15th and 16th of May, 2017.
Belfast. I walked from the port to town just following my instincts because the signs just started to appear further more. Once in there, I started to look for a quite safe place where I could put my tent or simply lie down in my sleep bag. I finally decided for putting my sleep bag in a small corner, beside this beautiful old church (would I be safer there or it was because looked like a quite hide place?), called Sinclair Seamon’s Presbyterian, and try to sleep (take a rest) for a few hours before the sunrise.
I made some coffee and had my peanut butter and jam sandwich that I brought with me before start my journey. I was stupid enough to not bring any map or information with me about where to go to leave the town. So when I saw a hostel with some backpackers around it, I went inside to try to get a map or something. They were not that nice but I got a poor map of town that even allowed me pass through some sights. Nothing spectacular, I am sorry, but just a church (where I saw some other homeless like me, in their sleep bags on the stairs, although I do not know if they were also travelers or what). And now I feel very sorry because it looks like a beautiful place to visit. Please take some time once in there, OK?
In my way to the road which leads to Dublin, I actually ended up in a motorway. I could might had walked a little more but I decided try my chances over there. After a couple of minutes a police car stopped and again I thought I would be in trouble. You see, is forbidden to do the hitchhiking at motorways, basically in all the countries in Europe. But luckily, again, they were pretty nice and just put me inside their car with the promise to drop me in a better place to hitch. And they did! It was a gas station with a good traffic lights just ahead that made the cars “have” to stop for a while.
It was when I met Gary: my first lift by hitchhiking alone. Gary had a white van and when he talked to me I realized he was quite not perfectly in normal conditions but do not ask me why even then I decided take his lift. Just a few minutes later I would know for sure (after he admit) that he was drunk. He spent the night with his girlfriend, drinking a lot and had to come back home early in the morning so he was still drunk. And he even bought a small bottle of wine or something to keep drinking while he was driving. Apart of that, he was really nice and funny, he said some very encourages thoughts about my trip and even told me I would become a legend. He also had a big crush in Spain and kept repeating all the time: “Because Spain, Spain is beautiful!”. We pass through his home town (Coaisland) because he want to drive me into a better place in the way to Dublin. He even “borrowed” some gas in a gas station with the promise of coming back later and pay. Gary drop me in Aughnacloy and from there I kept my journey to Dublin.
You see, at that point my plan it was going south by the East cost of North Ireland, until hit Cork.
From there I got a small ride from two guys just until the next town, Emyvale. There, a nice woman called Audrene, from Lithuania, who spoke just a little of English, gave me a lift to another small town where she was going to meet her sun. I tried to remember or find the town on Maps but it was unsuccessful.
I bought some grosseries to have dinner and was walking in the motorway to Dublin, looking for a place to make my camping and wait until next morning, when someone stopped the car. It was a man from Angola and he was going to Dublin. I got in! He was also very nice and we even talked a little in Portuguese. In Dublin, he drop me in the bus station and we both thought it would be open the whole night, actually closed at eleven. Realizing that, in a couple of minutes I found the cheapest Hostel in town, luckily just a few minutes from the station (of course if I had decided that before, I could had enjoyed more time of resting in a appropriate place, but…), so I went over there. A really cool place, called Abrahams, a Star Backpackers, with breakfast included and, at least at that time, such a great receptionist guy. The best part it was the room was all just for myself: no one of the other five beds were occupied and I even had my own bathroom.
That night was an important moment in my travel because I had to make a big decision, that actually I did not know if it was really that huge or maybe it was my not yet experience as a traveler which was put such big pressure on me: I decided go back the whole way to North, and do not miss Derry. Doing that, I would have to completely change my plans and now going South by the West Coast. And I did it! Please do not laugh it sounds like nothing much for you. You were not there!