When I first planned this trip, I wasn't going to include a trip to Derry. It seemed a little out of the way and wasn't a massive tourist city like the other places I had planned on going to. Well thank goodness Kevin suggested I'd go here because so far, it's one of my favourites.
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| Derry's Peace Bridge |
Derry is located on the northwestern part of Northern Ireland. It has a lot of history with the troubles, such as the infamous Bloody Sunday, and is Ireland's only walled city. So for Little Miss History Dork, I was already excited. I had also heard about a lot of awesome pubs to hear Irish music.
When I arrived in my 6 bed dorm, I was immediately befriended by my new roommates (and shared a load of laundry with one of them). We were a multicultural bunch of solo kickass female travellers who all coincidentally wanted to have an epic night out. Christina (Germany), Priscilla (Brazil), Madeline (USA), Christine (Germany) and I headed off to the town for a night of mighty criac.
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| The ladies of Cheeky Wink |
We grabbed some pub food after wandering around... realizing many kitchens were closed and the locals had already moved onto liquid diets. After dinner, we settled on Peadar O'Donnells, a highly recommended and BUSY pub. An Irish man and his guitar provided the music for the night and the drinks started flowing.
We became friends with two Dublin boys, Seamus and Adam, who were up on holidays. The night then devolved into fantastic good times and inside jokes (that stupid boars head, Priscilla's enjoyment of "loonie/toonie", half naked Madeline, "patch-patch-patch-patch!", Christina's dancing skills, messing with Adams hair, Seamus' voice messages to my friends back home, 18 year old babies, pizza holding, "we've lost someone!", and so on). We all drank probably two drinks (and one whisky shot) more than we should have and left at like 2am.
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| Epic Craic |
My fav part of the evening though was when we returned to the hostel. The common room was closed and after repeatedly being told to shush, we went outside our hostel to chat a bit longer and enjoy Madelines street preforming.
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| The end of the night |
The next morning was rough for all of us ladies. The boys left early and we all struggled to try to eat breakfast. Naps and Advil later, Christina and I went on a rainy walking tour of the city walls. I think we paid attention to about 20 minutes of the hour long tour. We came home, napped and decided to have a mellow evening.
Priscilla, Christina and I decided to make pasta for dinner. Madeline joined us later and the four woman Derry crew went on an evening walk. We crossed the peace bridge to some walking trails and wandered about. It was beautiful and finally not raining. A great way to end the day.
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| Evening stroll in Derry |
I decided to push back my bus to Galway until the afternoon so I could explore the Free Derry museum/corner/memorials and murals. This is exactly the type of history I am interested in: modern social justice history. The museum was sobering and interesting. It explained the origins of the conflicts, the marches, bloody Sunday and the aftermath. Ths museum held somber reminders of the murder such as items of victims clothing, Daly's white handkerchief, rubber bullets, etc and ended the experience with a celebratory video of the results of the second inquiry.
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| Funeral program for those murdered on Bloody Sunday |
After, I walked to the Free Derry corner and viewed some of the murals. My favourite I think was the civil rights/ bloody Sunday one which depicts a group of men led by Father Daly, carrying the body of Jackie Duddy (the first fatality of the day). It's beautifully painted and a stark reminder of what happened here.
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| Free Derry corner |
So combining my love of History and my fondness for live music and making new friends: Derry was a fantastic two days and a place I'd recommend all to check out.
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