we spent 2 days up in the north of ireland. that for me was the saddest part of the trip. i really can't understand why they're still fighting. we did a black cab tour and they brought us to the war torn areas and stuff and it was really sad. all over the place they have paintings on sides of houses of like snipers and gunmen and stuff. this is where children are growing up, they see this stuff everyday. it sickened me to see children playing right beside it, and then knowing that they are being brought up in this violence, it's disgusting. in some parts they even painted the curbs blue, white and red to show how much they love the british. when we went out that night we were told not to talk to anyone about religion and people would actually ask what your last name was or what your religion was and stuff like that. it was awful. the first night out, the bus driver got attacked by some locals cause they saw the bus (which is painted irish colours and has big leprechauns on it) and they threw stuff at him and the bus. it was really sad. here's some pics of belfast and derry (northern cities):
this is in derry, you san see the curbs are painted.
it you look really closely you can see 2 little girls playing right beside that painting.
this is a huge peace wall they have in Belfast, we all got to sign it.