Belfast

It's been a long time since posts - sorry about that!

Internet access in Ireland was complete rubbish intermittent at best. I think there was only one hotel where it worked consistently and everywhere else was either down for maintenance or just not connecting.  Ironically there was excellent mobile Wi-Fi on our coach, but I get highly sick if I do anything but look out a window on a bus so it was just too difficult to do more than a quick Facebook update.  I got sick on the way home and then spent a few weeks completely laid up by illness so I'll be playing catch-up for a bit. Bare with me!

I arrived in Belfast at 10.30pm into a cool, drizzly haze. After more than 16 hours travel including a car, two high speed trains, the metro, tube, regional train, a severely delayed flight that had no air-conditioning till we actually took off and a taxi - all through a European heat wave - I was so grateful to crawl into a shower to wash away several layers of grime and flop into bed.

Saturday morning was grey and threatened rain, but it held off while I walked into town and caught one of the open top bus tours that circle the city.  The whole tour took more than two hours and I went past the Titanic experience, through the Catholic and Protestent areas, past the Peace walls, the Cathederal quarter, parliament buildings and a number of other areas.  A guide talked us through 'the troubles' and it was interesting to hear about a piece of history I have only ever seen on the news.  

As the tour ended it started to rain and became steadily heavier over the rest of the afternoon so I spent the rest of the day walking around the city centre, dipping in and out of the shops and attractions and soaking up the scenery (and quite a bit of rain). The shops were busy, but not crowded and it was a nice way to spend some time.

On Sunday I had a lazy day and slept in and then dawlded until late checkout.  My next hotel was only about 20mins walk away so I set off down the road with my suitcase.  Along the way I found an open laundrette so I stopped and washed everything in my bag so I could start the tour with fresh clothes.  After five weeks of the same things, I expected to be sick of my clothes, but its amazing how you turn off your mind to silly things like choice of shirts to wear when there are so many other interesting things to focus on.  This is possibly a good thing to remember the next time I browse my way through a dress shop! 

I found an Italian restaurant and had lunch and a coffee and by the time I arrived at the hotel, people on the tour had started to arrive and we had a chat and a coffee before the welcome meeting.  There are 11 people on the tour (not including our guide) and they are all women so the poor guy is going to be kept on his toes I suspect!

Monday was the first day of the tour proper and we started it with a guided tour of the peace wall.  Our tour guides picked us up in cabs and drove us to the wall, talking about "the troubles" and some of the more salubrious events in Belfast's recent history.

It was disturbing and enthralling and shocking all at once.  But while I walked through housing estates and high streets in both the Catholic and Protestant area, I was torn in my feelings about it all.  I don't want to diminish the decades of destruction and death that this internal war has wrought.  And there's no doubt that it will leave its stain on the populace for generations to come as people seek to move beyond the labels they have given one another.

But I got the distinct feeling that much of the commentary was being played up for us tourists and I didn't like the feeling.  I struggled with it for much of the tour, trying to find a way through feelings that wanted to be respectful to the city's history and issues that are relevant to residents - but also true to what I was seeing and hearing.  Not one conversation I had with anyone in Belfast - or anywhere else in Ireland - tied in with the picture that was painted on that tour.  But then people also didn't talk about Belfast's long and glorious history where it was once one of the richest cities in Europe either so there's that to consider. 

I'll leave the bigger issues for those more equipped than I to grapple with and leave you with a few photos from around Belfast. But I will say that everyone I met was friendly and welcoming and ready for a chat - Irish 'craic' is certainly alive and well!

My first glimpse of Northern Island homes from my hotel's window.

The Peace Wall - taken from a moving bus - hence the blur.

That's a lot of beer barrels for a tiny pub!

Protest wall.   The images are updated every few months depending on current issues.

There are images like this all over Belfast to depict various scenes in its history.

First glimpse of the Irish countryside. A patchwork of green!

