FREE DERRY!

By the time we got to Derry, Ireland it was already late evening so we didn't have any time for sight-seeing. Instead we checked into our hostel, (which had the BEST showers by the way. They were nothing fancy but they were huge, clean, had great water pressure, and were separated into men's and women's. It sounds kind of ridiculous how excited we were but after day after day of showering in nasty hostel showers with grime and stranger's hair everywhere, it was heaven.) We went out to eat at a fancy restaurant downtown which I forget the name of. After that I think some people walked around the city, but most of us were exhausted and went straight back to the hostel. That night I woke up around 3 AM to some drunk guys singing and making a bunch of noise outside my open window. They were cursing and yelling about loyalists, England, etc. It was so weird to hear that. The political strife in Ireland isn't that bad nowadays, but the tension is definitely still present. I have been very blessed to live in a country where things are pretty peaceful most of the time. Wars, terrorism, and corrupt governments are very foreign for me. It's not even like they were rioting or anything, just being loud and obnoxious, but it made the world's violence and problems seem more real to me. Instead of thinking, "people somewhere in this world are feeling oppressed by their government and are very angry about it," I thought, "there are REAL people right outside who are really pissed off at what is going on in their country." Anyway, it was just a very small dose of reality about what it's actually like to live in Ireland. It's not all castles and shamrocks and galaxy chocolate. These are real people with real problems.

The next day we got back on our tour bus with our guide, Michael. Luckily this time we got to get off the bus and walk around the city for most of the tour. The tour was looonnnggg. Once again it was way too much information about the Troubles and half the time we couldn't understand what he was saying because is accent was so thick and he didn't talk loud enough without his bus microphone. It felt like a lot of standing around for nothing. After the tour we had time to walk around on our own. We had lunch, got some ice cream, and visited some tourist shops. Then Michael took us to an extremely depressing museum that hadn't been updated since the 90s I bet. Seriously, the video we watched was a VCR. But I actually really liked the video. It had live footage from riots during the troubles which was pretty crazy to see. 

 Matchey matchey green squared! Or should I say matchey matchey blue cubed?

Faces of Boredom

This is how Madi felt during the tour. In prison. 

Here is the wall that separated the loyalists/protestants and rebels/Catholics

Spray paint like this was everywhere.

 From what I remember there was some type of political meeting held in this building the previous night. Opposers came and threw paint bombs. Here is a guy cleaning up the mess.

The whole time I was walking around Belfast and Derry I realized that people have not healed from the past yet. There are reminders everywhere, like this newspaper from the 1970s during the "Troubles." How could anyone move on when things like this line the streets? So sad.