Day 2- Hello Emerald Isle

Hey folks!

It's so green! After we landed in Dublin we took a 2 hour bus ride up to Northern Ireland (which is actually a separate country from the Republic of Ireland). The ride was beautiful. There were lots of mountains in the distance and the highway was surrounded by green pastures. Instead of fences, there are tall hedges and stone walls that act as barriers between fields. It is so beautiful. 

This picture does not do this view justice

I'm staying at a manor that my school owns and runs. Look at this beautiful view from my window:

This afternoon we had the opportunity to walk around Belfast for a few hours. It's a beautiful city. It was strange, for me at least, because although it seemed I'm in a different country, the city felt very American. I felt that I was perhaps in a borough in New York City that I had not explored before. And, some things were different, such as the cars. Every car is extremely small, a stick shift and the driver is on the right hand side. Here are some other things that are different: 

Food

I found an awesome little food store. As an organic baker I was interested to look at the food labels. There are several things different:

• Serving sizes are much smaller
• There's no need for things to be "organic". There are no additives, colors or hormones added to anything that I looked at. I could completely read every label and understand each ingredient. 
• There are no calorie/nutrition information. Only ingredients are listed. 
• Most foods are gluten free
• There aren't very many sanitary methods. All the food is just open. You don't need gloves to pick up bread or anything and it's not behind a glass.

Organic Cookies

Open bread 

Yogurt is spelled funny: "yoghurt"

Here are some beautiful pictures from downtown Belfast: 

Yankee Candle Store! WOAH!

"For Let" means "For Rent"

  

 

I'm EXHAUSTED and am now off to sleep.