What's in A Name?
19.06.2009
10 °C
Well hello,
We've been on the move again, going from Killarney back to Dublin yesterday so that we could catch our tour of Northern Ireland this morning.
We are on a Paddywagon Tour and our tour guide Phil is great. The drive from Dublin to Derry/Londonderry was made shorter by him getting all of us one at a time to come ride shotgun and he basically interviewed us about our lives, Where we're from, when our birthday is, what we do, where we've travelled...he's been to 46 different countries so he could relate to most, if not all of the people of the bus. Most people on the bus are either Canadian, about 5 who are either from or living in Calgary, lots of Aussies and lots of Americans...all seem to be quite nice.
We got into Derry/Londonderry at about 330pm today. There is A LOT of history here from the 'troubles' of Ireland. If you're a Catholic, it's Derry if you're Protestant it's Londonderry. Just a quick way to figure out which side everyone is on. We went on a Walking Tour of the Walled City of Derry and learned quite a bit about the conflict. Derry has a much different vibe than the rest of Ireland for sure. Not as welcoming...kinda tense actually. They are very territorial. You will see neighbourhoods with the red, blue and white of the union jack painted all over the sidewalk and light posts and then a couple niehgbourhoods over you will get the same thing...just Irish colours and of course RIRA(real IRA) painted on the roofs of houses. We were also showed the monument to the lives lost in Bloody Sunday.
Tomorrow we are off to Giants Causeway and then ending up in Belfast where we are doing a Black Cab tour on Sunday Morning....by Sunday night the plan is to be down in Galway. We'll keep you posted though.
Posted by Bow.Balla 13:11 Archived in Northern Ireland