A day in Provence

Visiting the south of France in mid July hadn't ever really been part of my plan.  I'm much more a cool weather kind of girl rather than a seeker of mid-30's baking heat.  But as this was the only time I could travel, I decided to take advantage of the fact that the lavender would be in full bloom and do some photo trekking through the Provence region and see if I could capture some of the mythical purple hues on camera.

Provence is a pretty big region and in order to find lavender fields, I was going to have to travel a bit.  I first tried to join a camera tour that was going through the region but they were full. Then I considered doing a day tour - but I risked being taken to lots of places that I didn't want to see and not having enough time at the ones I did. I dithered for awhile on hiring a private guide, but then manned up and booked a car.  How hard could it be?  

The day after Bastille day I headed back to Avignon and picked up a car at the train station.  I've never driven in a foreign country and never driven on the other side of the road, so I was pretty nervous. I paid for extra insurance and a GPS, took a deep breath and hit the road.  

The first 15 mins were pretty scary.  Driving on the other side of the road was fine, but a strange car, different distances to judge, never having used a GPS, traffic, and unfamiliar territory all had to be negotiated.  Luckily it was only about half an hour to my hotel in a distant suburb of Avignon. I was a long way from the walled city, but in hindsite this was a good thing as it didn't have parking problems and it gave me space to practice.  

The next day I slept late and had a leisurly breakfast on the terrace to avoid the morning traffic and took a deep breath, programmed the GPS and set off into the hills.  First stop was Gourds.  I've been to this little town before so I had a sense of where I was as I drove the narrow winding roads.  The French have very lax ideas when it comes to driving speed and keeping to your side of the road. I kept to the speed limit and everyone just overtook me casually around hairpin turns when the mood took them.  The web page I read about driving in France talked about fines for talking on your mobile phone, but I don't think anyone here has read that page because EVERYONE was chatting away with a phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other as they drove at high speed.  Crazy!

My next stop was the Abbay Notre-Dame de Senanque.  The abbey has been in operation since the 1100's and has a small lavender farm around the buildings.  It's postcard pretty with creamy stone buildings, grey stone walls and millions of hazy purpose blossoms that scent the air deliciously.  Warm fresh lavendar is the best smell in the world and I sat among the long lines of purple with the cicadas chirping and bees that were flying from flower to flower and soaked it all in.  I couldn't stop smiling.

I decided to try for another village and set off for Fontane de Vaucluse.  Luckily the GPS gave me pretty good directions and I was more accustomed to the road.  I stopped by the side of the road a few times to photograph cypress trees in long lines and interesting vistas - this is why I got the car!

Halfway to Vaucluse I got hungry so I stopped in a little town called Dieder for luch at a roadside cafe.  The woman serving had no English and my French is poor so I pointed at an item on the salad menu and got a delicious chickpea salad drenched in tangy dressing and olive oil, served with a sardine pate on toasted baguette - yum! And the perfet meal for a hot day (it was mid 30's by this time).  A quick Noisette to end the meal and I was good to go again.

The sun blazed down as I drove along country roads.  There wasn't much traffic thankfully and the classical music on the radio was the perfect accompaniment to the day.  I arrived in Vaucluse and found a cafe where I could get an ice cream by the river and sat and cooled down until I was ready to wander the town.  I visited there last year so I didn't walk up to the waterhole, but wandered amongst the trees, enjoying the shade and the sound of rushing water.

The were still hours of daylight and I didn't want to head back to Avignon too early so I set off into the alps to see if I could find more lavender. An hour later, I came around a bend and found a field of sunflowers!  I pulled off the road immedietly, ignorning the GPS instructions to 'do a u-turn'. I wasn't missing this!

The field stretched along the road and up a slope to a house. I didn't like to step onto someone else's land so I couldn't get to the front of the flowers, but I still got some nice pics of the blaze of yellow and I was happy.  I set off again and was rewarded by a few small lavender farms with scenic backgrops.

