Giant's Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

The giants causeway was one of the sites I was looking forward to the most when I was researching Ireland. It looked so fasinating and it really was! The only downside was that it's a huge tourist attraction and the rocks were littered with people. It was hard to get a decent picture but it was still really neat to see, not to mention the weather was gorgeous! Kelley, and I found a nice spot away from everyone where we sat and watched the ocean. The sqeals of tourists were drowned out by the ocean waves which was great. I sat down on a couple of the rocks and was suprised with how comfertable they are! It was like sitting in your own sofa chair!

Now THIS was an incredible experience. Just up the road from our hostel was Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.Carrick-a-rede means 'rock in the road' and was built by fisherman to get from one rock to the other.We paid 5pounds to cross the bridge which was definatly worth it. The rope bridge rocked and bounced as you crossed it and it was pretty scary to look down. The water below was almost a light teal color and very magestic! On the other side was just a huge flat rock covered with the softest and bounciest grass i've ever felt! We walked up to the edge of the rock and had a nice relaxing and brief nap in the sun.

Ballintoy

I was actually excited that we weren't staying in Belfast when we arrived at our hostel in Ballintoy. Ballintoy is on the North Antrim coast and about as north as you can get! You can actually see part of Scotland if the weather is clear. Our hostel looked right out to green fields scattered with sheep and the beach...I was ready to spend 2 nights there! We arrived at our hostel on Friday just in time for dinner which was provided for us. We had noodles with red sauce, bread, french fries (chips), and cheesecake! The owner of the hostel was more than gracious and kept offering us more and more food. After dinner we set out to one of the two pubs in the town but were easily distracted by the immaculate sunset that was right in front of our eyes!! I have never in my life seen anything like this sunset. The way the sun hit the ocean and the green fields is indescribable. The sky was purple, orange, and pink and it contrasted so well with the bright green fields. I tried to take lots of pictures but they barely do justice to the beauty of the sunset! It was so peaceful to just sit and watch the sun go down and listen to the baaaaah's of the sheep!

The next night the sky wasn't as clear but the sunset was still beautiful. Instead of staying up by our hostel we took a 30 (or so) minute walk down to the beach. The walk itself was satisfying. You winde around a small road in a residential area that takes you right down to a dock with just a few small boats and a sitting area. A few girls and I walked around the beach and watched the sunset on top of some large rocks.

The pub in town was quaint and crowded when the group of 25 of us arrived. We all drank Magners which is a cider drink and really refreshing! My favorite flavor is pear and I'm hoping I can find some when I get home to the states because it's a great hot weather drink! We also had an amazing dinner the second night. A group of us went to the second pub (directly across from the only other pub in the town) which had a large selection of courses that came with side dishes. I had beef and guiness with cheesey mash AND king pranws. Some friends had sizzling chicken, sweet chilli pasta, cod with garlic mashed potatoes, and salmon fillets. It was a very reasonable price for what was included which is always good!

Belfast and Derry

We started our journey to the north with a brief stop in Belfast.The original plan was to stay a night in Belfast but all American citzens were advised to seek lodging else where due to the recent riots and violence. I was wearing my green Ireland sweatshirt and was advised to wear something that doesn't resemble the Republic of Ireland or anything related to Ireland. While we were in Belfast the protestants were getting ready for the 12th of July which is their day to celebrate King Billy's defeat over King James I. There were stacks of wood that reached close to 40 feet that the protestants light all around the town and they party all day and all night until the fire goes out. It's a very hostile environment and most of the Catholics end up taking a vacation to the Republic of Ireland during the parade because the festivities are difficult to be around.

Murals in the protestant side of town.

On our tour in Belfast we visited the Peace Wall which is a high cement wall with barbed wire at the top that divides the city in half. It keeps the protestants on one side and the catholics on the other. In my opinion peace cannot be reached by erecting a wall and I think it just adds to the hostility. People are able to write notes on the wall and most of them were wishing for peace and the destruction of the wall.

