Rebels Without a Cause

So, the title has really nothing to do with the trip, just one of my Dad-isms.  =)

Although this could be considered a continuation of my last blog, I divided them up into my solo traveling and family traveling.  Basically, at the end of my studies, my family flew over to London for a couple days, rented a car, and drove up to meet me in Edinburgh.  The purpose was kind of to see where I was living and whatnot, but also because my dad, a child of the Nicaraguan Revolution, wanted to travel to Northern Ireland, where he thought he would be very at home.  Granted, as a family, we'd been wanting to go to Ireland for a really long time, so this was just a really exciting thing.  With a limited amount of time, and with my already having traveled to southern Ireland, we decided to head on over to Belfast, not really knowing what to expect.  

It was absolutely lovely.  I really liked everything about the city- the Irish hospitality, the wonderful food (I had Irish oatmeal and Ulster fry at a restaurant called Maggie Mays' that I still dream about!), and just the culture was wonderful.  We spent our nights at a pub called Kelly's Cellar, where many IRA members hung out, which my dad of course loved.  There's was live Irish music and it was a just an all-night party.   We saw the world's most bombed hotel, and spent a very long while looking for the place they built the Titanic (sadly, we never found it.  While there were signs on every light post saying "Titanic," we finally gave up after walking along an empty street and took a taxi home.). 

Being in Belfast made me resolve to one day live in Ireland. =)