Once Upon A Time

Today we drove to Northern Ireland. We are staying at a hotel and golf resort (ha! like we golf) outside of Belfast in a town called Templepatrick. I thought the countryside would be a nice contrast to our time in Dublin's city centre.

There was no border crossing, which I had anticipated, but everything seems to change at the border. Clinton says he can't tell much difference, yet to me... I don't know, it just feels different. They are on different currencies - The Irish Republic is on Euros while The North is on Pounds. Nothing like changing out more money.

We went exploring and Clinton discovered the Belfast Castle in our GPS, (Thank you, Garmin!) so off we went! It was easy to find, and - get this - the park is open 24/7 and admission is FREE not only to the park but also for the castle. Hello, US, take a lesson here.

Speaking of lessons, the story of the castle is:

• some guy built it
• some guy who inherited it blew all his money on gambling, etc.
• that dude had to sell off all his holdings except castle and immediate land to pay off his debts
• some chick who was next in line married a rich guy who paid off the rest of it
• it got donated to the city

If you want to know more, here's the link. http://belfastcity.gov.uk/belfastcastle/

We ate dinner at the hotel. More good food. Kati's trainer, Doug, and his mom said the food here was awful. The only thing I really haven't cared for was the steak and kidney pie - and I was really going out on a limb to try local flair with that one. I still managed to eat half of it (mostly the steak and pastry, but still).

I'm a day behind here. We had to buy a power cord with a local outlet-dealy today. Our other hotel took US.