Some of the best things happen by chance. My German friend Clarissa decided one evening she wanted to take a train to Bangor for the day, and sent a mass e-mail to our large group of international friends. She sent the e-mail on Friday proposing the trip on Saturday morning. It was so last minute that no one else went with her except for me and Arne.
We met around ten in the morning on Saturday, March the 7th and walked a block or two to the train station, and within another twenty minutes we were on our way. Return tickets only cost 4.50 which was really cheap! The trip took maybe half an hour.
We visited the tourist center upon our arrival and came up with a general plan. First we explored the harbor and walked out on one of the docks. We had traditional fish and chips for lunch, then explored the town a bit--it was quite small. There was a lovely museum of early Christianity in Ireland as well as the Vikings' exploits in the area which we found quite interesting. After that we had some coffee at a small shop called La Princesse. The owner, a Frenchman, was extremely kind to us. He found my "American accent" interesting, saying he had been to America before and loved it. We asked him how to get to this really old shopping area and he told us it was too far to walk, but suggested we try to visit Bangor Abbey.
By then it started to rain. We pulled our hoods on and opened our umbrellas, walked through a park, and got to the Abbey to find it was closed, but we walked through the graveyard in the back. The stones were all extremely thin and many of them were leaning dangerously like they would all over at any minute.
It was around four or five o'clock when we decided to head back home, tired but satisfied. We were happy we'd found something different to do that didn't cost too much. Soon we are going to look at the train maps and see where else we can go for some short weekend trips. =D
Have a look at my pictures from the trip here:
Bangor Album #1
Bangor Album #2
They should be viewable even if you do not have a Facebook account, but if it doesn't work, please let me know.
~Catherine
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