Ireland // Glen to Belfast

Over the last week I have left Glencolumbkille, where I spent just under three weeks living and working in a hostel in the middle of nowhere and headed for Belfast, where I am to do the same for a number of weeks. 

My journey started by hitching back to Sligo to stay with Louise who had come and visited me for a few nights during my time in Glen. On my way out of Donegal county I took a hike to the cliffs at the base of Slieve League. These are some of the highest in Ireland, reaching over 600 metres. 

   
 I carried on hitching. When leaving Donegal, I happened to get picked up by the boyfriend of Natalia who I stayed with in Derry afew weeks before. The massive coincidence is that we didn’t actually meet, but his mention of a columbian girlfriend studying peace and conflict studies in Derry meant that it couldn’t be anyone else. We marvelled at the size of the world. 

I reached Sligo in the evening and headed for Louise’s house, where we spent the next two nights watching dark Irish comedies and lazing around – clearly I needed to ease back into the adventuring after three weeks in a sleepy town. 

On the Saturday I embarked on an ambitious hitch journey from Sligo, back up to Donegal, through Derry and Coleraine to Portstewart, nearly 200km away. It was a very easy day of hitching with rain on and off – meeting a smorgusboard of characters including and guy off to work the bar for a big biker festival at his family pub, a Scottish school teacher, two old ducks from Letterkenny, a couple from Derry and an orchestra conductor from Cambridge – amongst others. 

I stopped briefly in a town called Limavady where there was a jazz festival going on. I stopped for a pint and to check out some music. I made it to Portstewart by early evening and made my way to meet David who was hosting me for a few nights. David is a former academic in sciences who left after becoming dissolutioned at the corporate nature of scientific research funding. We had a lot to talk about, with the election just having been and a coilition with the DUP looking inevitable. We had a very stimulating exchange of ideas during my stay with him. 

On the day I was in Portstewart I walked the coast along to Bushmills. It had been my intention to reach the giants causeway, however the rain got too heavy as I was getting into the village, so decided I would see it another time. The coast however was very dramatic. 

   
    
    
 The next day I caught an early train down to Belfast, where I was catching up with Alex Fenlon for a few days before settling into another hostel job, accompanied by Richard Ley-Hamilton who I haven’t seen since I left New Zealand in March 2015. 

Alex and I spend the next three days taking in as much on the city as possible. We were staying in south Belfast, not far from Queens University. I immediately feel a rapport with this part of the city. On our first morning we spent it walking down the river to Lagan Meadows which was a lovely spot to spend a balmy morning. We spent the rest of the day in a pub down the main drag and in the museum trying to get schooled on the troubles, easier said than done. 

   
    
    
 Our third day was spend exploring east Belfast, where I was amazed at the size of the peace wall, constructed in the late 70s to seperate Catholic and Protestant communities and, despite the signing of the good Friday agreement in 98 has only gotten taller and longer since then. There have been many attempts to have it removed but apparently public opinion still favours it being kept in place to prevent clashes between the two communities.

We also explored the riverfront and the titanic museum – skipping the exorbitant entry fee to admire the building and grounds on which the museum stands. I noticed an uncanny resemblance that the mountains running around Belfast to the west bare to Dunedins skyline. 

   
    
    
    
    
 Alex headed back to Liverpool this morning and I am expecting to hear from Richard any moment. Pals!

Glencolumbkille // Donegal

For the last three weeks have been in Glencolumbkille, Co. Donegal in the north west of the Republic of Ireland. I’ve been working a few days a week in the local hostel in exchange for a bed and food – it’s a pretty great deal. 

Glen is a tiny town, of probably only a few hundred perminant residence. It is nestled between mountains on the coastline, and is an attraction for people with an interested in the Irish language and monolithic artifacts and culture. The towns main attraction is the Folk Village, which is a museum and reconstruction demonstrating the way of life for people in the area over the last few hundred years. The area only got electricity in the late 50s, so it’s been more or less cut off for a long time. 

The land is fairly volcanic, so not much can be grown up here. People would mostly farm animals and fish. Apart from the few beaches in the area, the coast is sheer and spectacular cliffs, which can be explored mostly by hopping fences onto farm land, which I have been doing a great deal of. 

I’ve been living with an 18 year old French guy called Pierre, who is here for 3 months to improve his English. He mainly keeps to his room and watches films, hard to blame him when the weather is so off and on. But that hasn’t stopped me from getting out and about. I had a couchsurfer for a few days who rambled across the mountains with me. Hitching in the area is pretty easy, in fact many locals seem to do it in order to get from village to village. 

Weekends are spent in one of the two pubs on the village, and it can get pretty lively with there is a match on or when there is live music. I’ve gotten to know a few of the locals and it’s nice to feel a part of the community. Waving to everyone as they pass in their cars or on foot is something that will be sad to lose once I head back to the city. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 
On one of my weekends I hitched over to Derry in Northern Ireland for a night which was great. It is the second largest town in Northern Ireland, and the location of the Bloody Sunday murders and a lot of civil unrest between the northern resistance and the British. There is still a lot of anti British art and placards in an area called Free Derry. I was invited to a birthday party there so after some walking around went to the house and fit right in. Many of the people were at the department of peace and conflict studies in Derry, a great place to study Peace and Conflict no doubt. It goes without saying that we had some very stimulating conversations. 

   
    
    
    
    
   
I’m gonna be travelling for a few days before heading to Belfast for a few weeks to do the same again, this time in an area that is a little more populated. It’s been a great experience here in Glencolumbkille.