Day 2

Today we had no shift at Corrymeela, so that's why we decided to drive to Belfast. We took the coastal route, along the northern coast of Northern Ireland towards Belfast. It was a beautiful day, so we stopped a few times during our journey. In Belfast, we first discovered the city and walked through the city centre and visited an inside market. Afterwards, we also visited the City Hall, which was built in 1800. At the Tourist Information we asked whether we could have a tour through the city to learn something about the history of the city. In the past, there was a huge conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants in the country. A lot of both groups where slaughtered and the population dropped with huge amounts. There were a lot of political murals in Belfast which had often to do with this conflict. Also, there is a great wall which seperates the Catholics from the Protestants. During the day, the gates are open and you can visit both sides of the wall. But, even though the conflict is not very alive anymore, the gates between the two sides still close every night. The conflict between those groups is the basis of the philosophy of Corrymeela. Their theme is peace&reconciliation; mainly between those groups. This is why we went on this tour, to find out more about the ideas and reasons of Corrymeela. When we finished this guided tour, we quickly ate something in a restaurant, after which we went to a ''ten by nine''. This is a storytelling night, in a local pub where nine people tell a short story of max 10 minutes. It is organised by the director of Corrymeela and it was very special, even though some of the speakers were very hard to understand because of their Irish accent and quick speaking. The theme of this evening was 'doctors and nurses', as an ending of the Northern Ireland Science Festival, which took place in the past week. Some stories were very serious or sad, but there were as well some stories which were very funny and told by an amazing speaker. When this ended, we drove back to Ballycastle. Stephanie needed a lift, back to Corrymeela. Stephanie was a volunteer as well, she was a Dutch girl of 26 years old. In the car she told us her story about how she ended up at Corrymeela and what she liked and disliked about it; it was very interesting to hear.