14 March, 2009 (Sat) - Derry, Northern Ireland - Day 3

Again, I didn't have a good sleep last night due to several reasons. My dorm mates came in one after another, one arriving pretty late at night while the other lady was snoring so loudly and it's a little hot in the room with the windows shut. I finally gave up at 1.40am and climbed out of my bed to get my mp3 player. With the help of the earphone and music masking the loud snores, I managed to sleep for 3 hours before waking up at 4.45am as I needed to catch the 5.55am bus to London. (You can actually get a direct bus from Cambridge to the airport, but I only found out about this after I had purchased my ticket) I gathered my stuff and sneaked out of the room as quietly possible. Walking towards the bus stop, the streets were quite empty with only occasional car passing by. I reached the bus stop at 5.34am with one other guy who had just arrived seconds before me. Very soon, we were joined by a few more passengers. The bus was quite on-time and we reached London Victoria Coach Station at 7.50am and I proceed on to the Victoria BHP Rd stop 6 to board the bus to Luton airport.

I arrived at the Luton airport about 9.40am. My Ryanair check-in counter was empty so I gladly off-loaded my backpack and went to search for my brunch. I bought the meal deal from Marks & Spencer, where you get a sandwich, a pack of crisps and a bottle of water for just ￡2. Pretty good deal. After my meal, I went to the departure gate, went through the security checks and proceed to the boarding gate. I thought there won't be many people on this flight but I was wrong. The queue waiting to board the flight was actually pretty long.On board the aircraft, the family sited next to me, a father and son, provided me some 'entertainment' before we took off. The son is around 2yrs old and was a little cranky, so the father had to try ways and means to keep humoring him. Just as we are finally ready to take off, the dad told the son, 'come on son, tell the driver to hurry up'. The kid follow suit and said in his cute little voice, 'come on driver, hurry up'. He is just so cute.

After an hour and ten minutes, we arrived at Derry (Londonderry), Northern Ireland around 1+pm. At the airport information counter, I found out that there is no public bus going into the city until 5pm. Hence my best bet is to take a taxi to my hostel to avoid the long wait. The taxi fare is standard flat fee of ￡14 and my taxi driver is a nice Irishman and we had a little chat about Derry along the way. It is a little difficult to understand everything he said as he has quite a strong accent. Since it's my first visit to Derry, instead of sending me straight to my hostel, he showed me some o the popular sights around town. He also introduced me to an authentic Irish pub in town, although I don't think I'll do it tonight. I checked-in to the Paddy's Palace Derry hostel for 2 nights stay in a 4 bed mixed dorm. I was the first to arrive again, so I picked the bed next to the window. There are 2 double-deck beds in the room with a bathroom attached. However, there is no way to secure the bathroom door. Guess I won't be using this bathroom for shower ;p I sorted out my stuff and surfed on the net for a while. I managed to have a brief chat with my sis over MSN before I venture out to the town centre. First, I went to the bus station to find out how to get to Belfast from here. Apparently there's a bus every half an hour, the whole journey takes an hour and 40 mins and costs ￡10.

Derry / Londonderry, the Walled City. The city is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland and is one of the finest examples in the Europe of Walled cities. These famous walls which dated back to the early part of the 17th century have withstood several sieges, the most celebrated lasting 105 days. The walls encircles the old city, a circuit of one mile. The wall has several gates (7 in total) around allowing the outer world to enter the old city. Each gate has a specific name and each has their own little story illustrated on board. There are fine views from the top of the walls, you could see the city beneath the walls and also residential faraway. You can also see the Bogside area and its defiant murals. It was really windy and cold standing on top of the walls, I could feel my fingers and face freezing. There are still a number of canons exhibited on the walls. On the walls, there are black iron-grill gates after a certain distances; I think these gates will be locked at night.

After a circle around the walls, I went back down to the streets and walked alongside the River Foyle. Then I popped into Tesco to buy dinner (Chicken Tikki Masala rice), some apples, snicker bars and water before heading back to the hostel. After meal, I did some reading up and planning on my Europe trip. Shortly after, I was feeling sleepy due to the lack of sleep for the past 2 nights. I think I'll turn in early tonight and hopefully I can gain a good night's rest on this firm mattress here.