Downhill Hostel Coleraine

... had lunch at a tiny cafe near the tomb, a very nice soup and sandwich! next we went to enniskillen, a town just over the border where we invested in some gumboots and visited the pound atm. we got to derry at about 5:30, dumped our bags at the hostel then walked through town to the diamond - the centre of town with a second hand war memorial statue - for a tour of the city walls and murals. our tour guide was really interesting, he'd lived in derry his whole life and ...

... to drink you have this city to thank for your hangover. There are huge murals on both sides of the wall. The Protestant side has images memorializing hit men and thugs who "fought" for their cause and other glorifying the conquest of Ireland by the English. But then you move to the Catholic side. The Irish Republicans up in Belfast relate strongly to the Palestinian cause, and they have murals calling for an end to "Israeli Barbarianism." Others have Jewish Stars and Swastikas side ...

... be part of the republic of Ireland. Derry is also the site of the Bloody Sunday massacres, where peaceful protests were being held, the British Army came in and shot at least 14 people dead, and wounded more. We had a walking tour of Derry and got to check out more beautiful murals. Now i don't have the answers, or the soloution, but i'd like to think that one day people could just get along.

Off to tea, found a cheap cheap place with jugs of cocktail for £7 and then to bed.

Wow! It’s day thirteen in Ireland, and we’ve seen and done so much! Today the sun was shining on Lough Swilly when I opened the curtains. We had breakfast with a couple from North Dakota who were celebrating their 40th anniversary. We all offered mutual congratulations and talked about our trips. They were going in the opposite direction as we are, so we gave them some tips on what to see today. A young couple from Philadelphia joined us and told us about ...

The nice bus driver dropped us in Coleraine. Just before we arrived, something 'blew' on the bus - to be honest, it sounded like a tyre blow-out, but whenever he put pressure on the accelerator it got worse! Luckily, we made it back to the bus station, all fine - can't speak for the bus!

We had over an hour now to wait for the train, so we went for a drink in a nearby pub. Lydia likes to try different beers she comes across, and the pub we went to sold Tennants ...

... people. Now I know what traveling is really like ... and I'm not afraid. So, here we go. It's just a new chapter, right? I'll miss everyone so much. I love you, guys soo soo soo much. Slan go foill !! That's only goodbye for now. MANDA AND PATRICK AND PETE ... get your butts over here and the adventures shall continue.

... was nearly all the way across the first time, when the guy behind me started going and the bridge felt like a moonbounce. I booked it ... haha. But it was cool ... you get an amazing view of the ocean and the North coast from Carrick Island. And then of course you have to go back across the bridge. Dunluce Castle is a castle in ruins ... it has a lot of history, regarding MacDonalds and MacDonnell ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>To me the only indication that we had crossed out of the Republic of Ireland and into the United Kingdom was that the speed-limit signs suddenly switched to miles per hour. But, given all the political turmoil over the allegiance of the six of the nine counties of Ulster that make up Northern Ireland, that was some signal that peace is more of a reality now than it has been even a decade before. But once we’d got ...