Trip - Belfast - Dublin

Belfast was a nice city, but wasn't very unique compared to many I visted. I spent several more hours there in the morning before moving on to Dublin. I was looking hard for differences between Northern Ireland and Britain, but there were more similarities than differences. One noticeable difference was the train system - the station in Belfast was very new and clean, but the trains were infrequent (only once every 2 hours to Dublin, unfortunately) and they don't let you split trips like in Britain. Though the trains were nice, I prefer the British system - maybe that's partly because I can ride for free in Britain and had to pay for it in (N.)Ireland.

I went down the eastern coast of Ireland to Dublin. The scenery was nice, but not as much different from Britain as I had expected. Dublin was interesting. Tons of new buildings. I don't think I've ever seen so many cranes in one city. Of the European cities I've been to, Dublin is one of the most modern. A few streets almost looked like downtown San Jose minus the palm trees. However, there also were some nice older areas, VERY nice parks, and some not-so-nice areas that were fun to walk through.

Again, I looked hard for differences between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and between Ireland and Britain. There were some noticeable ones. Many of the signs are in English and (Irish) Gaelic - similar to signs in Wales that are English/Welsh. The currency obviously was different. I prefer the UK currency because the coins all look very different -- Euro coins almost all look the same (all the same color and similar sizes) and it can be hard to tell them apart.

Another big difference I noticed was the people -- they had a very Irish look to them, which I did not notice in Belfast. Many of the men looked a lot like Conan O'Brien, and many of the women looked a lot like, uh, well, Conan O'Brien with long hair.




(click to enlarge)

posted by Matt @ 11:29 PM