Derry

Today I did some of the attractions. The Tower museum is great. It's really lovely, like, everything looks new, and all the exhibits are interesting and written to be a bit entertaining. And you can walk through different sections and at the end there's a little video about what you just read about, but the video goes into more detail and it's a video so it's less work. I learned a lot about Derry. The museum takes you from the beginning with St. Columb establishing the parish on the hill and then all the way through to the Good Friday Peace agreement in 1998.
The other bit is about this ship of the Spanish Armada that sunk off the north coast of Ireland and they have the artifacts and things here in Derry. Seemed a bit random, but it was alright.
You can go to the top of the building and look out over the city. There's a guard kind of guy that sits up there for some reason. He asked me where I was from and when I said Seattle he started laughing and said something about sleepless. But then he kind of started reciting things to me: "So Seattle. You're from the state of Washington then aye? And your capital is Olympia." I was impressed. Then he started on about how capital cities are weird because they aren't the biggest of the best well known cities in a state. He knows more state capitals than I do. Used to know them all. Like 8 years ago. But whatever, he was a real nice, friendly guy.

I walked the wall. It's very cool. The entire thing is open to the public. It's not a very tall all, but it's thick and the west side is brilliant because it's at the very top of the hill, so when you're up there you can see all of the Bogside which is the "Free Derry" part--all the catholics.

St. Columb's cathedral is beautiful. You're supposed to pay 2 quid to go in and more if you want to take pictures, but when I walked in there was no one around to collect money, so I just went in. There was another video telling about the Seige of 1689 and the 13 lads who closed the gates and they actually have the original locks there in the church museum. Only one part was sectioned off which is grand. Even the tiny stairs up the organist's block wasn't roped off, so I went up there. It's so cool! 4 keyboards, pegs all over the place and the floor pedals are ridiculous. There were stacks of music everywhere and huge hym books and something by Elgar sitting there and the mirror to see the choir director across the way. It was awesome.

I walked across the brand new Peace Bridge over to the Protestant side of the River Foyle. It's weird over there. Like, deserted. And plain. And eerily quiet. I was going to try to find the street that has all the murals from the Troubles, but I didn't bring me map with me and it was dusk and I don't know. It's just a weird place.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a Free Derry walking tour and go to the Museum of Free Derry. Both are all about the Troubles. And the tours are actually done by men who were there--and a few of them were actually put in jail for treason for years. It's a really cool service.

I'm staying on here an extra night as well. The hostel is technically full because a massive group of French students are coming for one night. Really random. But yeah Maddie is working here and Kailey, the owner is super nice, so they're going to just throw a mattress on the floor in the staff bedroom and let me sleep there for free. It's fuckin awesome. I love it here.