Tri-colors
I left Inverness by train via Glasgow to Ayr and hopped a bus there to get to the coast and take a boat to Belfast, Ireland. It was a rather uneventful train and bus ride but that’s good and then came the boat. I met a Scottish couple on their way to a wake in Belfast for a too young friend. They were in good form and getting primed for what was to come. We met while waiting for the bus to take off and I could already tell he was a comedian and we instantly had a few laughs and then boarded the boat with a couple hundred kids that were in rare form themselves and getting funnier as the day went on. The kids on the boat were getting their faces painted up and singing Karaoke so we moved around the bar to the far side and had a few beers and listened to my collection of Bob Marley instead of the intermittent screeching on the other side. I noticed many of the mom’s taking a break came and sat near us. I think it was the music.
The Scottish couple offered to share a taxi and go with them to a top-notch pub and find a hotel nearby. We got in the taxi and my friend started yelling obscenities at the driver and the driver yelled a string of them back and the taxi erupted into laughter and chaos. Coming out of Nepal into England and Scotland, I wasn’t prepared for this and sat with a smile on my face wondering what I had stepped in. It was mad all the way to the Royal Pub. The Royal Pub was loaded with green jerseys, caps, jackets, and scarves. There was a home match between Northern Ireland and Romania or someplace about to start and the pitch was close. Men stood outside the pub in small groups smoking cigarettes and having a pint or ten. The crowd was lively chanting and singing for their team.
When we got out the driver advised me, “Don’t get too full here, the hospital isn’t close.” I knit my brow and he explained, “Welcome to the Royal and Sandy Road, pointing around the corner. This is where a lot of violence can happen. You have loyalists to England on one side and North Irish on the other, but you’re a tourist, you should be fine.” I got out. As I walked forward the cabby rolled down the front passenger window and yelled obscenities at a man with a beer in his hand who came over and the cabby yelled at him, “Hey you insolent wretch, make sure this guy gets a pint of Guinness before he gets in a row ya bloody bastard! Watch over him, will you do that you old goat!” The man looked at me with a toothless smile and nodded and looked back in the cab, “Aye, I’ll watch over him until the match starts ya worthless tart! I didn’t know they licenses to the blind? Get Fucked!” I just wasn’t ready for it but my grin continued to grow. I could have burst out laughing at any second and they would have joined me for no apparent reason. I was about to learn that the Irish and the Scotts prefer to have a good time more than anybody else on the planet and anything they can think of and say can and will be used against you in the most amorous way.
Obviously Belfast has a thick history of religious tension that still exists today. I’m not going to get into it because its complicated and there is no right and wrong although both sides would disagree with me and a row would be on. I stayed on the happy side of the Irish and had a couple pints watching the match on the tele before heading off to my hotel. I got lucky because there was a bagpipe festival/competition going on and most of the hotels were fully booked with raised rates. When I left the Royal I hailed a taxi and the driver drove me to my hotel where there was a wedding and a birthday party both at the same time in two separate halls on the ground floor. I could feel the throbbing music through my feet and in my room on the second floor.
I wandered around Belfast the next day and found some historic pubs, the titanic building and just wandered away the day, it was wonderful. There is a lot of history in Belfast outside of the religious issues.
I headed north to Port Rush to see the Giants Causeway and the Bushmills Distillery. Bushmills Distillery is around 400 years old but not owned by the Irish any longer. I was hoping to tour the west coast of Ireland but already began to feel the squeeze of time so it will have to wait. What I saw of the coastline is beautiful and the weather continued to hold while I was in the north.
I decided to go to Dublin instead of getting delayed out west. I didn’t expect to have issues finding a hotel or B&B but it was a nightmare. I had to change hotels every night for three nights. Of course the further out of the city center the easier it gets but I have no vehicle so it wasn’t an option.
Of course I went to the Guinness Brewery but unfortunately I wasn’t impressed so I raced through it and had a beer in the roof pub and got out of there. On returning to my room I had a chat with some men that were getting ready to go to the BECK concert and I dropped my bags and went out for the same. Beck played some of his old, new and some I never heard. It was a great outdoor show and not sold out so there was room to roam.
I walked into a pub and had a pint with the owner. Ladies began walking in and I asked what’s up. Bingo’s on. I joined in and had a laugh at the slag they all threw at each other. Now this was true Ireland with the locals not a bunch of tourists like myself. I left with a smile and the contentment that I met Ireland once and for all. The owner asked me where I was off to next and I responded, ‘Cavan.’ He winced at me and asked, ‘Why would you be going there?’ ‘To see friends.’ He chortled and responded with a smile, ‘That’s not a good enough reason.’
