Xmas and New Year

Northern Ireland

On Christmas Eve, Bevan, Jeff, Mandy and I flew to Belfast to spend Christmas in Bangor with Ritchie (a friend of the rest of our party from Sydney) and his family.  It was nice to have Christmas dinner with a family when all of mine were so far away.  On Boxing Day we set off to tour around Northern Ireland in Ritchie's mums car.  Spent the first night in Newcastle, where we were lucky to escape damage from 100 mph winds.  The next day, we went to the Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains and drove around the bottom of Lough Neagh before spending the night in Magrefelt.   We were really excited to come out of the pub in Magrefelt and find that it had been snowing.  It was quite strange that we were the only ones squealing and having snow fights.  Monday we drove around the Inishowen Peninsula and stayed in Carndonagh, before driving along the Giant's Causeway and heading back to Bangor.

Xmas presents from Ritchie                      The Silent Valley                              Dunluce Castle

                                                        More Dunluce Castle photos

Dublin

On December 30th, we waved goodbye to Mandy as she caught a plane back to work, and bid a temporary farewell to Ritchie before hopping on a train to Dublin.  We had booked to stay at the same hostel we had been in for the rugby.  Shaun, Lisa and Lisa's friends Brad, Angela and Leanne had flown in the day before, and we were expecting Mark on New Year's eve.  We were really surprised to find Justin at our hostel in Dublin, but not as surprised as we were to find our Fulham next door neighbours as our room mates.   What followed was 3 raucous of drinking, drunk dialling (Jeff had an 80 pound phone call on his mobile to his dad) and sleeping.  Didn't manage any sightseeing in Dublin this time, but did see a lot of pubs.  There are many tales I could tell (and several that I definitely shouldn't) but I think Mark deserves a little mention for a covert yak in the Temple Bar which didn't even see him reprimanded, let alone kicked out.

    Flat mates in a pub.... and in another pub                            Shaun, me, Jeff, Justin, Leanne, Angela, Brad and Lisa

Hey, outside the pub                             Oh....back in the pub                          Me and Gill (nice girl we met)

Belfast

After Dublin we went back to Belfast to meet up with Ritchie again, and spend a night on the town.  Kim and Melinda (from next door) had hired a car and were driving up to Belfast, so we arranged to meet them there.  Jeff isn't great with travel in confined spaces, so Mark (being the Martyr that he is)  got him drinking bourbon so he wouldn't annoy Bevan and I.  What followed was not very pretty.  The next day, on the recommendation of a nice Australian couple we met, Jay and Melissa, we did a black cab tour of the city.  The seven of us were taken around for nearly 3 hours to see the murals and sights while the cab driver gave us the history of the city.   Definitely something I would recommend.  I'd expected palpable tension between the Catholics and protestants, but despite the fortifications in some of the rougher suburbs, there was none of this.  When we left Belfast, I was exhausted and felt like I needed a holiday to recover.

                                          Jeff           Me, Mark, Jeff, Kim and Melinda       Melinda and Bevan             Me, Kim and Melinda                            

                                                                            A Belfast Kindy                                     Belfast Castle

    Murals are a common form of political expression in Belfast      

The Great Famine                                                                                                               Ulster Volunteer Force