Another hour later, I still had another 30kms to my destination and I was starting to droop so I gave up and headed back to Avignon.  I reset the GPS and turned around, hoping the return journey would be a little quicker.  It was - one turn of the wheel and I was suddenly on a tollway!  Woops - not part of the plan.  

Luckily I had read about them so I knew that I had to pick up a ticket on the way in and pay on the way out.  I followed the highway for half an hour and then got off, luckily having enough cash to mean I didn't have to use my credit card (I've read that sometimes foreign cards can be a bit tricky).  I kept off the tollways for the rest of the trip and crawled back to my hotel at 9.45pm.  It was a big day, but I'm so glad I did it - another fear faced and conquered and some nice photos to boot!

Bastille Day

The French Revolution started over breakfast.

Well actually I don't know if that's true. but if any of the revolutionaries had been in the breakfast room of our hotel this morning and seen what we saw, I suspect that it would have.

Some of us arranged to meet at 8am for breakfast so we could see off the people who were leaving before we went out to join celebrations for France's national day.  I arrived in the breakfast room at 8.05am to watch a busload of Eastern European tourists literally tearing the place apart to get breakfast.  People were taking handfulls of breadrolls and croissants at a time and filling their pockets.  Within minutes the entire breakfast bar was picked clean and there was nothing. No. food. left.

We sat down and waited and a girl bought out another basket of bread.  Same deal.  

I got some coffee and we waited again and thankfully found that most of the maurding hoards had eaten their fill, packed their picnic basket for the rest of the week and left.  We felt as though we should apologise on behalf of tourists everywhere for such a spectacle.  

Farewells to Maria and Laura - how ever will we do without you!  Suz and I went to do some laundry and then joined Carly on the walk down to the beach to see what was happening for Bastille Day.  

At first there didn't seem to be anything going on at all so we sat on the beach for an hour or two and soaked up the warm sun, cool breeze, blue, blue ocean and pebbly seats.  When our butts were numb, we walked along the esplanade until we found a  nice cafe for lunch.  It was owned by an expressive Italian who wandered between the tables greeting friends, singing and pronouncing his love for the female sex.  I shared a bowl of mussells and then had grilled salmon and veggies with a very welcome cold beer. At the end of the meal we were approached by the man who had been sitting at the next table, and American from Miami who had apparently been enjoying our conversation.  He was a big, gruff guy who was covered in tattoos and he looked like he'd be at home at a meavy metal gig but he informed us that he was in town to compete in a choral competition.  I do love the people you meet on holidays!

We wandered further down the esplanade, stopping for ice cream and again for coffee before settling in a bar with a bottle of chablis.  At 6pm we walked back to the esplanade to watch the parade of police, soldiers, sailors and other military types.  It wasn't the most exciting parade ever held, but we enjoyed it and the lady standing next to me enjoyed our enthusasism.  When we told her we were 'Australiee' (Australian), she got quite excited and clasped my hand and smiled.

After the parade, we went back to the bar and happened to order the most perfect bottle of rose ever. It was so nice, we had to order another one to check that the first one wasn't a fluke - it wasn't.  We had pizza to soak up the wine and were about to order our third bottle when the waiter said that it was time for the fireworks and that we had to leave now to see them.  We were a little reluctant but he insisted, telling us he would have more wine ready for us when we returned.

He was so right!  The fireworks were amongst the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Set off on boats out in the ocean, the display lit up the night sky with a million twinkling lights.  The soundtrack was beautiful and the gasps and cries of the audience made a fabulous accompaniment.  It was the perfect end to a fabulous day.  

At 11pm we returned to the bar where our bottle of rose was produced.  The streets were pumping and everyone was out enjoying their holiday.  Music played, people danced and chatted and we enjoyed our wine and soaked it all in. It was well after midnight before we finally set off back to the hotel.  

If you ever get the chance to spend Bastille Day in France, I can recommend Nice as the place to do it - just don't go out too early!