Hello from cloudy but fine Kenmare quite possibly the culinary capital of the world and in real time a few weeks further along than the places that we are writing about today. Yes we have been enjoying ourselves too much to sit on the computer and type away but all of that will change as I have started to turn over a new leaf today due to the fact that I cannot sleep. Oh well here goes.
Derry and Sligo are two towns or maybe cities it is hard to figure out sometimes, that lie in the North of this great Island. One is in Northern Ireland and one in Ireland, right that is teh geography lesson over. Both of them however are quiet and a little bit sleepy or that is what we thought anyway. Gees where am I going with this?
To be fair we did not really like Derry. Yes it had the murals on the walls from the Bogside Artists and there were a few things to see like the oldest complete city walls in Ireland but it just did not do it for us. The new peace bridge was nice but there was nothing on the other side of it to really do, it felt like a place that had a bit of a chip on it's shoulder with big brother Belfast looking over at it all the time much like Freo and the West Coast Eagles. Whatever it was it was not much chop and the food options were nearly zero. Gees we ate at an all you can eat Chinese place and a run of the mill manufactured gastro pub because we could not find anywhere else better. These were OK but come on people give us some better choices.
The one saving grace that it had was that we went on a great tour of the city with a local bloke called Garvin (please do not quote me on this). He told of the changes that were sweeping over the city and how he and the rest of the city are very grateful for any visitors that come along. They are very proud of the new peace bridge and that things are getting better in the city. Big plans are in store for the city so maybe in a few years time it may well be worth another look.
Issues still are about the city though as on one of our walks through the city we stopped and talked to a tradie who was doing some work on a Sunday with a couple of others. Tara asked why were they all working on a Sunday and that it was a bit rough having to do so. He agreed but said that they had a time limit for the job as it was a bank. Yep a few weeks before this place had been blown up, something of a warning by those that give warnings. No one was hurt he said but I guess that is something that we in Perth just do not have to deal with. Gees it is a big thing when there is a Police chase for goodness sakes!
The other great thing about the city is that it has the oldest intact city walls in Ireland which to be fair were very lovely and a great way to see the city. Oh and I think we did OK in the B and B stakes too as we had a lovely room to stay in and watch Cadel Evans smash those Schlecks to pieces on the final time trial, now that was awesome!
So Derry was interesting to say the least. It looked a little run down and dirty but the Bogside was a bit surreal as the people were living right on top of the murals. It seemed a bit more real to me than Belfast did as the neighbourhood was all there and totally visible when looking at the walls. Don't ask me why I feel this but I just do. The one thing they do need to do to make some tourists happy though is get their hands on some more places to eat but please keep the music because what we heard there was simply awesome.
Sligo on the other hand caught our imagination a little more. It was not that there was a great deal of difference between the two cities other than Sligo was further south and was maybe a little prettier but there were a few things that got us thinking that this city was pretty cool. We will name them below..
1) Michael Quirk: The once butcher turned wood carver still works out of his old shop on the main street but instead of crafting meat he now crafts wood. Yep this bloke is amazing and has forearms that resemble tree trunks all veined and gnarled but is simply the friendliest bloke we could have come across. The man will stop and talk to anyone and spend not just a few minutes but 10 or 20 minutes just chatting about his passion. So what does he carve? Well he carves Irish mythological figures that are simply stunning. He will pick one up and tell you the story of it and then pick up another and go again. Hopefully if we get the go ahead from Australian Customs you all will be able to see just how amazing his talent is but for the meantime you can all come and see the little Malamute carving that he did for us, really cute.
2) Cafe du Paris: This was our afternoon tea place then breakfast place and it too was an absolute diamond. We had been in Paris a few weeks ago so when we saw in the display cabinet that there were Almond Croissants then there was only one thing to do and that was jump on in and try them. It was a good decision as they were amazing and the bloke that runs the store does them all himself. Yep they would put many patisseries in France to shame and needless to say were about a million times better than anything that can be bought in BOOM TOWN. The owner was also full of stories telling of his disapproval of the people who run the town saying that they were backward thinkers and telling us pretty much to get out of town as there was nothing good in it. Well we knew that was a fib because his cafe was there and that was more than enough to keep us there. He said that the town/city was going through a really rough time which I guess is pretty much the same throughout all of Ireland and he hoped that he could ride out the tough times. We hope so too because if we are ever in the neighbourhood then we are coming back for a croissant and a coffee.
It was not all good there though. We did go to a very dodgey pub just around the corner from us and I do not think that I will ever remove the memory of 3 flies buzzing around the hostel room when we opened the door. You might think that is a little petty but let us tell you they are pretty tough to get rid of when the room only has skylights and no windows!!
We did a great walking tour of the city there with a young teacher called "Art" and ate some fabulous food there also at an award winning pub just across the road from the dodgey one.
All in all these two places were pretty good even though Derry gave us nothing on the first day. That was pretty much the only day of our whole trip that we felt ripped off so I guess we should not really moan.
We give Derry and Sligo 3 cities out of 5.
