It was a dark and stormy Halloween night...

It was a dark and stormy Halloween night in Derry-Londonderry with the Glaeser family.

Okay... so it wasn't that dark or that stormy... but it still rained a small amount about every 30 minutes when the Irish sun had to take a break from shining. Maybe it's too cold and it has to recharge more often? Yeah, I think that's how science works.

Anyway, the lovely Glaeser family came to visit me this past week! And considering that I haven't been able to Skype ANY of my family members since I have been here, it was nice to see some familiar faces. They arrived on Monday and stayed in Portrush as I recommended, since it is beautiful there on the coast. Monday night truly was dark and stormy, however, and after meeting in the Quay's Pub one house down from their B&B, we took refuge in the nice 55 Degrees North restaurant for dinner. I had a fantastic pork chop with red cabbage and mustard mashed potatoes (I think Aunt Sheila has a photo somewhere). I was bummed that they didn't get to see the fantastic view of the water from the restaurant windows, but since it was night time there was nothing visible. Still, we had a brilliant wee dinner and conversation catching up from the previous months and making plans for the next few days.

On Tuesday, I gladly skipped my classes and met up with the Glaesers in Coleraine to grab a bite to eat and show them around the neat little town diamond (city center). Uncle Arne, Gigi and I snuck through the Town Hall, saw some old tomb stones in front of St. Patrick's church, and bought pastries in a local bakery.

We then caught the 12:40 train to Derry-Londonderry and saw some gorgeous rainbows and green grass.

When we got to Derry, we HIKED up a San Francisco-like hill to get the the Tower Hotel where we were staying. We checked in our room and rested for a bit, but then set out in the town to see Halloween at it's finest. Derry is a very old walled city in Northern Ireland. Apparently they had some kind of famous "Siege of Derry" back in the 1600's or so, and these 13 apprentice boys shut the gates and 15,000 people were stuck inside the walls battling the king's army for 150 days. They ate rats and crazy stuff, but in the end they beat the king! So anyway, these walls around the city are obviously old, but they keep them up really well and it was a handy way of getting around the city by hopping on the wall occasionally. We ate lunch/dinner (linner?) at Austin's Department Store (the oldest in the world, apparently!) and had a great view of the city from the third floor.

We continued our shopping in Primark (Aunt Sheila got VERY excited). But I must admit it is a wonderful place. It's basically a European Target. We came very close to all buying onesie animal costumes, and I think we would have if we had found a giraffe for Arne... At 6 o'clock, it was already dark outside, but we made our way across the pedestrian Peace Bridge (built to symbolize the peace fought for through the Troubles, Bloody Sunday, etc.) to INFERNO. The hands down coolest thing I have been to in a while! There was a Halloween DJ playing Gatsby style music that we did the Charleston to while waiting in line to keep warm. Then they lifted this acrobat guy up who was hanging in the air by long scarves? I don't know what else to call them, but he was very good at it. (See first picture of blog...)

When we got into the actual thing, we first walked down this path all lit up with Arabian Nights lights, and on the way along, passed a girl dancing, a guy on stilts twirling fire, several crazy people in fairy-like fancy dress (or costumes as we would say), two girls in huge inflatable pyramids, a crazy old man on a wooden horse, a hoop dancer, some Luna Lovegood fairy girls, an optical fire illusion, and a whole bunch of cool stuff just set on fire.

After Inferno, Uncle Arne and I completed a lap around the city wall and saw some Halloween art displays before calling it quits for the night. There weren't as many people out as I expected there to be, but as our time went on in the city, it seemed like they just kept multiplying!

On Wednesday, we got up and ate our full Ulster Fry breakfast, complete with baked beans and white and black pudding. WARNING: DO NOT BE FOOLED. BLACK AND WHITE PUDDING IS ACTUALLY MEAT. It took us a while to figure out what it was... and it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, either.

See that piece of charcoal? That is black pudding.

We continued our rainy day with buying double decker Derry bus tour tickets. However, the people working in the tourist information center didn't know a thing about tourism in Derry, so the tour tickets we bought were supposedly for 12:00 or something, but the bus driver told us he wasn't leaving again until 14:00... so we had some time to kill, and what better way to do it than with tea time!

Primrose Tea Room with Strawberry and White Chocolate Scones

When we finally got on the bus, we drove around the skinny streets in a double decker bus with a very talented driver who narrowly missed a multitude of street signs and car mirrors. 

We learned about several statues in Derry and their meanings, years the churches were built, saw the Bogside Murals to remember Bloody Sunday and simultaneously cover up IRA graffiti, and most importantly kept high and dry out of the pouring rain!

After our bus ride, we ventured back to the Free Derry side of town to look at the murals up close. We also went into the Free Derry Museum and learned more about Bloody Sunday and all of its tragedy. You should really go back and read the lyrics to U2's Bloody Sunday song...

After our depressing, yet enlightening afternoon at the museum, we had a fancy, 3 course dinner at the Tower Hotel. Apparently it was a package deal with booking a room there, but man was it good! I had phenomenal potato soup for a starter, a puff pastry with Mediterranean vegetables and goat cheese for the main course, and cheesecake for desert. YUUMMM. Gigi impressed us by eating all of her fish and then downing an entire ice cream sundae. We were all rolling out the door after that meal.

At this point, I still didn't know what I was going to be for Halloween, but the waitress suggested a mime because it is fairly easy to do if you have a striped shirt. Luckily for me, I do! So that evening, Uncle Arne and I went on a frantic search for white face paint in the Halloween/cosmetic stores in Derry. We were unsuccessful... but we got some good exercise out of it when we took the wall back to the hotel.

The next morning, I took the train back to Coleraine and they got on a bus to Dublin. It was sad to leave them, but I was glad to smile because it happened, and not cry because it was over.

SOOOOO....
ON TO HALLOWEEN!

I was a mime. I made my own version of white face paint with cold cream, baby powder and hairspray, then used mascara to paint my black mime lines. I also invested in a red bowtie and white gloves. I think it worked out pretty well! On the train ride back to Derry (Yes, I left Derry on Thursday morning and returned at 5 o'clock that evening), Jenny and Kristin (my two American flat mates) and I used large children's book pages, a belt, and duct tape to create Jenny's book fairy costume. We had some strange looks, but it was definitely a unique experience to play with books and tape on the train! Kristin was a vampire, and we found her some fangs at Tesco (the local grocery store) just before we left Coleraine.

Once in Derry, things started to get a little crazy. The only other time I've been in a city packed with so many people was probably for Barack Obama's first inauguration. They said about 50,000 people came to the tiny walled city. I'm sure there were more people than that in D.C. in 2008, but man was this Halloween party crowded! I took my friends back to Inferno and they liked it too. Mostly we just wound up wandering the city and admiring other people's costumes until 19:00 when the parade started and 20:00 when they had a HUGE fireworks show! I'm not sure it was the biggest I've ever seen, but it lasted for a good 15 minutes, and fireworks are always magical. :)

Of course the real fun started when we met up with all of the other international students and crammed our way into a local pub. Wherever we go, we always wind up taking over the entire bar, and we came pretty close to doing that in Derry, too. It was a good night of costumes, dancing, and feeling the vibes from the lost souls on All Hallows' Eve!