American Mondays

I'm starting a theme to my Monday posts. American Mondays will be dedicated to all the Yankee Doodled products I find in Ireland. For all the talk of how America is evil, they sure like to slap our name and image on products.




To our left is American Cola!

Stationed just under Coke-a-Cola, American Cola is the affordable alternative for a refreshing beverage. Pairs well with chips, crisps, and any other form of potato preparation.

American Cola has more sugar than Coke-a-Cola and is greatly lacking in flavor. In my oppinon, cough up the extra 40 euro cents and get the real McCoy.

Belfast Tour

The Belfast tour wasn't nearly as interesting as the Derry tour. We were in a bus or coach the whole time so it was hard to take pictures and nearly impossible to ask questions. We stopped at the dock where the Titanic was built. That was interesting. The dry dock gave us an idea of how titanic the boat was. haha... After that we drove through the protestant side of town and past the murals there.

Then we drove through the "peace wall" to the catholic side. The peace wall was built during the fighting to keep the peace or just to better segregate people. It really shocked me how there had to be a physical barrier between people to keep them from fighting as much. While in the catholic side of town, our coach stopped and we got out to take pictures.


After that they dropped us off at the hotel, it was about 11am, and we had the rest of the day free. We napped, then went to a really neat indoor/outdoor mall will a tower in the middle that had an awesome view of the city.

See more photos on my Facebook album Belfast Tour

Derry Tour and Bloody Sunday

This was the most emotional tour I've ever been on.

We started with the history of Derry and how it became known as Londonderry, toured the city wall, and walked on the first ever cat walk. Our tour guide told us we better shake what we got because its the only time no one with think twice about it. The "cat walk" is a section of the Derry wall. The rich protestant women would dress up in all their finery and parade themselves on the pathway trying to out do each other. All while the poor catholic boys would jeer them from below, "Ah, look at em bunch of cats walkin' up there!"



After that fun we got to the serious part of the tour. We toured the murals of Bloody Sunday and other civil rights movements. Our tour guides were both men in their mid to late sixties. It was extremely sad to hear them speak of the events on and surrounding Bloody Sunday. They each had a brother, friend, or family member that was killed by British soldiers. One guide showed us where his brother laid dead. The building exteriors have since been refinish, but the bullet holes are left exposed.




But to not be completely melancholy, there was something cool that happened there. Our group was filmed for a UK tourism video. And I just happened to be right in front of the camera for part of it. Just coincidence I assure you. ;)

For more photos see my Facebook album Derry Tour

On our way to Derry or Londonderry

Today I woke up bright and early. 5:30 AM! Crazy, I know. Took a shower. Called Ryan :) as he was getting off work at that time. Packed a lunch. Left the house at 7. Met the girls at the DART station and arrived at the coaches at 8. Then it was off for the 4 hour drive to Derry in Northern Ireland.

Incase you don’t know...
Northern Ireland is still apart of the UK, which consists of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Ireland, however, is both the name of a country and the whole island. The country of Ireland, officially Éire in Irish also called the Republic of Ireland by the British, is primarily the southern 80% of the island. Ireland/Éire/The Republic of Ireland is not apart of the UK and does not use their monetary system. They are, however, a member of the European Union and are the only English speaking country that uses the euro.

Our first stop was at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It was pretty amazing. Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is a rope suspension bridge near Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The bridge links the mainland to the tiny Carrick Island. The site is owned and maintained by the National Trust, spans twenty meters and is thirty meters above the rocks below. The wind was extremely strong that day, which added to the excitement.

Farther up the cost we stopped at the Giants Causeway. The Giant's Causeway (or Irish: Clochán na bhFómharach) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It was still really windy and cold, so we ran the whole way down to the shore. It was probably half a mile. But we got there before the rest of the group so our photos weren’t spoiled with other people. ;)


For more photos go to this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161198&id=39506032&l=6098036fa4