What's the craic?

Well here’s a story for you...

So I decided to go along with 6 of the people from my group on a tour that would take them up to Belfast and on to Londonderry/Derry. The tour group was called Paddywagon Tours. We left Friday morning. I looked at this bus (a 16 seater) and said to Kelly "I'm not sure it's the wisest idea to be going to the north on a green bus painted with leprechauns and sheep that says Paddywagon." Little did I know I had forecast the future.

Our tour guide had grown up in Belfast and was explaining that it had gotten better. The same thing I had been telling these people since the beginning. Our professors had been telling them how awful Belfast was and I kept saying, no I was there during the 12 of July festivals when tensions are really high and it was fine....

So we get into Belfast, take a black taxi tour; hit the Botanic for food and drink and head back to the hostel on Lisburn road. We were less than 2 blocks from Queens University. This is a predominantly neutral area. No problems so far. We hit the hay for the night. Our door is opened at 2 am and the hostel manager comes in and says "hey guys you're leave at 830 instead of 1030 because we had to call in a new bus for you. Your bus has been burned" and walks away. I started laughing and everyone else was really concerned and confused. The tour guide comes in then and says yah they petrol bombed the bus its toast, so we're joining another tour to get to Derry. Come take pics if you want. So here they are:












































Don't worry everyone is fine and no one's stuff is on there. But there you have it. According to our tour guide it was shoddy work. They used a plastic bottle to make the petrol bomb and also didn't even manage to blow the gas tank. It was pretty much just vandalizing something that represented something that upset someone. Here's the BBC article if you want to read that: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7236558.stm
Though, we have no idea who Petra is, the person they interviewed. We were gone by then and she was never on our tour.

Oh, I called Gerard. He was working nights so he was up. I told him about it and he just laughed and said, "welcome back to Belfast Nance” Fair point.