For the last few days we have enjoyed the company of Craig, Tom and Brendon (Cathy). The guys have been traveling around the UK and made a 4 day trip over to Ireland to see us (and the rest of Ireland too). It was fun to show them around Dublin and spend some time hanging out with other kiwis. ‘Hotel Brown’ just managed to accommodate everyone, although Cathy had to sleep on the couch.
As Monday was a bank holiday we all took a day trip by train to Belfast in Northern Ireland. We arrived in Belfast at 1:00 and after a quick lunch we took in the city center and signed up for a tour of the ornately decorated Belfast City Hall. In City Hall we had the novelty of sitting in the council chambers and testing out the Mayor’s chair. The tour was very informative and best of all – free! 😛
After City Hall we explored a different facet of Belfast – the murals of Falls Rd and Shankill Rd. The murals are painted on walls along both streets as political expressions and go back to the times when there was a lot of conflict between nationalist and unionist sides in Northern Ireland. Looking at the street side murals was a tangible way to get a feeling for the rocky history of Belfast and its residents. It’s quite safe now but signs of the past troubles are still evident… such as high metal walls topped with barbed wire. We had a nice dinner at ‘The Apartment’ in Belfast city before catching our 8:00pm train back to Dublin.
All in all, a fun day 🙂 It was interesting to be able to go all the way there and home again without needing a passport – even though Northern Ireland is part of the UK, separate from the Republic of Ireland.