Back to the Iberian

It's 1:35 pm here in Belfast and my plane to Barcelona leaves at 4:20 and the airport entrance is lterally about 75 yards away from my hotel so I'm just trying to waste time. Tonight I went ahead and booked a hotel room in Barcelona because I didnt want to get stranded by missing the last train that would have taken me to Santiago de Compostela which leaves exactly 2 hours after my plane lands. With my luck when it comes to Spanish trains (and just about everything else, lately), there'd be no way I'd get on it, and I'm tired of being stuck in Spanish train stations overnight. So, tomorrow I'm going to try to get on a train to Santiago where I'll hang out for a few days before Greg arrives. I'm looking forward to it, and am thinking I might do a few kilometers of the Camino myself if my knee is feeling good, which it really has been this past week (plus I'll leave my bag in my hostel or hotel room, so I wont have that added weight). Let's just pray things go a little more smoothly this time around when it comes to traveling in Spain! I went ahead and looked and will just get on a damn bus from Barcelona if the train people try to screw with me again. Spain, for whatever reason, makes you pay outrageous surcharges even with the railpass on basically every train, so it'll probably cost the same for a bus, just take twice as long, though.
Anyway, here are some thoughts on Belfast...
Little did I know that when I arrived, I happened to be arriving on this holiday here in Northern Ireland which amounts to basically "Kill the Protestant!" or "Kill the Catholic!" Day. Yesterday, it was cold (big surprise), so I wore my only jacket I have which is my green Dartmouth football windbreaker. Here's some advice for anyone traveling to Belfast on the weekend of July 12... Don't wear a green jacket in the protestant area of town. I had little kids running up and kicking me in my shins as well as hooligans screaming "F' the pope" and "F' Ireland" everywhere I turned. Quickly, I took off my jacket and yelled back at them "Long live the Queen" and "God bless King William III" bc that seemd to be what they were doing and I don't want to die just yet (believe it or not).
As for the city... Belfast is Dublin except...
it's clean
it's not half as crowded
it doesn't smell and isn't covered in garbage
and
it is actually quite beautiful.
I love architecture and the Victorian architecture of Belfast is really quite extraordinary.
So, I walked around for4 about 2 hours taking some pictures and I think I saw all there is to see of this city. It's actually quite nice, but I felt like there was as much to see as a tourist would visiting Hanover, NH - one afternoon is plenty.
I'm sure Ireland and Northern Ireland would be extraordinary because the secenery is incredible, but it is the antithesis of an ideal place for a 22 year old backpacker on a budget with a rail pass. If I had loads of money to spend and was on a tour around the country or even just had a rental car, I could imagine Ireland being an ideal place to vacation.
But...I'm back to Spain. Tonight I'll be back in my favorite Spanish city so far - Barcelona.
When I got to Ireland, I realized that Spain was actually pretty awesome except for our insane travel nightmares due to Spanish train people screwing us over bc we spoke with American Spanish accents. So, just pray that this time I can avoid that and actually enjoy Galicia and Santiago de Compostela before heading down the coast into Portugal which is a backpacker's paradise bc everything is cheap, beautiful, and the weather is great - or at least so I hear.
Pray for me.
H