Seagoe Hotel Portadown

... my favorite food groups. No honey mustard for dipping though! The girl working was the owner's daughter who had attended the training with her dad in Gap,PA. Had fun talking with her since our family has been involved in Auntie Anne's for more than 15 years!

this weekend a guy in my class invited all the 3rd years up to his parents house in northern ireland for his birthday. i got a lift up with a few friends from uni and we met the other 7 cars at a mcdonalds just over the border before heading off the highway to try to find his house. we got lost, a few times, i think we all did 4 or 5 u-turns and the leading car kept pulling over to let someone slightly less lost go in front! but we eventually made it ...

... competition from the night before... alana won cause of her elaborate face painting and got a 1L bottle of northern irish whisky! we stopped at an old monastic settlement on the way back but we were happy to get back on the bus cause it was freezing! got back to dublin around 5:30 and said good bye to everyone after exchanging emails (so i know have free accommodation almost anywhere in australia!) i had so much fun that i booked a tour with the same company in scotland for next year!

... distinctive horseshoe entrance. We then set off for Lough Neagh which covers 383 square kilometers which makes it the largest freshwater lake in British Isles and the third in Europe after Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega in Russia. It was a tranquil, unspoilt area being a haven for wildlife geese, ducks, swans, wading birds and butterflies. It contrasted markedly with the lack of animal and bird life around the lakes of Russia. It is also one ...

... of the day was driving through northern Belfast, and the areas affected by "The Troubles" between Irish catholics and British protestants. We saw graffiti walls covered by political pictures, homes with either Irish or British flags in the windows to signify their allegiance, and the locations of previous bombings and violence. However, many of the homes had white lillies or white roses in the windows. I wondered if this was a sign that ...

... And we saw Andy´s sister Wendy, her husband Mark and our neice Rachel and nephew Alex. We went bowling in Portrush and Rachel beat the pants off all of us. We didn´t take in a lot of the sights this time as we only had a week (plus it was a bit chilly for outdoor activities). It was great to see everyone in Northern Ireland again and now that we´ll be in Spain, hopefully we can make quick trips back more frequently. I already miss the fish and chips!

... dinner. (A little bit more time passed than you would imagine - and anyway, I wanted to take her out regardless.) After going to two bars before we realized they were no longer serving food we found a place called The Other Place - how appropriate. We had an interesting meal of bangers and mash and a baked potato smothered in baked beans and cheese. She swore it was mozzerella but I think it was just a real mild chedder. Once stuffed she exclaimed ...

... was a very biased account of what happened, however that was the information as presented to me. Wikipedia certainly doesn't present a much rosier picture of what happened, leading me to believe that what I heard was probably pretty close to the truth. Derry itself was a great little town. The city proper is entirely walled, and we were able to walk the length of the four walls, giving us some pretty nice views of the surrounding town that built up over several hundred years. There ...

... side). Here I found several murals outlining freedom, equality and non-racism... all good things and worthy of murals I feel. Then I walked through to Shankill Road (Protestant side) where every building was covered in red, white and blue Union Jacks. Flags were attached to anything and everything they could get attached to and there was lots of piles of wood around. I knew that this area was pro-English rule but surely this is taking things too far? 2.00 By now my ...

... to find out it looked just like the remains of an outhouse, hardly a kitchen and nothing like the scale of a castle. In reality that tiny ruin was called Dunseverick Castle, so we started the morning back-tracking a little to find Dunluce. When we did find it it was anything but disappointing, though I was a little put off by what I saw in the rear-view mirror in the car on leaving there – however I think that was mostly to do with the fact that Amber had ...