Day 17: A day trip to Derry then back to Belfast

Today, we woke up early about 8:30 to catch the train to Derry from Coleraine, a return ticket after 9:30 is £8.40, which is reasonable. We left for Derry at 10:00. According to Michael Palin, a known famous traveler, the train trip from Coleraine to Derry is one of his top ten favorite train rides. The train ride was very scenic with coast on one side and green meadow on the other. If I too the train ride on the summer, I would probably see that. On the coast side, most of the water was out and you just see silt for miles. Apparently, the journey on the train takes longer than the journey in a car. The railway in New. Ireland is not that great. It also have speed limits along the way.

We arrived at the station on the seaside of the city. We took a free bus across the waters to the cityside of Derry. At first we decide to just walk around the wall of Derry, but then we didn't really know a thing about Derry at all so we just headed to the TI to see if there were any tours to do. It took awhile to get there, a walk through two shopping centers. The TI was somewhat out of the way from all of the touristy things. At the TI, we found a walking tour around the walls and city for £4 that starts at noon. We had about 25 minutes before the tour starts so we walked down to the peace bridge, erected in 2011 to unite the two sides together. We didn't cross it since we were pressed for time.

We met the walking tour guide at the TI. At first we thought that we would be only two doing the walking tour, but as he brought us up the hill to the wall there were people waiting at the sign. There were more than 10 of us with me being the only Canadian again. There was a couple from the US and the rest were from the UK. The tour starts with a little history of why the wall was erected to when the Troubles begun. We just walked around the wall, but the guide pointed out the famous murals below the walls. There's a lot of history in Derry. The guide showed us the oldest department store in the world and a war memorial. Once we were back at the starting point, we were done. There was a cafe on the corner that offered free tea or coffee to those who were in the tour. We were a bit hungry then so we went to the cafe for lunch. I had the tuna melt.

After lunch, we walked around a shopping Centre and then back to the bus station to see what time the bus back to the train station will be at. We had about 30 minutes, and my friend wanted to show me the university campus of where she did her Masters. We didn't have time to walk there but my friend did buy Diary Milk Chocolate for me to try. I know we have them in Canada, but I have to agree with my friend that the Irish Diary Milk chocolates taste better than the ones in Canada. So we caught our bus and then the train on the way back to Coleraine. This was at 15:00. My friend had to be back in Belfast to her sign language class at 16:00. It takes about an hour to get from Coleraine to Belfast. Once we were back in Coleraine, we cleaned the apartment and made our way to Belfast. We were making good time until we hit rush hour in Belfast. It darted to rain on the way to Belfast and didn't stop until late at night.

We made it home at about 17:30. My friend rushed to her class and I had dinner with her parents. Then after dinner, I just went online and caught up with the blog and see if there were tickets available for the titanic museum for tomorrow. There seem to be lots available so I didn't bother with the 5% discount when purchasing ticket online. I would just buy my ticket when I get there. Also, during this time, I was doing my washing and making myself at home. Eventualky, my friend came home and we just watch some tv before going to bed.

Tomorrow's agenda: Touring Belfast