The road to Belfast

BELFAST — Ireland is beautiful.

I have to admit that I slept most of the way from Galway to Sligo, but after that, I could barely turn away from the window. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop to read. The countryside was gorgeous.

For most of the trip, the land has gone back and forth from impressive to boring, but today’s seven-hour trip to Belfast proved beautiful. Plenty of pictures.

So I left Galway at noon, barely catching my bus, and headed north. The country was full of beautiful mountainsides, lakes, rivers and everywhere it was salted with the tiny, white specks of sheep roaming the hills.

As I have tended to do most of this trip, I sat on the wrong side of the bus for scenery, but even the bad side was great. The weather was decent for most of the trip. The only problem was when I accidentally got off in the wrong city and walked about a half mile from the station before I figured it out. I hustled back to the bus and managed to just catch it before it headed out. I also saw a double rainbow arching over the road (insert pot o’ gold/leprechaun joke here). And pictures: