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greenbagjosh · 3 months ago

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Days 3 to 5 - Belfast, Carrick a Rede, Giants Causeway and Bushmills

Hi everyone, Welcome to Day 3 of my visit to Europe in Summer 2004. Up to Monday the 26th July 2004, I had been staying at my parent's then-home in California. I was there for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Now I had to move on to Belfast, in Northern Ireland. I planned to go on the city tour, and the next day a tour of the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge as well as the Bushmills distillery. Then lastly I rode the train from Belfast Botanic to Portadown Central. On 29th July 2004 I would go by train to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. The weather was much cooler than in Texas, and I was fortunate enough to remain healthy.

Dia daoibh, Fáilte go Lá 3 de mo chuairt ar an Eoraip i Samhradh 2004. Suas go dtí Dé Luain an 26 Iúil 2004, bhí mé ag fanacht i dteach mo thuismitheoirí i gCalifornia ag an am. Bhí mé ann le haghaidh Féile Gairleoige Gilroy. Anois bhí orm bogadh ar aghaidh go Béal Feirste, i dTuaisceart Éireann. Bhí sé beartaithe agam dul ar chamchuairt na cathrach, agus an lá dár gcionn turas ar Dhroichead Charraig an Rí chomh maith le drioglann Bushmills. Ansin ar deireadh mharcaigh mé an traein ó Belfast Botanic go Port an Dúnáin Láir. Ar 29 Iúil 2004 rachainn ar an traein go Baile Átha Cliath, i bPoblacht na hÉireann. Bhí an aimsir i bhfad níos fuaire ná mar a bhí i Texas, agus bhí an t-ádh orm fanacht sláintiúil.

Ciao a tutti, Benvenuti al terzo giorno della mia visita in Europa nell'estate del 2004. Fino a lunedì 26 luglio 2004, ero stato ospite a casa dei miei genitori in California. Ero lì per il Gilroy Garlic Festival. Ora dovevo andare a Belfast, nell'Irlanda del Nord. Avevo programmato di fare il tour della città e il giorno dopo un tour del ponte Carrick-a-Rede e della distilleria Bushmills. Poi, infine, ho preso il treno da Belfast Botanic a Portadown Central. Il 29 luglio 2004 sarei andato in treno a Dublino, nella Repubblica d'Irlanda. Il clima era molto più fresco che in Texas e sono stato abbastanza fortunato da rimanere in salute.

Bonjour à tous, Bienvenue au troisième jour de ma visite en Europe cet été 2004. Jusqu'au lundi 26 juillet 2004, j'étais chez mes parents en Californie, où j'étais à l'époque. J'étais là pour le festival de l'ail de Gilroy. Je devais maintenant me rendre à Belfast, en Irlande du Nord. J'avais prévu de faire le tour de la ville, puis le lendemain, de visiter le pont de Carrick-a-Rede et la distillerie Bushmills. Enfin, j'ai pris le train de Belfast Botanic à Portadown Central. Le 29 juillet 2004, j'allais prendre le train pour Dublin, en République d'Irlande. Le temps était bien plus frais qu'au Texas et j'ai eu la chance de rester en bonne santé.

Hallo zusammen, Willkommen zu Tag 3 meiner Europareise im Sommer 2004. Bis Montag, den 26. Juli 2004, hatte ich im damaligen Haus meiner Eltern in Kalifornien gewohnt. Ich war dort zum Gilroy Garlic Festival. Nun musste ich weiter nach Belfast in Nordirland. Ich hatte vor, an einer Stadtrundfahrt teilzunehmen und am nächsten Tag die Carrick-a-Rede-Brücke sowie die Bushmills-Brennerei zu besichtigen. Anschließend fuhr ich mit dem Zug vom Belfast Botanic nach Portadown Central. Am 29. Juli 2004 wollte ich mit dem Zug nach Dublin in der Republik Irland fahren. Das Wetter war viel kühler als in Texas und ich hatte das Glück, gesund zu bleiben.

First I would like to apologize in advance, if some of the subject matter might cause distress. Part of today's adventure will contain the remnants of a conflict that started in the late 1960s, and lives were lost as a result. I will try very hard to keep that to a minimum, and focus on the more positive aspects of the events of the days concerned.

