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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Guardian readers and Alfie Packham

‘That’s when the shark fins appeared’: your horrifying holidays – from natural disasters to missile threats

A man and woman sit on rocks looking out to sea
Holidays from hell … Damien Molony as Dan and Jessica Raine as Zoe in Two Weeks in August. Photograph: Various Artists Ltd/BBC/Darrin Zammit Lupi

‘I didn’t think too much about the quiet, empty place’

In early 1969, my parents booked a holiday in Belfast for one week and a bed and breakfast in Dublin for one week. When we arrived at our Belfast destination, The Elsinore Hotel, there wasn’t another car in the parking lot and the hotel was empty except for the aged husband and wife owners. Being 12 years old, I didn’t think too much at the time about the quiet, empty place but the owners invited the whole family down to the dining room every evening and we enjoyed some great meals. Lots of pictures of JFK and the pope adorned many of the hotel walls and being a Catholic family ourselves, the hosts made a big fuss of us.

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