Strabane: Where the Flame is

 From Giant's Causeway, we kept driving along the narrowest streets we'd ever traveled and wound up in Derry.  It was a cold town, full of images reminiscent of riots and political unrest that Northern Ireland went through.  So we got out of there.  Well, sort of.  We WANTED to get out of there, but throngs of people kept stopping us (like this adorable scooting family!)...

Turns out, they were all following the Olympic Torch!  Cool!  When we finally did leave, we stumbled upon the bed and breakfast I'd manifested ("I'd really like to stay in a B&B above a pub.  I hear it's awesome!") in a town called Strabane.  The place was atop a pub (the only one in town, from what we could see) and was adjacent to the courthouse.  This would have been fine, but the top of its fence was protected by barbed wire, insinuating that perhaps prisoners were just beyond our windows and within earshot of our conversations.  Charming.  

We watched the Queen's Jubilee celebrations (Elton John, Annie Lennox, you watched it, too, be honest), then had quite the surprise the next morning...

Crowds gathered outside the pub (including the bar owner's dad) 

...I snapped some images of what once was a glorious industrial town...

...and at 8:31, we were greeted with our own Olympic Torch viewing!  This aged (not "ancient" as the girls thought they heard me say) gentleman came running rather slowly down main street, catching the eye of all the ladies as he passed.  It was awesome!  I never really thought much of the flame until now, but I'm starting to realize just what a big deal this really is.    

This marked day one of Aleisha's debilitation: she'd submerged her contacts in eye makeup remover and they literally cut the epithelial layer of her cornea off.  She made it to day's end and then we had to make an emergency trip to the optometrist.  What an awful thing.  

Before we left what turned out to be a charming place, we were treated to a big breakfast with all the townsfolks gathered in drinking coffee and eating sausage sandwiches.  The Irish really are lovely folk.