I arrived in the Resort near Limavady on the day before the wedding with all the other lovely people from Edinburgh. Two nights I sneaked into the fancy resort my lovely friends were staying at for the wedding, got myself some comfy showers and spa usage, casually joined for the breakfast buffet and crashed on the floor in one of the rooms. This was a nice break from car life especially in this rainy, cold weather, though I obviously spend quite some money on the bar and for dinners. The Wedding was beautiful, the couple overjoyed, and the company amazing. Though, I don’t believe in the idea of marriage and that whole concept of proving your love, I could be happy for the bridal party loving everything.
The day after the ceremony many of us were enjoying time at the resorts bar together celebrating the newlyweds and our reunion as I got a taste of the conflict in this region. Since the whole Brexit conundrum there has apparently been louder voices again calling for Union with Ireland or the UK and opened up old wounds and ideologies. Belfast seems to be a centre of diversion and aggression in this topic so that I did not actually feel save talking about this openly in the city centre. The night in the Resort started with an unpolitical dispute of a guest making an Irish member of our group uncomfortable and pushing to join in the celebration, and ended with that woman getting so scared that she and her husband took off immediately not to leave any memorable facts about themselves to the aggressors out of fear for potential violence back in the city. Threats had been getting ideological and the reactions of my local friends made clear that there was a real threat arising. It triggered in me am interest in the history as well as disbelieve about the effects on the life of local people. And most of all frustration with the Management of the resort not taking any measures about the aggression.
In Belfast I felt a certain amount of discomfort and was not too mad when I didn’t end up spending the night as planned. I had booked a ferry to get across to Scottland the next day and when I realised my mistake of booking the wrong route, I went to the ferry harbour to try to change my ticket. They offered me to get on the boat right away and since I was already there and had spent the day strolling around Belfast, picking up a much needed woolly hat and adapter for my charger, I accepted and left Northern Ireland behind.
Quite late I arrived in Cairnryan and was lucky to find a beautiful parking for the night by the beach of Girvan. It was a calm big enough parking lot with a breakfast roll stand in the morning and public toilets open during the day. I had a good sleep, had a lovely breakfast watching the sea and drove across the country to Edinburgh to spend some days in my old home. There I stayed with my dear friends Jen and Andy, went to meet some old friends, and visited a few of my favourite places of the city like the Stockbridge market, Whilstlebinkies and Carlton Hill and of courses TRB as well as Bunker reminiscing wild, long nights of 2018 with the people that hold a special place in my heart.
I had a decision to make, should I add another 9 hours drive to the north of Germany to visit my grandma before I would bring back the car and take off into the far, far unknown of Asia with no planes to return to Europe? I was tired of driving around, I love my times in Edinburgh but I had not visited my grandma in a while and had no idea if or when I would get another chance. So, I collected my motivation to see this beloved person and took the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam with around a week to spare until my Flight to Nepal. Since covid hit I had not been able to go back and now I felt like I did not have enough time, but it refreshed my heart with lots of love.
