Northern Ireland!

So, I was sitting here editing my photos from Northern Ireland, and I thought to myself, man I wish I could share these with everyone! And then I thought to myself why can’t I share them? So this blog post is a little insight into our adventure abroad! And I am so excited to share them!

So we left Amsterdam early evening, after a very eventful day of one of our dear group members washing his passport in the washing machine before we left to board the plane, which was hilarious after the fact, actually I am still laughing about it right at this current moment.  We flew for about an hour and a half and arrived at Belfast International Airport. Walking off of the plane we were confronted with large floor to ceiling posters of sheep – Welcome to Northern Ireland – it said. We continued on to the gift shop, but not to buy gifts as one would assume, we went there because we had NO idea where we were. I walked up to the counter with Cara by my side, the lady looked at me and said, Hello, Can I help you? Cara and I kind of giggled a bit at the accent at first, but then I continued on, Yes, we are Canadians. And we have no idea where we are, this is the name of where we are staying, and we have no idea how to get there. She kindly sold us bus tickets to get us into the City Center and gave us a map.

So we get off the bus at the City Center, walking around in circles just trying to figure out how to get out of the building. A man walks up to us and says, “Can I help you find where you’re going?” (Got to love the Irish hospitality). We asked him how to get to Great Victoria Street, and he said, Hunny, you are ON Great Victoria Street. He walked us out the doors where multiple other cab drivers stood, smoking their cigarettes and waiting patiently for people like us who are lost. Unfortunately, we were really strapped for cash so cab rides weren’t really in the budget. After one cabbie joked about how it was cheaper for us to take a cab then to walk, another cab driver gave us directions on where to go to get to our hotel. Here is one thing that if you are going to Belfast you must know – they underestimate the amount of time it will take to get anywhere. So according to them, it was just a ten minute walk down this street, hang a left when you come to the fork in the road, when you’ve hit the University street turn left…this walk took us almost an hour, if not a little more. Of course my short legs never assist with my speed of walking. We get to the hotel, get signed in and up to our rooms, which are much smaller then Canadian hotel rooms just in case you were wondering. We ordered some pizza and prepared for the long day we had ahead of us the next morning.

Thursday morning, we meet downstairs for breakfast. Then patiently waited for our tour guide. Now let me tell you something else. If you EVER want to take a tour in Belfast, call up Gerald at Belfast Attractions. Here is their website http://www.belfastattractions.co.uk/   – which if you go to right after you finish reading this blog actually, you might just see us on the website, maybe even twice.

And so starts the tour with Gerald / Gerard – we used both names,as our Canadian minds made it rather difficult to decipher in between the two names. Now this will become a photo story.