Trip 25

 May 25, 2023

 

In Dublin, washed up, packed up

Taxied to train station

Escalator and elevator not running.

Man, or was he an angel?

carried our suitcases up

an unreal number of steps.

 

Nice train ride up to Belfast.

Almost embarrassed myself

by not figuring out lock on bathroom door.

Lady who walked in on me

while I was washing my hands

pointed out the round button

marked “L.”

 

Met niece and her aunt-in-law.

Aunt took our suitcases

while we ate lunch at an open-air market

and rode the hop-on-hop off bus.

 

Hopped off at Titanic Museum,

a tall, silver angular building.

Very impressive and informative.

Realized there was a Shannon

(our maiden name)

on the didn’t-make-it list of the Titanic.

 

Snapped pictures of the murals

memorializing “the troubles.”

The bus driver’s mother had asked,

“Was that a bomb?”

To the affirmative she said, “Good,

I thought it was thunder.”

 

Aunt Ruth told us what it was like

growing up in Belfast

when bombing was just a way of life.

 

Started getting hungry around three.

At a restaurant, service was painfully slow.

Noise level was painfully loud.

 

I wondered if they went

all the way to Germany to get the schnitzel

or if I fainted right then and there

they’d bring the food.

Slept on the drive to niece

and her hubby’s home in Moygashel.