Today’s blog will be small, because literally nothing overly important occurred. We awoke to a beautiful Dublish morning and the last day of waking up in a castle. As you can tell, I can’t get over the castle thing. It was a real fucking castle. It was built in the 1100’s. Though the part we slept in wasn’t all stone and suits of armour, the fact is, it was inside a damn castle. Plus, after sleeping at the Astor Quest Hostel in London, in a room the size of my laundry back home, anything slightly larger and more luxurious was bound to be well received. And well received it was.
Anyhoo, we packed our bags, bussed to Connolly Station and then Trained to Belfast Central. Beautiful landscapes, as the train line from Dublin to Belfast, from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland, runs along the eastern shore of the island. So on the right window, you’ve got the ocean and the beach, and out the left window you’ve got typical Irish scenes of green rolling fields, sheep, and the occasional derelict/condemned farmhouse. I have been having serious nosebleeds since I’ve been in this country, and I have no idea why. I had my fourth nosebleed on the beginning of the train trip, which was mildly inconvenient. About an hour into the trip, I fell asleep and woke up as we crossed the border to Northern Ireland and my phone reminded me that I would now be paying cheaper rates as I was back in the United Kingdom. Fuck yes for the British Empire! W00000T.
When we arrived at Belfast Central station (which looked a lot like Wacol Station, really. Ok that’s a lie. It looked a lot like Indooroopilly Station), we couldn’t find any tourist maps anywhere so I took a photo of the big city map that was on the wall with my iPhone, and we set off in search of our new hostel. It was 2 miles away, and we decided to walk it. We were not overly impressed with the sights we saw on the way – this side of Belfast (south side) we find to be a lot like a very cold Inala. The footpath was fashioned out of about twelve different kinds of material, we surmised due to the great amount of IRA bombings that destroy the footpaths on a weekly basis. Every person’s front yard looked like a tip – not even kidding, bottles and rubbish were –everywhere-. This didn’t bother us, it’s just the way it is. And we’re guys, so we can put up with shit like this. We found the hostel okay, checked in, and then chilled out in the room for a while – it’s bigger than the Astor Quest, and nicer despite the fact it has no sink.
After chilling out, we walked down the street looking for dinner. We nearly stopped at a couple of restaurants, and then we saw the Holy See. KFC. Thank you, Jesus, for bestowing upon us this great beauty of a restaurant, and within short walking distance of Vagabonds Backpackers.
We fed, came home and slept by 7pm. Both of us are pretty sick, but we’re survivin’. Had another nosebleed, think that it’s not healing properly because I keep coughing and sneezing. Anyway, see how we go.
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