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April 24
As I got back to Leeds and another week of classes, Pete took the opportunity to spend a day and night in London. I really didn't want him to go by himself, but it was unavoidable, and Pete seemed happy to go off on his own. So he got himself on a 5:30 am bus to London ready to explore the city!
(Pete and I with Ellen, Jean and Johanna on our mini-pub crawl!)
Two days, multiple kilometres of walking along the Thames, and a random trip to Soho later, Pete was back and after a mini-Otley Run (pub crawl) with some of my Canadian friends, we left for Ireland for a few days of Guinness-tasting and sightseeing. I had a great time revisiting some of the places in Dublin I had seen in January and Pete loved the down-to-earth atmosphere Dublin offers. He visited the Guinness factory as I walked around in the rare sunshine, watching the Irish enjoy the nice day. I also finally got to see the statue of Oscar Wilde I'd missed the last time (he was as delightfully smarmy and languid as I imagined) AND I randomly found Tim Hortons donuts in a downtown Tesco's! We inhaled them (yep, it'd been a while since I'd tasted a proper Canadian pastry) right before visiting the National History Museum (where we saw tons of Celtic and Viking history as well as actual preserved bog-people), strolling the famous shopping area of Grafton Street, and wandering St. Stephen's Green.
Early the next morning, after spending the previous evening in Temple Bar, Pete and I caught a bus to Belfast. Northern Ireland is one of the places I had wanted to see but thought I wouldn't make it to--so we were both happy to pull into a city that's surprisingly vibrant despite its violent past. The divisions are still clearly visible; when we went to see the famous murals on both the Falls (republican) and Shankill Road (loyalist), we had to return to the city centre in between to avoid the Peace Line that splits them. We walked for what seemed like forever to reach the Line, a dismally high wall that stretches for a few kilometres.
(Above: a hopeful message on the Peace Line; below: a broken-off mural on the Shankill)Pete and I had the murals to ourselves on a quiet, sunny weekday morning. The murals, painted on the sides of neighbourhood houses, function as vivid memorials to the fallen and encouragement to the current generation still dealing with the conflict. Despite the peace treaties though, it can still get tense during the summertime national holiday. And the peaceful suburbs sleeping through a bright spring day don't disguise the shattered church windows around the corner or the creepiness of the painted marksman whose gun follows you everywhere.
We ended the day in the city centre, whose City Hall had the obligatory Ferris Wheel as well as a nice, relaxed vibe. Then it was off to the airport for me, and off to the hostel for Pete :).
April 28
Although I reluctantly left Pete once again to finish up classes back here in Leeds, he was quite content to take his flight to Edinburgh and spend about three days in the Scottish capital. When he got back on Friday afternoon he had tons of stories, especially about his hostel (which was across the street from Edinburgh Castle) and his day trip to Sterling Castle, the old stomping grounds of everyone's favourite Scottish hero, William Wallace.
Friday night we met up with Erin, Matt, and Matt's visiting friends from home, Rob and Gordon. In a strange and awesome turn of events, we found out that Rob was in Bryan's class at Waterloo and knew Richard as well-- what a crazy small world! Despite all the trading of travel stories, we didn't stay too late because we flew out to Paris at noon the next day and they were going to Amsterdam at 7 am. But it was fantastic meeting them... Matt talks about his buddies all the time ;).
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