EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALOctober 9, 1998
Hollyhead, Wales
Technically Perfect
We chew through our fried bread and head up the red road to the north
side of the Lleyn Peninsula where we follow the coastline until we find Bangor. There we
take the old, Menai Bridge across to the island of Anglesey and drive up to Beaumaris to
look at Edward I’s last and largest castle. It is the most technically perfect castle
in Great Britain. Its design is very symmetrical and well organized. The top floor is
invisible because the 13th C builders never completed it. The wind blows hard.
My ears are about to snap off.
There's a very small road that leads around to a tip of land and
the Red Warf Bay. At Pentraeth we catch the red road again and drive through the pouring
rain around the north coast of Anglesey to Hollyhead.
We’re on the Stena Link to Dublin and the wind is blowing. The
rain is big. Rich steps out of the car at the terminal and when he returns he is soggy,
like the result of a fire hose or a car wash. The ferry is empty. We have set up at a
table with our laptops, situating ourselves close to any amenities we might desire
during the three-hour journey. There is a Duty Free Shop, a cafeteria and a bar where
people are already stinking up with cigarettes.
After a three-hour drive from Dublin to Belfast we meet my childhood
friend Kristina and her partner Fergal Kelly, and Northern Irishman, at the Europa Hotel
in central Belfast. It is the most visible landmark in the city and for this reason
Fergal tells us it is the most-bombed hotel in the world, against such contenders
as The Holiday Inn, Sarajevo, and the Commodore, Beirut. When the Europa opened in
the late 1960s it was fancier than anything Belfast had previously seen, and with the
start of Northern Ireland's Troubles it quickly became a symbol of the destruction of
Britain's rule: In the 1970s the Europa was bombed no less than 29 times and with each
explosion the building was reconstructed by the British government. It is where
journalists from all over the world met to interview paramilitary spokespeople and
military personnel. The Europa remains open for business and shines with an elegant
lobby and a hospitable staff.
