Ultra Ulster

Thursday -

After another late night chatting when Louise got in we decided to sleep in before heading to Belfast. We grabbed some tea and fruit and hit the road around noon with the goal of meeting up with Allison for lunch. Louise and Allison decided we couldn’t leave the country without having a proper Ulster Fry - aka heart attack on a plate. Allison planned to cook it up for us and had it ready when we arrived at her home. The meal consists of sausages (the size of a bratwurst), a fried egg, vegetable roll (think sausage patty, the “vegetable” is a bit of parsley or sage and onion in with the pork), fried soda bread, fried potato bread (which is mashed potatoes and flour made into a flat cake like thing), and bacon (their bacon is more like canadian bacon or a slice of ham). All of this is fried up in the grease from the meat and some butter and served on a plate with HP sauce on the side. HP is served with almost every meal, sort of the UKs answer to ketchup- it taste a bit like bbq or worcestershire sauce. OMG . . .we were soooo full after that. I wasn’t sure we could walk, but as this was our last day to sight see, we soldiered on!

The plan was to take us to the Ulster Folk Park, a park that has acquired several historical buildings from Northern Ireland and has them set up sort of like a town. You can walk through the businesses, homes and churches and get a feel for the ways folks lived in different eras. It was another sunny afternoon and we had a good time seeing all the antiques and buildings ranging from tiny dwellings without indoor plumbing to thatched homes to fancy shops.

After we had seen all there was to see, we headed back to Allison and Frank’s where we were joined by their daughter Natasha. Allison insisted on feeding us more before we left- we were still full from lunch but couldn’t resist her delicious lasagna. The meal was fun and we enjoyed laughing with our new friends over dinner.

At long last, we bade them farewell and Louise took us to the airport. It was hard to say good-bye since we don’t know when we will be able to see her again. Dear friends are a true gift, but it sure is hard living so far apart!!!

After a few more hugs, we had to catch our flight which went without a hitch. We were greeted on the other end by Linda who graciously offered to host us again, even tho it meant a late night at the airport and a ride back early the next morning. We are so grateful to have been hosted so kindly by so many friends old and new. It has made leaving for home bittersweet. We have a lot for which to be grateful!