~John Keats
Ok part two of my Belfast post! The second day we went on a bus tour to the Giant's Causeway along the north coast. We got the tour around 10am and it last until 6:30, quite a full day. The weather was absolutely beautiful, not a single drop of rain the entire time and it was even sunny when we got to the coast!
We made some other stops along the way, here's the evidence.
Some castle. I know I was good at the beginning remembering the names of specific old castles, but they're all starting to look the same. Plus, when you see at least one new castle every week, they blur together. Regardless, this one is pretty impressive, you could probably fit a few other castles inside.
This is an entrance to where an old castle used to be. I thought it was pretty, but there's not much more to it than that.
Of course there's a memorial plaque for passenger pigeons! I like that they singled out the one named "Paddy." Cute. Actually, just weird.
Cliff houses. This one was either a schoolhouse or a distillery. Add a church and that's your basic recipe for an Irish town! There was a slew of these houses built right into the side of a huge cliff face.
At a lookout point where you could see Scotland. At its closest, there's less than 20 miles I think between County Antrim in northern Ireland and Scotland. As a result, the accent in Northern Ireland resembles Scottish a bit more. They even have their own language, Scotch Irish which is probably less spoken than Irish. Also these flowers smell just like coconuts, how tropical!
The rope bridge in the distance.
The coastline walking out to the rope bridge.
Paige forging across the rope bridge! I know it sounds silly, but I didn't go across. I'm a little afraid of heights, and not too keen on the idea of a swinging rope bridge. I probably would have been fine, but I didn't want to get halfway across and freeze...then I'd start crying, the guy would have to walk out and get me haha. It would have been embarrassing, I was happy observing.
landslides!
Now I'm at Giant's Causeway! The rocks have a very unique pentagon shape, and form an almost step pattern around the coast. It's basically an adult jungle gym, perfect for climbing on without being too dangerous. The causeway was either made by volcanic rock formations thousands of years ago, or by the giant Finn McCool as a bridge to Scotland. It was smashed by another giant. Take your pick, our tour guide said the Finn McCool story had more proof. haha
Paige with some more causeway rocks in the background.
Me on the causeway! It was nice to breath some ocean air.
This shows you what the rocks look like beneath the visible surface, they're basically columns, and they're a lot bigger than Paige!
One way you see the ocean, and behind you are mountains!
Walking back from the causeway.
Quick stop at the Bushmill's distillery. Apparently its the oldest still operating distillery in Europe. It kind of smelled like a college party outside of the factory, I opted out of the tasting.
Me with another castle! I can tell you a fun story about this one. The castle was abandoned after a lavish party where the entire kitchen, including all of the cooks and servents, fell into the ocean. Terrifying.
This is a big jump from the causeway back to Belfast! On Saturday night we went to a concert, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The show was a part of the Cathedral Arts Festival, a two week arts celebration in Belfast. Paige had heard about these guys from one of her friends who is a jazz musician. They're eight brothers from Chicago who use nothing but brass and drums for their music. There's four trumpets, two trombones, tuba and baritone. We had a great time and got to try some locally brewed Belfast beer!
Believe it or not, more pictures to come!
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