01 March 2015
woohoo! After talking about it for several days, we finally booked a trip to Northern Ireland to see the Giant's Causeway! And by we I mean Chris, Sascha and I. Our roommates didn't want to join.
We got up early, went to Paddywagon to get some free breakfast before heading out.
Our first stop brought us to the Dark Hedges--a spot easily recognized by devotees of the popular 'Game of Thrones' show. I don't watch Game of Thrones so initially I had no idea what I was looking at but it was mysterious and cool.
Our second stop was the famous Carrick-A-Rede bridge! We had to walk along cliffs for about 30 minutes or so to get there but we did!
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| walking to the bridge |
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| beautiful North Sea (with Scotland being the tiny landmass on the upper RHS of the photo) |
Do know that crossing the bridge is not included in the Paddywagon tour, we had to pay 7euros each to cross but it was worth it.
The bridge isn't was long as I was expecting it to be but it was still so much fun cross it!!!! A little intimidating at first, the weather wasn't exactly on our side. And it didn't put my mind at ease to know that the entire thing was made purely of rope and wood. The sea was about 30meters below us. Only a couple people are allowed on it at a time and no open jackets (for obvious reasons).
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| waiting in line to cross (nice weather!) |
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| the guys crossing |
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| me about to cross |
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| from the other side of the bridge! |
The way back from the hike was insane. When the Irish say they experience all four seasons in one day they're not kidding. It was sunny, then it rained, then it stopped, then it was gloomy, and then it hailed hard and snowed and then it was sunny again?
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| we experienced every weather condition in the span of 20 minutes... |
I don't understand it one bit but it made for quite an experience!
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| :D |
We hopped on the bus again to head further north to see the beautiful Giant's Causeway! :D
From the visitor's center (where we were dropped off) to the Causeway was only about a 20 minutes walk or so. Mountains on one side, the sea on the other. It was gorgeous... Giant's Causeway is as magnificent as it seems. Words will never do it justice so I'll just post photos instead.
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| before starting the 20 minutes walk |
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| photography 101: the sun should be at your back =/ |
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| on the walk! |
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| there is an option to pay a couple GBP for a bus to take you straight to the Causeway but you don't get to soak all of this in |
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| giant's causeway ft. attack of the sea foam |
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| my favorite |
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| very tall basalt columns!!! |
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| Sascha, about to battle the sea |
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| the closest I've been to Iceland.. |
here is a little clip of the Causeway
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| lovely panoramic view! |
We ended the day with a one hour stop in Belfast. Belfast is a weird city, I'll just come out and say it...There's a lot of history, the people are strange and seem standoffish, the accents are funny.. it feels more modern and more UK than Irish.We didn't do much in Belfast except look for the cheapest place to eat. We eventually found a McDonalds (my first in Europe!!!) and settled with that.
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| Belfast City Hall |
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| lovely Belfast graffiti |
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| view of the city |
Both the McDonald's and the shop in the visitor's center at the Giant's Causeway accept euros as payment so that's nice.
A very lovely day.
-SX
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