belfast is an amazing place. and staying with the macann/fearon clan on cranmore avenue really made it unforgettable. we got in friday night and were welcomed with catherine's incredible cooking that i already miss (sorry sinead, no offense!). the city is just now starting to recover from the troubles, as the good friday agreement that brought peace was signed just 10 years ago. saturday we roamed about belfast, met up with rachel (who we also had met in new orleans) and went out that night. this is joey, sinead and i in the new mall that has a viewing glass globe on top. it was so great to hang out with sinead's school friends who all happened to be in town...let's see if i can do it: eve, rachel, jemma, rachel, carla! i win. after a few great bars we turned in to our gorgeous rooms at chez catherine for the evening.
the next day we took a sheep-heavy drive up to the north coast to carrick-a-rede rope bridge and the giant's causeway. ireland lives up to its green and beautiful reputation, i could spend days wandering between the tiny towns and sheep/dairy farms in the area. the rope bridge was the first stop, built to connect the mainland to a small island for salmon fishing.
after a phone-a-friend, aka her dad dermot, sinead was able to tell us the fable of finn maccool (also the name of my favorite pub in nola, which i thought was a fake name). the giant's causeway is basalt formations mimicked in the same latitude in scotland. the legend has it that finn maccool was a giant who lived in northern ireland and knew of another giant in scotland. after finding that the scottish giant was huge, he ran back to his wife who figured out that she could dress finn as a baby to hide him from the scottish giant. when the scottish giant came across the land bridge to fight finn, his wife showed him the 'baby' and the scottish giant was so scared that if that was the baby, how big was finn? he ran back across the bridge and broke it to keep finn on the other side.
the final day we took the famous black cab tour with our guide nigel. on a 2000 year whirl through history, sinead and joey were married in viking times, neighbors during the troubles, and i think sinead stole joey's wages at some point. either way it was a really interesting way to see the city and understand somewhat how the separations between protestant and catholic still shape the culture of the city. nigel had quite the range of language and irish slang, but only chose to ask us whether or not we understood the concept of crap - yeah. we've got that one.
the last stop in belfast was a quick cider at the crown bar - across from the constantly bombed europa hotel, 33 times between 1972-94. after a nice chat an older lady tried to take joey's seat at the bar, which we happily gave her, which gave us entry into the world of john and his neighbor, ann hughes. the extremely sweet and somewhat senile (there is also a good argument to be made that she was mixing wine and relaxants), ann cornered sinead and i. she recounted her husband, harold, who she lost a couple years ago, the moral seeming to be that we have to stand up to doctors if we think they're wrong. she and john had gone out on a dinner cruise that evening with the clarification that 'he's just my neighbor - JUST my neighbor - he would drive me spotty!' john was slightly more colorful in his description - 'i've had two wives and now the only bitch in my house is the cocker spaniel!'
now off to london!
stunning.
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