Elsien's Traveblogue
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The weather was less than clement – we walked for almost two hours, uphill, in lashing rain and wind to a lake that turned out to be more like a bog.Going back was better: downhill all the way and only the back of our legs got lashed and wet!
e gardens. J. stole sunflower seeds, which hopefully will sprout on the Brussels' balcony.
We circled round the mountain called Ben Bulben, see Yeats's last poems, 'Under Ben Bulben', in which he wrote his own epitaph which we saw at Drumcliff Church, where he is buried.
Of course we had to go to the Lake Isle of Inisfree, probably the most famous poem!
Donegal
It was lovely being out and about again – my first 'outing' since Florence in February; I don't count trips to Holland, Belgium or even a weekend in Paris as proper 'outings'!
Flew out to Belfast where I met up with J – I'd managed to organise both our in- and outward flights within 10 minutes of each other. Spent the night in an Indian-run B&B near Queen's University – a very good deal too, ask me for details should you ever go to Belfast! Explored Belfast's very Victorian City centre and the now redundant shipyard (Harland and Wolff – I remember it closing in the eighties). Didn't go and look at the Shankill Road etc. - it didn't feel right to me to start tourist gaping at the site of so much hatred and division. Derry was different, it was unavoidable as we had to walk through the Boghill area every day. That's where we went the next day and we did look at the Boghill Murals and the Free Derry museum. We were both struck by how small the area of all this rioting was, how few people were actively involved in it and how many of those were teenage boys. The explosions of violence seemed inevitable though, if you read the history of poverty and deprivation in the area. 24 people to a two-room house, no jobs, no food … and powerless to change anything through democratic processes – religion doesn't even come into it!
The whole area has now been overhauled and the original houses replaced with fairly decent council housing. We walked around the walls of Derry – now, it might be more appropriate to call that Londonderry as it was a complete outpost of London, sponsored by the City of London and its Guilds – see the Guild Hall where Gina and Tara got married. I spent some time with Gina, family and friends and saw their new house in a lovely rural setting, very jealous of the space!
On Monday we picked up the car I'd hired and drove to Ballybofey, middle of Donegal, to Jackson's Hotel, where I'd secured the best deal of all: two nights for the two of us for 104€ - should have been 360€! It was one of those lovely old-fashioned family hotels, with view of a little stream, a roaring log-fire in the lounge and dark wood everywhere. Generous Irish portions of food in the dining-room – what more could we want?
Archives
August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 March 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 February 2009 September 2009 December 2009 February 2010 March 2010 June 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 February 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 June 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 December 2012 March 2013 April 2013 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018
