The pictures are:

I'm sure the very best transport company in all of Ireland
The Clarence Hotel
Penne pasta with broccoli and mushroom
Lemon tart with chocolate ice cream(unusual combination)
St. Stephen's Green Park (looks like NYC, Paris, London)
Park
Park
park

Low key day part II.

The pictures are:

Didn't know Van Morrison is from N. Ireland as is the current great golfer, Rory McIlroy and
C.S. Lewis

My lunch - pasta with chorizo - it was too greasy for me

The dessert which was wonderful - a lemon custard

Steps in a store - isn't it beautiful?

For Marcie - just like TJ Maxx, but in Belfast it is TK Maxx

Inside the center of their newest mall

View from the top of the mall

I'm going to try to catch the first train to Dublin and enjoy my last day in Ireland

Low key day

Today I did the hop on & off bus tour. I had already done the black cab tour, so a lot of it was a repeat. The Titanic was built in Belfast and their museum/tribute to the Titanic opens on 3/31, so I'm just missing it. March 31st marks the 100th anniversary of the sailing of the ship. Apparently it will be interactive like a Universal Studios kind of exhibit.

I also spent time yesterday at the Presbyterian Historical Society and at Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The Pres. Historical Society is part of the seminary at Queen's University which is absolutely beautiful. I was able to find the town and parish where my family lived and that is about it. As my Presbyterian cab driver explained to me, while our county was part of the original 9 counties of Ulster it was more Catholic than Protestant, so it was one of the 3 of the 9 given to the Irish Free State. I think our records kinda fell through the cracks. We aren't Catholic and our county isn't part of N. Ireland. The lady at the Historical Society tried to find out who our land owners were. I told her I had hoped we had been land owners, but she chuckled and assured me with the name Sloan we weren't land owners. :(. I told her I figured my family was one of the ones begging for scraps at a castle and that is most likely on all 4 branches.

The pictures are:

Boat used to ferry passengers out to the Titanic

Titanic Museum/Exhibit in the shape of a star like the name of the cruise line

Their government building 365 (whatever their measurement would be) for the # of days in year, 365 windows in building, 6 columns in front for the 6 counties in N. Ireland. The grounds are beautiful and would be wonderful to walk around if a tad warmer and w/o gale force winds.

Symbol of Belfast

The wall

Gates between 2 neighborhoods which are still closed every night

Food Porn Lovers aka Marcie

The quality of food porn over here does not compare to the month in NYC. Thank heavens for cheese or I probably would have passed out ....... oh, and that box of macaroons pictured in the blog post to Jeannie. :). Tim & I discussed how the beef tastes kind of gamey. Well, yesterday I met a guy that is the meat dept manager of a grocery in Boston. He also said he thinks the beef tastes different and thinks it has to do with what they are fed vs corn in the U.S. There is beef in my immediate future when I get back.

The pictures are:

Hot chocolate at Bewley's served with marshmallows on the side (so cute!)
Tomato & gruyere cheese quice with a rocket salad (LOVE rocket)
Goat cheese & spinach quiche
Fried goat cheese
Roasted chicken with pea & bacon risotto

Funny T-shirts

I thought both of these t-shirts were funny, so I had to share. I bought the green one at the parade.

Bus Tour

Today I took a bus tour to the VERY top of Ireland. I believe we were around 20 miles from Scotland. I am so tired from the hikes that this post will be extremely short. I will let the pictures mostly speak for themselves.

One of our stops today was the Giant's Causeway. It is 37,000 hexagonal columns of cooled basalt, formed from lava after a volcanic eruption some 60 million years ago.

Our next stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It is a scary cat's cradle of ropes and planking slung each salmon-fishing season by local fisherman between the mainland cliffs and a huge offshore rock - almost an island. The rock stands right in the path of salmon on their spawning run, forcing them to divert course into the nets set by the fisherman. The bridge sways, bucks, and lurches as you walk 80 feet above the sea.

The photos are:

Dulunce Castle
Giant's Causeway
Giant's Causeway
walking to the Rope Bridge
Walking to the Rope Bridge
Scared & walking the Rope Bridge

We Have a Winner!

Thanks to those that commented on my blog and to those that have emailed because they can't figure out how to comment. I'm glad to know people are reading it and I'm not "talking" to myself. :-)

The winner is Scott. I think it is only fair since he is probably the only one that will like the prize.

The pictures are:

The entries
The winner
The prize

Flat Linda

Well, I met the most fun couple in the Dublin train station. Larry & Debbie are from Ohio and were also going to Belfast, but only for the day.

Talking about "winging" it - that is Larry & Debbie. I think they just like to travel, meet people, and have a good time. Nothing wrong with that!!! They are going to be reading my blog, so the pressure is on to make informational blog posts with lots of pictures as this will be their information source.

Larry & Debbie do not travel alone. They travel with their friend, Flat Linda. Linda knew almost as much about Dublin as Larry & Debbie. :-). Lucky Linda will be heading for Paris tomorrow.

The pictures are:

Debbie & Larry
Anita & Flat Linda

Northern Ireland

I took the train this morning to Belfast. This is part of Ireland I had always wanted to see, but had never made it. I met a delightful couple in the station and chatted with on the trip to Belfast. I will write about them in my next post.

The bellhop/concierge at my hotel wanted to know what I planned on doing while in Belfast. I told him I wanted to take a black cab ride to see the areas of conflict in Belfast, wanted to see Giant's Causeway, and to do some genealogy at the Presbyterian Historical Society. He seemed glad to know I was a "good Protestant girl". :-). John said he knew a black cab driver, Jack, and arranged for the private tour.

The division of Ireland happened in 1921 with the formation of an independent Irish Free State which excluded the six counties of Northern Ireland. In 1949, the Irish Free State left the Commonwealth (similar to Canada) and became the Republic of Ireland, severing all political ties with Britain.

I thought the conflict in Belfast was over religion and a way it is, but it is really about those that want to join the Republic of Ireland (Republicans) and those that want to remain with England or the Union Jack flag (Unionists). It just so happens to be that the Republicans are Catholics and the Unionists are Protestants. There is so much history between Ireland and England that I could hardly peck it out with one finger on my iPad.

Jack, my guide, told me I'm not Scotch-Irish like my father said and most Americans would say, but I'm Ulster-Scotch. Ulster is one of Ireland's four ancient provinces and consists of nine counties in the northern part of Ireland. Six of those counties make up Northern Ireland while three counties remain part of the Republic.

This is too much to write, but I did find it interesting that the murals on the Republican side and sponsored by the Sinn Fein party were for everything the U.S. is against like Cuba and Palestine.

The pictures are:

Catholic side against Israel and for Palestine
Catholic side for Cuba
Peace wall dividing Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods
Protestant side
Protestant side in honor of Pres. Andrew Jackson, an Ulster-Scotch and Presbyterian
Protestant side