A few days ago we spent the day sightseeing in Derry/Londonderry. Our tour guide for the city was Ronan, a very animated and knowledgeable man who claimed to be the only Buddhist in the area. He continued our history lessons about the "troubles" and how they affected his hometown. We saw a few more murals in an area known as the Bogside to support these stories. It's interesting that there have been such great progress in uniting the two sides of the arguments behind the troubles, yet these murals are still on display with their various slogans. Derry/Londonderry is also known as the "Walled City" because of the walls that were built as protection during times of war.
We also traveled to the most northern part of Ireland, the Inishowen Peninsula. This was a picture perfect place with the ocean and mountains in the background. The houses in this area were very unique, because many of them were original three room buildings with thatched roofs.
We stopped at Grianan Aileach, a circle stone fort that we climbed for more pictures. It was about this time that we decided we needed to buy wool sweaters because we felt like the wind was blowing right through us.
The next day we drove to Omagh, Belleek and Ballina. In Omagh, there is an Ulster-American Folk Park about the history of Irish immigration to the US in the 18th and 19th centuries. It reminded us of Greenfield Village because you walk through the houses the people in Ulster would have lived in to learn about their lifestyle and through a model ship that they would have traveled on before reaching the New World.
Then we went to the Belleek Pottery Center and had a tour of the factory with explanations for how the pottery is made. It is really amazing that each piece is made and decorated by hand so that no two are ever the same.
In Ballina, we stayed in a really cute (but very old) hotel on the River Moy. The town was very quaint and of course the people we met in the hotel were very friendly. On our way, we stopped at a holy well just outside of town that Bernard used to go to with his family. It was a very pretty setting with statues, candles and waterfalls. It was nice to do some reflection there in silence.
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