Midterm Break, Part 2: Dublin and Belfast
After a very long trek, we made it from Rome to Dublin. For two cities relatively close together, it is a pain to get from one to the other on a budget. And since budget was what dictated our travel plans, it took an entire day to make the journey.
We woke up in Rome at 3:30 AM and were on the road to the airport by 4 AM. From Rome, we flew to Milan, then from Milan to London Stansted, then on to Dublin. We finally made it to our hostel around 9 PM that night! We grabbed some food - and some beers, obviously - and crashed.
Early the next morning, we were on the road again, this time on a 2 hour train ride into Belfast, in Northern Ireland, for a quick day trip. I got to enjoy the sunrise over the Irish countryside as we made our way north.
Belfast has a long, violent history between the Protestants/those loyal to the British crown and the Catholics/those who want to see a united Ireland that is still very much felt today. We got to glimpse this during our tour of the city. We saw countless murals and memorial gardens throughout the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods that commemorate this long-standing conflict.
We also saw the Peace Wall, a wall constructed to separate the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in Belfast. It is covered in messages of peace from people who have visited from around the world.
When I told people that I was studying abroad in Morocco, I was often met with concern, especially regarding the fact that I'm a Jewish girl studying in an overwhelmingly Muslim county. My experience in Rabat cannot be further than these concerns: I have been fortunate to never have felt any sort of religious tension during my time in Morocco. How odd it was to go to Europe and have a stronger sense of religious divide. Not something most people would expect. Some liken Northern Ireland (at least during the Troubles) to Israel/Palestine. After touring this divided city, I can see the similarities.
Above is a photo of houses in the Catholic neighborhood. The backyards have cages of sorts surrounding them, attempts to protect the families who live there from any danger.
Our first full day in Dublin was much lighter than our visit to Belfast and started out with a free walking tour of the city. It was a great way to see Dublin in a quick way, the perfect glimpse at the history of Dublin given our short stay in the city. We got to see City Hall, old churches, Trinity College, and much more.
The walking tour company partners with a group that organizes nightly pub crawls, so that was an excellent addition to our Dublin plans. What's a trip to Ireland without a trip to a few pubs?
The Jameson and Guinness factories were also essential stops on our Dublin stop. It would have just been wrong to go to Dublin without visiting those two important destinations. :)
The Guinness tour was our last stop in Dublin on our third day before we headed off to London! I think I poured a pretty good Guinness, right?
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