Monday the 26th July 2004, I had planned to fly to Belfast, Northern Ireland, making connections at Chicago O'Hare and London Heathrow. I would fly in first class from San Francisco to Chicago O'Hare, and Premium Economy the rest of the way. At the time, I had a United Premier Silver status, and consequently could spend time in the dedicated lounges. I woke up about 5:30 AM, took a shower, packed up, had a small breakfast, before my mother drove me to SFO. I checked in my rolling suitcase, and took my backpack along with me. The United lounge, at the time, in Terminal 3, allowed me in for an hour. I caught the 9 AM flight to Chicago O'Hare. I think I arrived about 3 PM Central. The flight to London Heathrow would not leave until maybe 5:30 PM. If you like Gerschwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" song, there was at the time, an underground passageway between Terminals B and C, and on the loudspeakers was a handbell version of "Rhapsody in Blue". There was also a neon light display just above the travellators, turning on and off along to the music. The walls had windows the same colors as the neon lights.

I was on a United flight to Heathrow from Chicago O'Hare in a sort of "premium economy" seat. It is different from the regular economy seats, since it has a few extra inches of legroom. On Monday 27th July 2004, I landed about 7:30 AM. First I went to the passport control, where I received a non-Schengen stamp in my passport. It said "Leave to enter for 6 months, employment and access to public funds prohibited". I would not need to have my passport stamped if I entered the Republic of Ireland by rail. My wheeled bag would be returned to me only after I had landed in Belfast. I was hungry, so I went to someplace in Terminal 3, the Cafe Rouge, that had a cafe serving "Full English Breakfast". I ordered it with coffee. I believe I had two fried eggs, sausage, tomatoes, a large mushroom and toast. Breakfast was very good, and cost only 9.50 pounds, including coffee.

After breakfast, I walked around Heathrow, even walking to the Underground station to see what had changed since my last visit in March 2000. Pretty much everything was the same from that time. I went back to the terminal, where I would catch the plane to Belfast. British Midland Airlines, known by its code "BMI", had a partnership with United Airlines, and welcomed those with a United Premier Plus status into their lounge at no charge. I spent an hour there, before my flight to Belfast. I listened to the BBC on my radio, and had a glass of Boddington's in a "nonic" glass.

About 10 AM, I boarded the flight to Belfast. It was on an Airbus A320, and it needed a jetway at Heathrow. The safety video had been prerecorded, and I would watch it again at least two more times on 31st July. The flight went over Isle of Man, before landing in Belfast City, east-northeast of downtown. The airport has since been renamed to the George Best Belfast City Airport. The international airport is west-northwest of downtown Belfast, close to Lough Neagh, and unlike the City Airport, it does not have a railway connection. Belfast City, if I remember correctly, did not have proper jetways, everyone had to alight by staircar. In later years, there might have been a couple installed.

At Belfast City Airport, I fetched my rolling suitcase. The rail link between Belfast City Airport and Downtown Belfast exists, but it is not particularly straightforward. You have to take a shuttle at the airport to the Sydenham Footbridge along the A2, go up and down the stairs, and go to the far side platform, not the near one, as trains would go to Bangor. There were no ticket machines, fares would be sold by the conductor. One thing I noticed at the corner of Inverary Drive and Station Road, was a house with a mural. In Sydenham, which I would learn later that day, the east part of Belfast tends to be loyalist, while the west part tends to be republican (unity with the Republic of Ireland). The mural was on behalf of the Ulster Volunteer Force. It has changed over time, probably three or four times, since I had last been to Sydenham. A train came in the direction of Bangor, likely a class 80. Arriving and departing sounded something like a helicopter landing and taking off. Since Northern Ireland's railways were not electrified then, they were served by diesel multiple unit trains, 80 class with the door handles on the outside, and 450 class that has electric door opening. Unlike in the UK, the Northern Ireland railways use the same gauge as in the Republic, namely 1,600 mm, known as "Irish Gauge". I rode a 450 class EMU from Sydenham to the terminus at Belfast Central, recently renamed to Belfast Lanyon Place, past the Titanic Quarter. I changed to an 80 class train, and rode for one stop to Botanic. The youth hostel was not very far. I think I arrived there about 10 AM. I checked in and signed up for the city tour for that day and the countryside tour for the next day. The countryside tour would include a lunch break where the city tour would not. The youth hostel was in the loyalist part of Belfast, the curbstones were painted red white and blue, and you could see hundreds of Union Jack flags strung along Donegall Road and Sandy Row. The "Orange Parade" had taken place two weeks prior.

At 11:30 AM, the city tour bus arrived, and only a few minutes later, it would end up at Belfast City Hall so that more passengers could board. We went first to the Gaeltacht Quarter on Falls Road. We spent maybe five minutes at Leeson Street, before going on to Shankill and the former Crumlin Road Gaol. The bus had stopped close to the Oliver Cromwell murals, at the time there were two. We were told by the tour guide, not to walk on the grass area due to "booby traps", basically meaning that many dogs do their business in random locations. Please bear in mind, it is difficult to exactly retrace the tour route, as over time, murals are covered and repainted, sometimes just simply covered with a solid color, or even the building can be demolished.

