The Beleek Pottery Mill, Northern Ireland

1pm Sunday: Baleek (porcelain factory and tea room). Bus @ B&B 12:30pm

Belleek Pottery

In most of Ireland, the city centre is called a Square, but in Donegal County it’s called a diamond.

At the pottery factory, I got a Celtic knotwork vase, inspired by the Book of Kells. Afterwards, the bus ride was a sort of guided tour by a little kid named Jeff, John’s son (the guy who owns and built the B&B), and he did a good job for a little kid. Caroline, Liz and I got dropped off downtown (the diamond pretty much) and we shopped at a dollar store and a supermarket. Among other things, I bought two boxes of Bentley’s loose tea.

Back in Ballyshannon, we wandered into Dicey O’Reilley’s, where the hurling was going on a wide flat TV screen. That is, it’s a sport with sticks, not people throwing up. I had coke and sesame sticks, but soon I came to the conclusion that everyone was more interested in the game than in conversation, and I soon got tired of the game. The sesame sticks weren’t enough, and after wandering down the street, I came to the fast food place Abracadabra and had a pita sandwich and crisps covered in curry sauce; not bad for fast food, although it’s the only time I’ve had iceberg lettuce in this part of the world—in both England and Ireland they generally use stuff like romaine lettuce the way Americans use iceberg lettuce.

According to Matthew, the bus driver, Ireland has fox, badgers, weasels, no wild cats and not many deer.