Northern Ireland!

Okay, so. I think it'd be easier to do this entry in all-picture form. Enjoy! (I did.) Damn I love Ireland.

First stop monday morning: The Botanic Gardens outside Ulster Museum. Pretty much the most delightfully fragrant and peaceful place I've ever been.

EVERYTHING was in bloom. COLORS!

And check out the sunlight!

Then we went to the Ulster museum, and after that it was time for a Coffee Break. Intentional use of capital letters to signify importance.

Camila agrees.

City Hall.

Interior of city hall.

Inside the very modern and cool mall, there's this "observatory" where you have a very cool view of the city.

The clocktower.

St. Anne's Cathedral.

Me and Kip and a big fish by the waterfront.

The harbour, near Titanic Quarter.

Check out that seagull shot. Mad skill.

Day two! The coast near the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

Gorgeous.

Kip was a little nervous about crossing the ancient hundred-foot-in-the-air-over-crashing-waves bridge, but I talked him through it.

Our shadows! dunno exactly how Camila became headless.

Giants Causeway.

Rock-scampering!

London-Derry. Aka Stroke City. Gotta be careful with the name. For protestants, it's Londonderry. For catholics, Free Derry. Site of the Bloody Sunday Massacre and still home to some serious religious tension.

A wall mural in London-Derry.

Day Three! A wall mural in the Protestant Quarter of Belfast. The tensions in Belfast are still very prominent, though the city itself is safe. I love how those tensions are being translated into an artistic medium, rather than a physical one.

One of the peace-oriented murals in the Protestant Quarter.

This was a motto during the peace talks that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The people want to be involved in the peace-process, not decided for or about.

One of the protestant murals. The gun follows you as you walk- watch.

How weird is that? It's very creepy to walk past.

The murals in the Catholic Quarter. The tendency here is to have current international as well local historical messages.



Newcastle. A very summery and quiet but cute town- I wanted ice cream there, really badly.

Camila and I playing in the fish-eye orb on the boardwalk.

From our little hike near the town.

Check out that reflection.

Pooh quote: "If you stood on the bottom rail of a bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you would suddenly know everything that there is to be known."

Much love,
Erin