Belfast

Rainy Ireland.
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We took the train from Perth to Stranraer switching trains in Glasgow. From Stranraer we took a ferry across the Irish Sea to Belfast. The harbour in Belfast is a ways out of town so we collected our luggae and hired a cab. We didn't really know where to go as none of us had been to Belfast so the cabbie took us on a breif but interesting tour of Belfast we saw the City Hall, where they built the H.M.S Titanic, and Queen's University all the while giving us histroy and facts about Belfast. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn on University Street. After a short walk around we had dinner at Spud's potato restaurant and later to bed.

Fitzroy Church.
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We woke up the next day to dark clouds and rain. The night before we passed a Protestant church and since it was Sunday we went in. After church it was raining even harder than before so we went to the Ulster Botanical Gardens. We walked in to a virtual rainforest to different tropical plants, it was really cool. After the gardens we went into the Ulster Museum, it had: everthing archaeology, archives, coins and medals, costume and textiles, decorative and applied art, fine art, industry, natural sciences, photography, science and technology, social history, toys and hobbies, weapons and war, world cultures, it was really a learned experience. We walked around getting soaked so went for dinner and to bed early.

Queens University.
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The next morning we hoped to wake up to sun but we woke up again to more rain. We had heard of a good mall a few blocks down from our hotel so we braved the rain and hoffed it down to the mall. We barely got into the mall and sirens stared to go off and we were rushed out of the building. As it turned out it was a bomb scare! Although we didn't see anything it was a little unerving. We hung out at the hotel that afternoon and good ole' KFC for dinner.

Our perceptions of Belfast have been a little tainted by the rain. As it tured out we were all a little frustrated with Belfast so we all decided to head south to Dublin hoping the weather would be a little better. We took the train to Dublin, when we arrived we found out the weather was the same, rain and cold and it would be for the next few days. We didn't really want to wait out the rain so we decided to head out to the airport. Next on our list was France so we decided to get a flight to Paris. It would be good to stay in a nice hotel in Paris......so we thought.