(this narrative began from when I first landed in London on September 3, 2016)
Saturday
September 17, 2016:
Today, we visited W.B. Yeats’ grave. He was an American poet who lived from 1865
to 1939. He loved Sligo, Ireland so much
though that, after his death at the age of 74, his young wife, George
(pronounced Georgie) had his body moved to Drumcliffe, Ireland (close to Sligo)
where it rests to this day. When she
died much later at the age of 78, she was buried beside his grave. While we were visiting their grave sites, a
couple on our tour discovered that they’d left some valuables back in the
hotel’s safe, so the driver (a new temp guy named Alan) went back with the bus
to retrieve the valuables for them. Alan
is just filling in for Joe, our regular driver, since transportation laws in
Ireland dictate that bus drivers must have a break from driving every so many
days.
After we left Drumcliffe, we headed toward the
Belleek Factory, renowned for its exquisite Parian china, where we had a tour
scheduled. The tour happened,
unfortunately in my mind on a Saturday, which is not a workday for the Irish in
this company except for a skeleton crew and that’s for the tours. However, our tour was still interesting
because the tour guide took us through the various steps that are taken toward
the making of a piece of china: namely,
the number of times a piece goes through firing in the kiln during its
manufacture. After the tour, we look at
the showcases and then went into the store to look at the retail pieces for
sale. I bought myself a ring with a
purple stone in it and wondered, does
Belleek really make rings that look this good out of china? I really don’t
know the answer to that question.
After we left
the Belleek Factory, we headed toward Derry, Northern Ireland. I knew that the Belleek Factory was also in
Northern Ireland because Northern Ireland uses pounds Sterling, not
Euro-dollars. A couple of hours later,
we arrived in Derry and went to a shopping centre there, a mall called Foleyside
Mall. I went for lunch to a café in the
mall called Synge and Burne, thinking that I was going to eat something more
native to Ireland than the usual stuff I ate.
So, I had a quiche containing goats’ cheese, plus two different salad
side dishes. It was good and filling food. Then, I walked around the mall looking at a
clothes store, then bought some throat lozenges from a drug store and some
chocolate snacks from an ice cream store that was a lot like Laura Secord’s at
home. I would have bought ice cream too,
but then, thought the better of it.
After that, we headed for the Giant’s Causeway in
Northern Ireland, composed of thousands of strangely symmetrical basalt columns
jutting out to sea. To tell you the
truth, I don’t know what the big deal is about these columns except that I know that they were created from multiple lava
eruptions over many thousands of years.
One day, someone is going to ask me why I took so many pictures of rocks
on a shoreline, and when they do, I don’t know how I am going to answer that
question.
Finally, we headed for Belfast, Northern
Ireland. I don’t know what I expected to
see, but I discovered to my delight that Belfast is really a beautiful city and
that its reputation of terrorism is now far overrated. Belfast is no longer under siege. Apparently, the natives want to see tourists;
they don’t want terrorists at all. We
are very happy to arrive here and also very tired. The downside was that, since a marathon is
scheduled to occur tomorrow morning, we had to have our city tour tonight
instead of tomorrow. The thing that will
happen tomorrow morning is a visit to the site of the construction of Titanic,
the ship that tragically sank on its maiden voyage due to striking an iceberg
in the north Atlantic. For a long time,
the people of Belfast were embarrassed about that fact, but it certainly wasn’t
their fault that the ship struck an iceberg.
Anyway, I wish we were staying here a little longer, but we’re not. In fact, we’re headed for Dublin, Ireland tomorrow
night and we’ll stay there for a couple of days instead. Something tells me we won’t like Dublin
nearly as much though.
We arrived at our hotel, the Stormont, in
Belfast. Tomorrow morning, we get to
sleep in till 7:45 am (I slept in though), get our baggage out the door by 8:00
am, have breakfast at 8:00 am, and leave at 9:00 am for the site of the construction
of Titanic in Belfast, then leave the city first for Downpatrick, Ireland, then
for Dublin. I will know after I see
Dublin which city I’d like to see again in the future should that opportunity
ever arise.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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