The bus left and we went on to see the Victoria Square and Belfast Cathedral. Belfast Cathedral is Episcopalian, more or less. It had opened in 1904. It is unique as it has two bishop's seats. It had a very nice interior, with corinthian columns and stained glass windows. They did not use benches, but they had individual wooden seats. They requested a visitor donation of about 2 pounds. They used the term "unwaged", for the local unemployed, which would have been maybe 1.00 pound.

The bus also passed by the Titanic construction grounds, and went as far east as Stormont, the location of the Local Assembly of Northern Ireland. The builidng itself was post-Georgian, had six ionian columns, and steps to the entryway. The lamp posts had moose heads on them. We did not have time to spend there unfortunately. The bus went past Queens's Square and the Albert Memorial Clock The tour ended at the City Hall square, and I was free to wander about. I must have wandered about for the last three hours, about as far east as the Albert Memorial Clock, but don't remember much else, as I felt jetlag and went to my bedroom to sleep. I used my UK adapter to charge my phone, which was a Siemens S40. The adapter I used was a "Type G", which worked fine. I went to sleep and woke up about 5:30 AM on Tuesday 28 July.

For some reason at 5:30 AM, I woke up, took a shower and then walked from the hostel to Belfast Central station. I took the first train somehow to Whiteabbey, wanting actually to go to Bangor, but by then it was too late. I was in a class 80 train. I happened to see an Iarnrod Eireann train, which I would take the next day to Dublin. The train also passed by Yorkgate. I remembered when I arrived at Whiteabbey, to put the window down and turn the handle to open the door. I did not spend much time at Whiteabbey. The only building of interest nearby was the hospital. I took another train back to Central Station and a bus to somewhere on Dublin Road. It was somewhere close to Wetherspoon Free House. I had a breakfast buffet for about 12 pounds. I could just pick the items that I wanted to eat. Then I took a bus back to the hostel, in time to catch the country tour bus.

The bus left the hostel about 10 AM. It went on the M2 to Glengormley, then north on the A8 to Carnlough Marina where we made our first stop. I remember the Herbert Street Bridge which had the maximum headroom sign of 13 feet and 3.8 meters. The bus went onwards to Carrick A Rede rope bridge. It was a pedestrian only bridge, and there was a charge of 1.00 pound to go over, returning was no charge. I had to walk from the car park on a trail to the bridge. I paid my one pound, and received a receipt for it. Once I returned, I received a signed certificate that I crossed the bridge. Crossing the bridge was not as scary as I had feared. It was going from a cliff to an island. I spent a few minutes there before going back.

The bus went on to the Giant's Causeway. It is said that the causeway goes as far as Fingal's Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa, past Islay. We stayed there for about ten minutes before going to lunch. We had lunch at a pub, and I think I had a thick cut bacon sandwich, salad and glass of local cider, something similar to Magner's. After lunch, we stopped at the Bushmill's distillery. They specialized in whiskey. I was picked to do a taste test at the end of the tour, I think I might have had seven shots of various Irish whiskeys, including Jameson, John Bower & Son, Black Bush and even Bushmills. After the tour ended, the bus drove down the A26 and M22 back to the hostel in Belfast. The tour arrived about 5 PM at the hostel.

I was not quite content to end the day just yet. I walked to Botanic, had a snack of chicken strips, fries and fizzy lemonade. Then I took a train to Portadown, just to look around. The train I rode over was a 80 class train. It made an intermediate stop at the former Great Victoria station, which has since been decomissioned. I walked from the station to High Street. At some point, there were gates that were due to close about 8 PM. Looking at recent Google photos of the same place, those gates would have been removed. I found some place to have fish and chips. About 9 PM, I took the train back to Botanic station. The train arrived at Botanic about 10:30 PM. When the train was at Finaghy, the lights had turned on. As it was a low pressure sodium light, otherwise a SOX light, it had a pinkish glow which would turn bright yellow. Ireland is in the GMT +1 zone, GMT +0 during winter, and the sun might rise and set later than in the UK. I went to my bed in the hostel and went to sleep. I would have to wake up fairly early to catch the bus to the rail station to go to Dublin.

I hope you will join me in tomorrow's adventure in the Republic of Ireland. I get to go on the self guided tour including a LUAS ride to Sandyford. You will kind of feel what it would be like to be in the film "The Commitments", particularly with Robert Arkins. See you then!

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