Girls Weekend in Northern Ireland

This past weekend (Thursday evening through Sunday eve) I was blessed to get away with my girl friends - Glenda and Holli. We traveled to Northern Ireland and Glenda's hometown. Her parents were away on holiday and graciously let us stay at their home and use their car. Let me just say that it was a excellent, relaxing, fun, and craicing good time. It was so nice to be in Northern Ireland with a local. We tried the local food, the beer(Guinness) and the talk. I definitely came home refreshed.

On Friday, we traveled up to the Giants Causeway. It was my second time there, but it is ever so beautiful. We had God's favor all weekend with the weather. It seemed to be sunny everywhere we went or it just rained when we were in the car driving and then it would get nice when we wanted to get out. We heard from Glenda's friends that it rained all day where they were.

Dunluce Castle

On Saturday, we headed down to the south west side of Northern Ireland and drove through the Mourne Mountains. We stopped off to see some of Glenda's friends, who live in the most beautiful house and location viewing the sea and the mountains. We eventually made it to New Castle where we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Percy French's, one of Glenda's favorite places to go.

My lunch: Chicken Curry, Basamiti rice and Naan bread. So yummy!

After our lunch, we headed into Belfast to take a Black Cab Tour. We took the tour that took us through the areas the Troubles took place not too many years ago. It was eye opening and sureel. Glenda was overwhelmed at times, because we went places she knew to never go to - because of the danger. It was neat to be with her and experience something we can never truly understand. We just have to hear stories about it to even grasp a tiny piece of all that she grew up with.

These two pictures are taken of the murals at the Shankle. This is the area where the Protestants live.

This is the peace wall between the area where the Catholics and the Protestants live. It was built to keep the peace between the two.

Holli and I stopped for a quick American snack - Auntie Anne's Pretzles. Yummy, pretzels, cheese and lemonade.

For dinner we headed to a Spanish restaurant for Tapas. I've never had them before and was a bit fearful I wouldn't like them because Steve doesn't. I had nothing to worry about. The food was so delicious. I will definitely be dragging Steve to a Tapas bar in the future.

As you can see, I am writing a lot about the food we ate. Food was priority for all of us this weekend. We could eat where we wanted, when we wanted and we didn't have to cut up anyone's food. We enjoyed every bite!

After our dinner, we met up with Kenny, Glenda's brother for a night on the town. We thought Kenny was taking us to a pub. What we didn't realize is that it turned into a pub crawl. It was so nice of Kenny to take three married moms all around Belfast into the wee hours of the morning. I am sure we must have looked funny as we drank our cokes and soda waters with lime.

This, the first pub we went to is the oldest pub in Belfast and it is across the street from the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in Europe (or NI or something).

Since we were in Ireland, we had to try a Guinness, since it is made there. These are pictures of us and our beers. Actually, Kenny drank both mine and Glenda's since we don't like Guinness. We did have a couple sips though.

The Three of us and Kenny at the oldest tavern in Belfast. This one had a group of guys playing traditional Irish music.

This was taken at about 12:30 a.m. way after my bedtime. We left Belfast around 1:30 and drove back to Glenda's parent's. I fell asleep as soon as the car started moving. We were able to sleep in until 9:30 on Sunday morning, though, since we didn't have to leave for the airport until 11:00 a.m.

Holli and Glenda on the train on our way back to Peterborough. It was such a great weekend. Girls, I had a lovely time. Thanks for all of it! Love you both!