Old Smoke

Belfast, Northern Ireland

I couldn’t believe that I was actually in Ireland.  It was one of the top places that I was most excited about going to and I was finally here!  Sometimes it sets in when I am out sightseeing and I think to myself that there was a chance that I was not going to take the opportunity and instead stay closer to home.  However, even though it was out of my comfort zone, I took a leap of faith and here I am; standing in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

And wow, do I hope that after this tour, my geography skills improve.   Did you know, that Belfast is actually part of Northern Ireland and in turn part of the United Kingdom and that the city of Dublin is part of the Irish Free State?  Both cities lie on the same island, yet are still separated by a partition that was declared in 1922.  The same can also be said for the wall that is still standing separating the Catholics and the Protestants.  And while most of Ireland and its cities remained rural and agricultural, Belfast was the only city to converge and become the main industrial prospect of the island.  Hence, the nickname, “Old Smoke.”  

On a side note, if you receive an Irish banknote (Irish Pounds/currency) you cannot use them for payment in the rest of the UK or in Dublin which uses the Euro for currency.  

Also, it was just Halloween and the City Hall already has their holiday sign hung saying “Happy Christmas Belfast.”  Not only does that seem extremely fast, but they do no celebrate Thanksgiving as we do in the states so it’s as if the holiday season is approaching even faster over here.  Christmas trees are already up and lights are already being hung.  However, one key difference is the wording.  Instead of “Merry” Christmas at home, they say “Happy” Christmas over here.  Even with these slight changes and being thousands of miles away from home, it’s still nice to be somewhere that my family descended from many years ago.

Having that little bit of history under my belt, it made the exploring that much more real and vivid and even though it may have been quite a rather long day, I had never seen so much all at once.    

One of the things that I was most looking forward to was exploring the Irish countryside.  It might not be much to others, but to me it’s everything.  They say, “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl,” and there’s no place I would rather be than surrounded by open fields, rays of sunshine, and fresh air whistling around me.  

Our journey covered places like the Old Bushmills Whiskey Distillery, the oldest working distillery in Ireland; Dunluce Castle which was struck by lightning, caught fire, and fell into the water below and now stands in ruins; the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge built in 1755 by the salmon fisherman which still stands to this day with a 90 ft. drop to the sandy water below; a drive-by of Castle Black for those Game of Thrones fans out there; and of course the main attraction was Giants Causeway, which has about three tales as to how it was created so you choose which you would like to believe; Giants, God, or Irish folk tales. 

Taking some “Luck of the Irish” with us as we continue our journey across Western Europe, we headed down to Dublin.