A few days ago, I went walking on the city wall of Londonderry with my host mom, Bernie.  The city wall goes in a circle and its only about 1.25 miles long.  You can walk it, like the wall of china.  Along the city wall are various churches, cathedrals, and shops, cafes, and pubs, along with a few shopping centers.  The wall is like the center of town.  It is very popular.  Bernie and I stopped for a cup of tea in Blooms cafe and then walked the length of the wall.  Many of the cannons still on the wall are original.  We stopped in St. Columb's Cathedral, which was built in 1628.  It was really exciting! There was an American flag in St. Columb's and it only had 48 stars on it.  It was from the 1940's when there was an American Naval base here in Londonderry.  Many of the American navy men took Irish women home with them.  The tour guide told me that his cousin was taken to America with a navy guy and he wasn't too happy about that. A short distance from the wall, is "Free Derry", where most of the violence of the troubles happened, including bloody sunday.  This is the most run down part of Londonderry.  Many people here who don't like the british, call Londonderry Derry and they get very offended if you call it otherwise.  There are many violent murals painted on apartment buildings in Free Derry, which I have included here.  Along the wall is a cafe called cafe nervosa, from the famous american sitcom called Frasier.  Isn't that funny? Also, the huge orange/brown building is the guild hall.  This is the center of town.  The Guild hall is probably the biggest building downtown and the most beautiful.  It was designed after a larger cathedral in London. Outside of one of the Churches of Ireland along the wall there was a small church where my host mom's daughter was recently married.  Outside of St. Columbs, you will see many flat grave stones on the ground.  These were built because during the old war, there were many enemies trying to disturb the graves and break them, so to preserve the bodies, the stones were placed flat on the grounds.  Also, during the old war, St. Columbs used to have two huge cannons on top of it that would shoot across the River Foyle that divides Derry. Fascinating stuff!