Day 3 (A day late)

Day 3's blog post was written 1 day late and it is indeed day three due to the fact that Day 1 was strictly travel. (If that doesn't make sense its ok, just know that it was day 3!)

        Today we did a Hop On Hop Off tour of Belfast which involved riding a bus to various "landmark locations" around the city. You rang a bell/pressed a button on the bus if you wanted to get off when they announced the stop. The ever so famous Titanic Museum (or Titanic Experience as the locals like to call it) is an automatic stop on the tour. 3/4 of the way through the stops our group got off at the Cumlin Road Gaol (a now vacant prison) and we were able to get a tour and learn a lot about what it was like during the troubles and times when the jail was still operating as normal. It was  very interesting to see the Cumlin Road Gaol and it's operative functions of punishment as well as what they did with the people who were housed there.
         Following the tour we were able to break off into our various groups (with whoever we wanted) and explore on our own. My group was fortunate enough to have time to eat at the Titanic Museum and complete the Titanic experience as well. This was an eye opening experience seeing that there was a TON of information on display and as they say in Belfast, "she was alright when she left here." We then walked our way back to the main city area and stopped to take pictures and enjoy the scenery in the process. We broke off and hung out in hotel rooms for a little bit to catch a break and get ready to go check out the local pubs for a night. They are not kidding when they say that is literally what people do at night in Ireland, you can't escape it. No way, no how. After searching for a LONG time for a pub vacant enough to fit 6 of us we enjoyed some time exploring and wound up at the same place we were the previous evening. Eventually, we all got tired (as if we weren't already) and made our way back to hotel rooms for a whopping 4.5 hours of sleep, but hey, it's Ireland and it is in fact a once in a lifetime experience so we might as well take advantage!

Thanks,
Ashley