Strabane, Northern Ireland, UK
Today I had to get gram and myself up at the crack of dawn because our gall dang relatives are from a city 2.5 hours away from belfast!!! We sat down to a marvelous breakfast from our best host yet and she called us a cab (a little earlier than I thought she would) and I made gram run out on her breakfast :/
We got to the bus station with plenty of time and sat in the front row, gram’s knee is still bothering her but she did a lot of walking yesterday too on our travel day.. I can’t carry all the luggage myself so we’ve worked out a system where I put my little bag and her little bag in the wheelchair and she pushes it and then I pull the two ginormous bags and my purse. Anyway- the point of this story is that I fell asleep on the bus with my ipad open and apparently my ‘holding things while sleeping’ skills only apply to glasses of wine. It fell out of my lap and everyone on the bus heard it slam screen down onto the floor. I found it fitting as yesterday was schrödinger’s birthday… was my screen shattered or not?! So I flipped it over and the screen was fine but I did bust the corner up :( - photo one.
We made it the rest of the way to Strabane and the guy at the window was driving the next bus and he was so nice he just dropped us right off at the district council. I had been emailing a woman about the cemetery, Bernie.
She invited us into her office and showed us all of their records in this huge book, it’s just like how I’ve seen on the internet! She also chit chatted with grandma about things while I wrote everything down. Next we were going to head to the cemetery but we had to wait for the guy who knows the layout so we went into the city to get something to eat at a place called “Alley Theatre.” It was okay, nothing special.
The last three photos are from the cemetery. They bury their people here VERY differently from us!!! One plot in the Us, or at least Michigan, holds one person, whereas here one plot holds three people. And before they started regulating it.. Late 1900s? One plot could hold 6 people!!! Stacked on top of each other. It’s nuts. The third photo shows a double plot, in their books it only contained a Mrs. R. J. Blair but when we got there I dug out the moss and dirt and bugs with my bare hands to reveal the name. Her husband is there too! Which is what I figured. And maybe other people since it’s a double plot. Gram took some of the dirt home, what a weirdo! “Don’t you want some dirt from the old country?” she asks.
Another grave was covered by a holly bush and when I pulled back the branches I was greeted by a SLUG!
And another grave just got a new stone.. Living relatives! I asked her to pass my email address along to them but I don’t know if she will.
Their cemeteries are beautiful here.. The plots are surrounded by stone or iron or marble or wood and then filled in by grass or colored rocks or other things and then you can fill that space with anything you want.. vases, flowers, pictures, artifacts, etc.
We stayed at the cemetery a little late and gram was wanting to go back. We were going to try to make it to Derry/Londonderry to see the Walls of Derry. Derry is the only remaining city in Ireland that is completely walled in, representative of the early 1600s when they were built around most cities in Europe. They run between 12 and 35 feet wide and still have original (refurbished) cannon!!!
We just came back to Belfast after the cemetery though.. We would’ve had to wait almost an hour for a bus to Derry and then taken a 3.25 hour ride back to Belfast. On our way back the bus accommodated wheelchairs so I rolled gram right on and the driver came and buckled her chair in and then the bus wouldn’t start! It was funny. But all he had to do was shut the door and reopen it I guess. Then when we got to Belfast we couldn’t get her unbuckled! It said “in case of emergency push this button” and it didn’t give any slack on the seatbelt, so we decided if there was an emergency she’d be screwed.
We ate at a place called Benedict’s Hotel. It was okay but I got pasta and I really didn’t want it. What I did like was my dessert ;) this chocolate honeycomb stuff I’ve been seeing on menus. It was interesting but the honeycomb ice cream was AMAZING. I want some if that!!!
Also today I finally realized why I can’t find any sheep around, they’re all sheared (bad English, gram corrected me.. shorn!)! So they look weird.. Like baby goats or cows or something.
And last but not least I have been successfully pilfering biscuits from our B&B. She gives them to us in our room for tea but we don’t use them so I put them in my bag and she gives us new ones! I love a shortbread or ginger “biscuit.”
Big day tomorrow along the coast.
Ta!