The evening of Northern Ireland after my sites during the day found me at a hostel in Port Stewart, about 3 miles from Portrush where I was the night before with my Irish fun. I walked the entire 3 miles, which was along the beautiful beachy/rocky coast and passed a links style golf course that looked awesome.
I was supposed to meet up with the Irish crew, but they had some other things come up so I headed to the main bar in town. There I met this old Irish man, who kept buying me drinks and talking to me about Irish lore. It was pretty funny, and I learned some funny phrases but it was time for bed and I crashed for the night pretty hard.
I woke up Sunday refreshed but tired and made the trek back to Belfast. After a couple hours of buses, I arrived to Belfast early afternoon and found the main hostel in town. After dropping my bags, I headed off for the sites on a tour bus. As I mentioned earlier, not that exciting of a city but saw where the Titanic was made, some some old churches, the famous city hall. Most of all though I got a sense of how divided the city had been because of the Protestants vs. the Catholics. In fact, there are squares in the city where 1 side would be 100% Protestant and the other side of the street would be 100% Catholic. There were cool Murals on the city walls as well depicting political or religious themes of the times.
After the tour I grabbed a quick bite and had a quiet night...I saw Angels and Demons at the movie theatre. Great movie, but really liked the Vatican scenery in the movie. I've been to Rome once but maybe now I'll go there again! That night was the worst sleeping night ever - 2 men were snoring the ENTIRE time (REALLY LOUD) and I really got no sleep.
Yesterday I woke up tired - and after some much needed coffee - and then did the 7 hour ferry/bus trek over the Irish Sea to Edinburgh (Pronounced Edin - Burough). The scenery along the way is breathtaking and extremely picturesque with lots of meadows, bays, and rocky coastland.
Edinburgh is onestly the most beautiful city I have seen I believe - I am staying at Castle Rock Hostel, literally 300 yards from the famous main castle. I connected up with 2 guys from Florida - John and Alex - and we went out last night for a few drinks and dinner. I had a delicious salmon with an orange sauce on top of some Scottish potatoes - probably one of my best meals yet. I washed it down with my 1st Scottish beer - Catedonian, and then bar hopped trying different local beers.
I then got a great night sleep and woke up ready for LOTS of exploring and site seeing today.
Can't wait for the walking tour of all the castles and famous churches/squares...and then Scotch Whiskey Tasting and then the famous Ghost Tour of the city. More to come!
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