last day in Northern Ireland

Andy had an interview with a Nobel Peace Prize winner in the morning, so Heather and I went and saw some of the area with Mrs. Brownlee, including their church and a local park. When we got back, Andy took us for a tour of the farm! We got to meet and play with some cows and cow babies, and took a stroll through the orchard after letting the chickens out. Andy and I tried to play football (soccer) in wellies (boots), too. It was excellent. He drove us back to George Best Belfast City Airport, where we flew to Edinburgh and met Irish Pete McIlwaine (but not without first having ourselves each a glass of Guinness... a bit heavy for me)! We met his flatmates and watched TV, this is when I was introduced to a ridiculous show called Green Wing. (Yes, Pete is Irish. But yes, we are in Scotland.)

day in the city, night on the farm

Andy wasn't really sure how to go about showing us around the city of Belfast, so we did a little wandering of our own after having breakfast and ended up getting on one of those big, red city tour buses that are in most major cities I've ever been to. We saw a lot of different kinds of buildings and learned a ton about The Troubles and the World Wars' affects on the city. Some of the things that stuck out in my mind were the blatant differences between very historic buildings and more modern ones that replaced ones that had been bombed, some very political murals, and crossing the Peace Line—a wall with barbed wire at the top that encloses the small Protestant population of west Belfast. Andy drove us up to the farm in County Armagh that night, and we met his family (four sisters and a brother). We went into the village of Armagh and took a walk around the mall (a lawn, not a shopping center), stopping, of course, to try and stick our heads in a cannon in the middle. We amuse ourselves.

off to that other isle

Back in London, I had to told Katie that I'd been unable to get in touch with Patrick all this time, so she offered to call him for us. As it turned out, he was visiting some family in New Castle (next to Sunderland!) and called Helen, so we met at the New Castle Metro Center for lunch. We gave him the fifth degree about not calling Helen before knowing I was coming, and not giving me means to get in touch with him… but what a nice surprise! Heather and I then took a local flight to George Best- Belfast City airport. We got to walk out on the runway and board the plane on a little ladder and everything, which we were pretty excited about but I guess the airport employee wasn't. Andy Brownlee was there and waiting for us! We walked around Belfast a little bit and are staying in his sister’s flat in the south of the city (a mixed Protestant- Catholic area) for the night.