The Wall

Monday 15 December 2008, Belfast - Dublin, Ireland
No sign of the Aussie Boy arriving back last night. The backpackers has a curfew of 2am, so hopefully he made a 'friend' and stayed at their place, and wasn't stranded out on the street. Had a quick and cheap breakie, and then wanted to do some looking around before heading off to Dublin. The one thing we had been recommended by a few people to do in Belfast was a Black Taxi Tour, and now I'll be recommending it to others. This was absolutely magnificent. The driver we had was born on Shanklin Road and was able to go into great detail of the history of the conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants. He took us to the murals painted on the housing commission houses just off Shanklin Road where people paint murals to honor those who have died, and use art to remind people of what has happened in these neighbourhoods. He took us to the wall that divides Dublin into the Catholic side and Protestant side, and the sections that have gates which open at 5am and close at 9pm, splitting the city down the middle from the hills to the city. We stopped and signed the wall, something I wouldn't normally do, but this is a sign of supporting the movement of peace and congratulating the people of Belfast for working so hard to come together and move forward. He took us to the Catholic side against the wall, where the houses have chicken wire from the roof extended to the wall so that when home made bombs were thrown over the wall they would roll down the chicken wire and away from the house. The wall even had to be extended higher twice to limit people being able to throw stuff either side. He told us stories of things he had witnessed, of bombings, of children dying in front of him. It was a very moving experience, It has been sometime since violence has been seen in Belfast, and it is such a beautiful city that hopefully as every day passes the wonderful people of Belfast will continue in their journey of living in peace.
Arrived back to our hostel, with a little more perspective of the world that these people were living in than before, and so grateful that we live in Australia.
Time to hit the road again and head to Dublin. Our plan was to find somewhere north of Dublin, quiet like, to settle and be able to head into Dublin on Tuesday before our departure on Wednesday. But as we got closer, we ended up in the heart of Dublin in Templebar checking out prices of backpackers. 70 pound for a hostel in a shared room, was the cheapest we could get, then we would have to park our car across the river and pay for parking as well. Got to be joking. We headed south, trying to find a hotel I had seen advertising good rates in lastminute.com and eventually got there by basically following our nose (did I mention we didn't use a satnav through Ireland? we just had a basic map of the country). So their rate was $59pound per night, 4 star hotel, with private room including bath and free parking ... mmm which one do we go for? Checked in, had a bath, guiness and fish & chips down in the bar, and off to a well appreciated cozy bed.