Tuesday morning we had planned on getting up early enough to watch the sun rise at a coffee shop by the water, but that didn't happen. I felt like I didn't sleep at all during the night and finally fell asleep just before it was time to get up so I guess we weren't too excited to get up. We still had a nice walk down to the water but it was too windy to sit outside anyway. I just had a scone and Pete had a pastry, and I was not feeling well. I was burning up sitting in there and couldn't wait to get back outside. We went back to our hotel and I laid down for like half an hour, and felt the most comfortable and relaxed I had the whole trip. I actually kind of felt drugged, it was weird, but Pete said I didn't feel like I had a fever. Anyway, after resting for a little while, we had to check out of our hotel and decided to go see the Kilmainham Gaol.
We took the tram to the other side of the city, then had to walk for about 15 minutes to get to it, but it was really pretty nice outside and not too bad of a walk. I was not feeling great, and kind of felt bad even being out in public, though I could tell I wasn't the only sick person in our group. They don't really have the whole "cough/sneeze into your elbow" campaign going on over there like here in The States. I just kept thinking, "no wonder I got sick." But anyway, it was a really interesting tour and cool to see such an old, politically important jail.
Here's the only picture we got of the old part of the jail. It was pretty dark and damp and not in the greatest shape.
Here is the newer section of the jail which was much, much nicer and really iconic looking. They filmed In The Name of The Father here, and U2 also filmed their video for "A Celebration" here. I was really hoping to link to the youtube video, but I couldn't find it.
These are bonnets and handkerchiefs that represent all the women and children who were shipped from here to Australia. Pretty crazy.
Pete sitting in one of the cells.
It was a very cool place. Made like this so everyone could have light and everywhere could be seen.
When the tour was over, I was very ready to go "relax" on the train to Belfast. On our walk back to the tram, Pete got hit in the shoulder by an egg. We don't even really know where it came from, maybe the car driving by? It was so weird, and luckily it didn't break until it hit the ground, but we were just like, "what is going on!?"
We got our stuff back at the hotel then took a taxi to the train station because we were done walking. We made it to the station just in time for the next train which took about two and a half hours to get to Belfast. It was fun seeing the countryside during the first half of the ride, but then it got dark and I started feeling more and more sick and tired. I get a little motion sick on trains so that didn't really help.
The lady sitting next to us noticed our accents and that I wasn't feeling well so she offered to show us how to get into town knowing that it is difficult in an unfamiliar place. We asked if our hotel was far and she said it wouldn't be far if I wasn't so "wiped" and we didn't have luggage. We said we'd just get a taxi but then realized we didn't have the right currency since we were now in Northern Ireland, UK and needed Pounds instead of Euros. She found us a taxi and when he said he didn't take credit cards she did not hesitate to get her money out and ask him if he'd take us to our hotel for a "fiver" and he agreed. We weren't in the most dire circumstance, we would have figured something out, but we were uncomfortable and it was just so very, very kind of her! I was impressed and hope to follow her example in the future!
We got into our hotel and they informed us that we had been upgraded to a suit. We were blown away by how nice it was!
Pete's conference was showing some movies that night as the opening night, but we got there too late for the one he really wanted to see so we just decided to stay in. We had a quick dinner of chicken (and lamb for Pete) and potatoes at the hotel's fancy restaurant, then we watched a movie and went to bed. Man, it must have been fun having a sick wife as a traveling companion...
No comments:
Post a Comment