Goodbye Ireland.

SPOKANE – I made it home.

Farewell beautiful island. I will never see the world the same again.

“May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

Belfast in photos

Welcome to Sandy Row.

City Hall at Donegall Square.

Welcome to Belfast

 

BELFAST — I got hit with an egg last night.

Welcome to Belfast. Some little bastards drove by and threw a brown egg at me as I walked down the street. Thankfully, it just bounced off my leg and broke on the ground, but what the hell?

Other than that, Belfast seems pretty okay. It’s expensive because they use pounds (which is the most arrogant form of currency I’ve ever seen). And the city is a lot more spread out than the other cities in the Republic, so it’s a little bit harder to explore, but I’ve wandered around most of the city centre.

A lot of things are the same, and a lot are different. It’s weird to see British flags flying over everything.

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.

Street band

More video. And something actually happens in this one.

Music for fishing

GALWAY — My goals for today are simple. Music. Fish.

I looked up fly shops in Galway, so I’m going to try to track one down and see what they can tell me about fishing in the area. There looks to be decent access, but I want a local to tell me what the deal is.

Then I’m going to see if I can find a copy of the new Against Me! cd that came out in the states yesterday. I waited for months for that album to come out and now I don’t know where to get it.

It’s Blarney time

Whatever that means. And here we go:

Pucker up for Blarney

CORK — I kissed the Blarney Stone.

So have probably millions of others, but now I have too. I just stepped off the bus from Blarney. The castle was fairly impressive with tiny, well-worn staircases leading up to the top. Lots of small stone rooms and chapels. The main hall has a huge open ceiling since the wooden floors are gone. And if memory serves there are 127 steps to the top.

A lot of old people complained, but a very pregnant woman made it up no problem.

Blarney and butter

CORK — This town is down the road from the Blarney Stone.

I’ll have to see if I can make my way over there for the ultimate Irish tourist tradition. Otherwise, the city of Cork is beautiful. The weather’s been amazing and the centre has a lot to see. I’m staying at a very nice, and reasonably priced, hostel called the Aaran House just across the river.

Last night, I met a girl studying biomedical engineering at the University of Texas. We were headed out to a pub and saw a nice restaurant with a waterfall outside and decided to step in for a meal. It ended up being this ridiculously fancy candlelit place. I didn’t even take off my jacket because I was wearing my spray-painted Radio Arms shirt underneath. So she paid 30 euros for the duck.

And I paid 3 euros for a basket of chips.

Pints of Guinness make you strong

DUBLIN — I made the pilgrimage today.

The Irish Mecca that is the Guinness Storehouse was fairly impressive. For my last full day in Dublin, I just had to make the trip across town for the brewery.

You can see the brewery for miles, but then you walk up and see the huge gate. Walking through is like entering the Jurassic Park of beer. The place has a pretty fancy entrance. It cost 14 euro to get in, but you can walk through the five stories of museum.

They break down the whole process from harvest to delivery. You can walk inside old stout vats, start the next batch of brew and taste their “North Star” Guinness, which is only available in Ireland as part of their brewhouse series.