Day 5

We are sitting in the hotel dining room waiting for our dinner as I write tonight.  It has been a lovely day!  We were all ready to get out of the city to see some of the Irish countryside, and we were not disappointed!

We left our hotel this morning at 8:00 a.m. and took an hour and a half hour's bus ride to Giant's Causeway on the coast.  Although there is a fun folk tale about how the rock formation was created, we learned that it was formed by a volcano eruption over 50 million years ago!  It was absolutely beautiful and so difficult to believe that it was a natural formation because it is perfectly geometric!

We had lunch in the town of Port Rush, Northern Ireland and then boarded the bus for Derry (or Londonderry, if you are loyal to the British Crown).  The ride was another hour or so, and then we stopped at a Visitor's Center for what our Tour Director calls an "insurance pee"! :)  While there, many of us were able to get our passports stamped with a souvenir stamp for Northern Ireland since we did not cross any type of hard border requiring our passports! 

Then, we met up with our Local Tour Guide, Ronan, whom we LOVED!  He was a fantastic guide and really helped us understand the conflict we've been hearing about for the past three days.  So here is the best synopsis I can give....

The Irish were living in Ireland when King James decided to send British loyalists over to "watch over" the Irish who were becoming rebellious.  The king then changed the name of Derry to Londonderry.  The conflict was basically two tribes who didn't get along and both claimed the land!  Eventually it became a disagreement and all out hatred between the Catholics from Ireland and the Protestants from England.

It has now been 18 years since the Good Friday Peace agreement in Northern Ireland and things are much better, but there is still much improvement to be made.  They still live across the river from each other and do not intermingle - even in schools!

Our tour guide also taught us a little about the story behind U2's song, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".  It took place in 1972 which was the worst year of violence here - averaging 6 bombs a day just in Northern Ireland.  Bloody Sunday was actually a civil rights demonstration through the streets of Londonderry that ended in the shooting deaths of 13 civilians by the British Army.

After our walking tour, we boarded the bus and returned to our hotel for dinner.  We've just finished dinner and are off to our rooms for an early evening - hopefully - since we leave at 6:00 tomorrow morning!!  Our ferry leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning to take us to Scotland!  It should be another fun-filled day!