Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Ireland: Dunluce Castle and the Marti Way

After Giant's Causeway, we went to Dunluce Castle. Magnificent ruins. There was an old story about the kitchen falling into the sea, but I think we learned that wasn't exactly what went down. (No pun intended.)












The view from a window:




We ate dinner at The Cloth Ear in Belfast and had the most wonderful waiter in the history of the world. He was British and super nice. We asked for recommendations, and he detailed exactly why the meat pie was incredible. So all five of us ordered a meat pie (Rob, Anna, Lucy, Coco, and I). He said the kitchen would laugh when he put in the order, as his tables always order the meat pie because he talks it up. He said once he sang its praises to a table of six until they all ordered it. He went into the kitchen to put in the order, and there were only four left. He went back out to get two orders changed, and by the time he returned to the kitchen, all the meat pies were gone. Fortunately they had enough for all of us, and it was delightful.


We did a street-art-and-pub-music tour that night with a super eccentric guy named Marti. The group gathered in the courtyard right by our Airbnb. The tour got off to an awkward start when Marti tried to make everyone pose for a picture in this mirrored sculpture and no one wanted to. 


We saw a lot of street art. Marti didn't totally have a handle on artists' names and other facts as the DC Tours guide had, but his oddity made the evening quite amusing. He kept talking about doing things "the Marti way." That was his trademark. Anyway, there is lots of fun street art in Belfast. 





We paused for a second at Oh Yeah Music Centre, and I learned that I don't know a lot of the most famous Irish musicians.


As for pub music, Marti took us for a brief stop at one pub where a guy and girl played a bit of fun traditional music. Later we went to a really busy pub where I had a hard time not feeling as if I were in the way. Marti apparently intended to find us more live music, but some places happened not to have any that night. 

We went through the club pictured below, where mixed (Catholic/Protestant) couples used to go. The left side of the place is all booths with high walls for privacy. Also there's a tile on the floor just outside one of the doors that contains a picture of a crown. If you were a Catholic, you'd walk on the crown on your way in as a sign of disrespect. Protestants could use the other door and avoid stepping on the crown. Fascinating.


After the tour ended, we hung out in another pub for a while and listed to a really fun band play. There was a chatty American couple there and an odd, drunk Irish couple celebrating their anniversary with the girl's odd, drunk mom. So there was fun people watching.

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