My number one most listened to song of all time is “Can’t Take It In” by Imogen Heap. It’s track #14 on the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. I know this because when I was in Ireland nine years ago, I brought the CD and it became the soundtrack to our trip. To this day, it makes my heart beat a little faster because I picture soft green meadows, mossy castles, fish & chips, and long, rambling conversations with my mom.
Like “Can’t Take It In” is my favorite song, Ireland will always be my favorite trip. It was 2 weeks of touring through Ireland with just my mom in a rental car and no obligations. She was about to start a new job, I had just finished 6th grade, and we didn’t feel guilty leaving my brother because he was in California with my dad on a dirt biking trip. We ate when we wanted (sometimes salt & vinegar chips in the car), we stopped when we wanted (often to look at abandon castles on the side of the road), and we talked about everything. It was my first real trip to Europe, and it was also when I decided my life was going to be one revolved around traveling.
I’ve always been in love with Ireland since I competitively Irish danced as a child, but on that trip it became my favorite place in the world. So when I had the chance to return this semester, I almost couldn’t say no. A few friends were going to Dublin, but my friend Bri and I had already seen the Republic of Ireland, so we opted for Belfast in Northern Ireland instead.
It was cheaper to fly to Dublin and bus to Belfast, and just landing in the airport made me nostalgic for the last time and for being a kid in general. I was back, but I was different. I was there on different terms.
Belfast Castle in Cavehill Country Park
We arrived in Belfast around 2pm that Friday, and our first line of business was the Belfast Castle. It’s slightly outside of the city, but accessible by city bus and definitely worth the trek. It’s situated on a big hill in Cavehill Country Park, overlooking the city and the harbor. It’s not as old as other “traditional castles,” having been built in 1811, but it’s free to go in and to hike the park. The hike was well worth the cold sweat I worked up since it was basically 40 degrees there.
By the time we got back to the hostel, we were ready for a bit of a nap and then a fancy dinner at Stix & Stones Steakhouse. I noticed that while Belfast may not seem like it’s this huge thriving tourist destination, it genuinely has the best food scene that I’ve seen in Europe with cool gastrobars and “hipster” type cafés on every corner.
My favorite thing about this second trip to Ireland that reminded me so much of the first trip is just the traveling harmony I had with Bri, my travel buddy. We usually travel with a larger group that often has very picky tastes and can really direct what we do most of the time, but Bri and I have the same travel style, which is kind of go-with-the-flow exploring. What I mean by that is we’re just content walking around for hours, stopping where ever we think looks cool, trying whatever food is put in front of us, and being content not hitting all the “major destinations” in a city. It was the type of travel synergy I’ve only ever had with my mom.
Giant’s Causeway
The next day our travel synergy brought us on a tour to Giant’s Causeway. If you don’t know what Giant’s Causeway, I’m sure you’ll recognize it by the pictures. The ancient Irish legend says that the natural rock formation was caused by two feuding giants. One was from Scotland and the other from Northern Ireland. The one from Scotland ran away from a fight with the one in Northern Ireland, tearing up the rock bridge that connected the two pieces of land.
The wind and rain on the tour was fierce as ever, and I honestly wouldn’t have wanted it any other way on a tour of the rugged Irish coast. At night we braved the freezing rain to have fish & chips, which was absolutely essential to our trip to Ireland. I couldn’t have left the country without a fry dipped in tartar sauce.
Peace Wall in Belfast
Before we left Belfast, we walked around some of the “peace walls,” which are old walls that used to separate the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods during “The Troubles” or the time of great ethnic and religious conflict when Northern Ireland (more religiously Protestant and ethnically British) wanted to remain part of the UK while southern Ireland, what we now know as the Republic of Ireland (more religiously Catholic and ethnically Irish) wanted to separate. These walls have now been turned into murals depicting great peaceful social change leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. Bri was well-versed in this whole conflict, having taken a class on it, and I enjoyed hearing a bit about this ethnic conflict that people tend to forget since it took place in a place you don’t usually associate with ethnic conflict.
As sad as I was to leave Belfast the next morning, I was even more excited to spend night in Ireland. The plan was since our flight was at 6am to not go to bed at all and instead stay out all night pub hopping in Temple Bar, which made our hostel kind of redundant.
We walked around Trinity College’s beautiful campus, ate some scones, and checked out Dublin Castle, and just wandered like Bri and I are so good at doing. Dinner was a heaping plate of Shepard’s pie, which is the best kind of meat and potatoes. Although I’m pretty sure between all the Shepard’s pie, cider, and scones, I gained more than a few pounds that trip, not that I regret any of it.
Since I’d never been to Temple Bar last time since I was barely 12, Bri determined it was a must. We met up with a friend of ours studying abroad at Trinity College and pub hopped. Even pub hopping though, 8 hours is a lot of time to kill before a flight. So there was one pub where we played Settler’s of Catan on our friend’s phone for at least an hour and a half.
My favorite moment of the night and possibly the trip was in our last hour, getting really shitty Chinese food at a restaurant called “Charlie 3.” I know, I shouldn’t have trusted a Chinese restaurant named Charlie 3 in the first place. (It also begs the question, what happened to Charlie 1 & 2?). But anyways, there we were eating this slimy, flavorless chow mein when 10 mimes in full face makeup and stripes walk into this Chinese restaurant in Ireland.
The three of us look at each other and just start cracking up, because that’s what happens when you let yourself wander with someone, you’ll almost always come back with a story. I’m glad I have more Ireland stories, and I hope to have more in the future. I love you, Ireland.