Back to USA

Well, this is my last night in Ireland. Sorry for not blogging for the duration of this vacation, but I have just been having too much fun. Spain was really nice and Ireland has been cold and wet (what do you expect), but really great as well. We rented an apartment here in Dublin in a really great location and have been going to see all the sights (Guiness storehouse, Jameson distilery, the book of Kells, etc.). Yesterday we got back from a few days in Belfast. That was a really amazing trip and really peaked my interest in the history of my family and the struggles they went through. I don't have the time or words to explain it now, but the struggles and violence that the people of Belfast have lived through was pretty shocking.

We stayed in a hostel and the first day we got there decided to take "black cab ride tour" through Belfast to get aquainted. It wasn't quit what we expected, however. The guy picked us up at our hostel and drove us about two minutes away to a working class neighborhood. As we drove up I noticed murals painted on all the walls of people's houses commemorating people who had been killed in that spot. There was literally a mural on every house. The driver stopped the cab, turned off the engine and turned around to us and said that we were in a neighborhood that was under the control of a para-military group called the UDA. I resisted urge to duck down in the cab and tell him to get out of there as he explained to us a bit about the stuggle between the UDA and the Catholics. Sorry to cut this short, but I am out of time on this computer. I will finish the story later when I get back to the US and don't have to pay for internet by the minute.