The tour started at Belfast Castle, which was very quaint and pretty. I kept noticing all these pictures/statues of cats around the grounds. (I took a few photos of them). Apparently there were nine cats that we were supposed to have found. I still don't know the story behind it, though. It was very random. One of the guys from IFA (the International Friends Association, who were hosting the day for us) was really funny because we were told to ask him if we had any questions, and even though he is a local, he had never been to either of the places we were going. Needless to say he wasn't much of a guide, but he was definitely fun company. His name is Chris and guess what he is studying.... math! Yay for math people - haha!
Anywho, after lunch we went for a tour in Carrickfergus, including Carrickfergus Castle. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! Ok, I do have to say that according to most of the Europeans, it was a pretty boring castle compared to all the amazing ones they have seen. However, as it was my first castle experience ever, I was enthralled! It felt so crazy to be standing in a place where people from centuries and centuries ago also stood. For example, the tour guide mentioned that King John (as in the King John from Robin Hood stories) came and stayed at the castle for about 10 days. Can you believe it?! Insane. Completel insane!
Inside the castle there were various rooms, but the most exciting was at the top, where the guy in charge stayed. There were banners hung all around the room of the various people Carrickfergus castle had hosted, including King John's. I took photos of a few. We also saw the genuine latrines still in tact. Apparently the people of Carrickfergus claim to have the first method of flushing toilets, as their latrines dumped outside the castle, and the tide came in twice a day to wash everything away. (At that time in history, the castle was surrounded on 3 sides by water. Today, there is a parking lot on one of the sides, as the water line has receded.) From the murder whole, to the trip step, I found the castle absolutely fascinating!!
That evening, I went out with a group of girls to supper. A few of us, including myself, got a little dressed up, just because we had an excuse to. We ended up going to a pizza place, though, which is kind of funny. It's the same place - Cafe Renoir - that I visited with Ally, Jen, and Sydney a couple weeks ago. Jen and I split a BBQ chicken pizza - yummmm!
After that there was a party in one of the houses on Mt. Charles, so we went to that for a bit. I had not realized there would be a party afterwards, and I was still in my dress and heels, feeling rather cold and uncomfortable. Ally let me borrow some pants, boots, and a sweater, tho, so then I felt much better.
I didn't stay very long at the party because I was growing tired of it. Jen and I went back to Ally's room, where we were planning to watch a movie. It turned into a slumber party of sorts, and we just sat around talking, laughing, and watching The Office. It was fun! Ally let me sleep in her bed.
This morning, we were preparing to go walk along some river, but I really wanted to go home and get some contacts (as I'd thrown mine away the night before to sleep) and brush my teeth and such. (I was feeling pretty gross). By the time I'd made it all the way back to Elm's Village, tho, I was realizing a few things that I really needed to do - such as laundry and homework - so I told them to go without me. I haven't started my homework, yet, but I want to clean my room first. It's getting a little out of control. Doing the laundry helped a lot, but there's still some tidying to do.
That's that for now. Here are some pictures from yesterday:
Laurent, Nikolas, and Clarissa at Carrickfergus Castle
Valerie! :)
Clarissa! :)
The plastic figure in green on the window is the Viking princess who lived here for a while. I don't remember all the details of the story, though.
A plastic archer man
Chris and Melissa standing over the well.
the well for the castle. the ring, anyone??
they had a lot of tacky plastic models around. Here's a guard dog
The red line indicates the trick step. It is about 2 or 3 inches longer than the rest. The idea was that invaders would be running up the stairs, all of which are the same height. They would be getting a good rhythm going until they came upon this step, where they'd trip and tumble down to the bottom, taking everyone else with them. Also, if you notice, the staircase winds downwards to the left so that soldiers defending the castle can swing the swords around the way without problem, but invaders cannot.
Nikolas (Belgian), Clarissa (German), and Laurent (Belgian) in the top room.
This archway was added some time after the castle was built. They had to take parts of the wall down to set it up properly, and in the process they discovered a human skeleton. They figured it was someone who had worked on the original room, and had been buried in the walls as an honor when he'd died. They carefully relocated the bones to the inside of another wall so that they would still be within the structure and the archway could be finished.
Someone's banner
top room in castle
some game on the floor in the top room
huge chess game on the floor in the top room. It reminded me of Harry Potter, so I had to take a photo! :)
view out one of the windows
more banners/ the top room
View from a window at the top of the castle
King John's banner. (Yes, the King John from Robin Hood. I took this just for you, Steve)
Um, I forget whose banner this was
Some guys in ancient armor. Chris is in the middle.
Cat on fountain at Belfast Castle
Belfast Castle (There's Chris in front)
One cat embedded in the ground
Another cat
Smoke rising off of the hills
View from Belfast Castle
fountain at Belfast Castle
Belfast Castle
Oh, uh, a couple random pics of my room. Above is a map of Belfast, my one lonely decoration for quite some time. Below is the view from window on a particularly snowy day. Isn't it beautiful? Sigh. :)
Your adventures make me itch to travel, friend. Seems like all is going very well.
ReplyDeleteI like the cats :)
ReplyDelete