Day 3- Castles and My First Embarressing Moment

Hey Folks!

As I mentioned the earlier, Northern Ireland is part of the UK. This means that the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is still their queen. When the Queen, or anyone else in the Royal Family come to Northern Ireland, they stay in the Hillsborough Castle. I went there today for the annual garden party. This is the *ONE* day during the entire year that people are allowed in the castle. And, today was that day!

Since there are no cameras allowed in the castle I don' t have any cool pictures. But, I can tell!

The walls were covered with paintings of people that I were told were important. The dining room was wonderful. As a Downtown Abbey fan I was very happy. The table sat 32. There were 3 different forks, an array of spoons and knives. I'd never be able to figure it out. Then, the glasses are made out of real crystal. 

There was a book that the royals sign each time they are there. The last time Royal members were there were in February. Additionally, foreign diplomats and leaders come here to meet with royals. There's a room with pictures of many of the foreign leaders that have been to Hillsborough, such as President George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton. 

The highlight of this though, was the garden party. Man, do this people know how to make gardens. The garden was several acres long. With beautiful gardens, big trees and long beautiful paths. Here are some pictures, although they don't do the garden any justice:

  

 

First Embarrassing Moment 

At the garden party there were a lot of food vendors. One of these vendors had a sign that said, "Sausage Burgers & Baps". I assumed that sausage burgers meant hamburgers (which got me thinking: why do we call hamburgers hamburgers if they do not contain ham?). But, as hard as I tried, I could not think of what a bap could be. So, I walked up to where they were preparing food and stared at their grill. All I saw were burgers. After everyone began looking at me funny, I finally asked, "Excuse me? What's a bap?" EVERYONE in the line (probably 7 people) began laughing very hard. The person serving the food goes, "You must be American" I said "Yes". He then expalined, "A bap is a biscuit." I go, "Hamburger and buscuits that's interesting." He then showed me a biscuit, it was a bun! So, all of that work only to find out that a bap was a bun. As I walked away, everyone continued to laugh. The American has arrived!