Colleen loves peace!

The "Peace Wall"
In Derry it was the same scene. There was a side of the town called the "bogside" where the Catholics were allowed to live. Just two weeks ago a "peace brige" was opened across the river that allows protestants and catholics to freely walk from one side of the town to the other. Both cities were hard to visit. You could feel the hostility and there was threatening graphitti on both sides. It's depressing to know that there is still descrimination in this world and that as long as there are Catholics and protestants living in the same area the violence probably won't end any time soon.

The Peace Bridge

The Protestants renamed Derry "Londonderry" and the sign reads "West Bank Loyalists Still Under Siege NO SURRENDER"

Galway Girls

Kelley and I loved Galway so much we decided to book a hostel, grab a bus tick and go again for the weekend! The bus ticket only cost us about 13euro and the hostel was 25euro a night!The weather was incredible (sunny and warm, which doesn't happen often) and our daily adventures were great...

As soon as we arrived in Galway we ran into Luighdai(louie)who is our history professor's cousin and was the one who took us on the pub crawls and the tour of their farm. He immediately recruited us to join him on Friday's pub crawl. We first grabbed dinner at a small cafe which we instantly fell in love with and knew we would be back the next day for breakfast! The night of the pub crawl we met some interesting new people. Most of them were from the Air Force and were just here for the weekend. We had a pretty wild night and I even rode a mechanical bull!

The next day we spent wandering around town and browsed in the little shops. We were basically killing time before the Hurling game which was at 7pm. The town is so cute and has so much character. It's a very different scene than Dublin and has way more charm.

It was a perfect day for Hurling. 13,000 people filled the stadium to watch Galway play Clare in the championship phase 2 game. Kelley and I got into the spirit and supported the Galway team...

It is such an intense sport and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! The final score was Galway 4-25 and Clare 0-20. The way you can score is to either hit the sliotar (ball) over the goalpost for one point(that's the second score) or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper which equals 3 points (which represents the first number of the score). So Galway scored 4 three point goals and basically dominated Clare.

Sunday morning was really rough because we didn't want to leave! We couldn't get over how incredible the weather was and how nice it was to get away from Dublin. After we checked out of our hostel at 10:30am we had a couple of hours before our bus ride so we spent it outside on the waterfront.

Our trip to the South

To be honest our adventure to the south was more like the mis-adventure to the south. Our trip started off with clouds and rain and it didn’t get much better. The entire 5 hour bus ride down to the coast we couldn’t see a thing out our windows because the fog was so thick which was very disappointing.

We did however visit Dingle to hangout with the famous dolphin, Fungi, who has been living in the bay since 1983! You don't see many dolphins in Ireland but apparently there's a warm current that comes in and that's how Fungi can survive!

We had a pit stop at a beach, it was gorgeous but the weather wasn't all that great.

On Sunday the rain and fog finally let up and it was blue skies and sunshine! We stopped in Cork for breakfast and had time to walk around town.

Next stop was Blarney Castle. If you kiss the blarney stone you are given the gift of "gab" or "the ability to deceive without offending." It was a pretty intense process! You have to lean over backwards to kiss the stone but when you do so you are looking down hundreds of feet to the ground!

One of the reasons why I called it a mis-adventure was the fact that our tour bus broke down twice during our trip. One of the times it was in the middle of the road and we actually had to get out and push the bus to get it started again!

Farm time!

Caroline (our amazing history teacher) took us to her family's farm where they have been actively farming for over 200 years!

We started off with a walking tour of their property. This was the view from the top of the mountain that they own!

We got to pet 1 week old puppies and play with the lambs!

There was an all-you-can-eat buffet of all homemade goodness!

We learned how to play the popular Gaelic sport, Hurling! It's like a cross between lacrosse, field hockey, and baseball.

A bit of tradition and history!

Rag Trees

When I first saw this tree I was kind of confused, I thought that people had turned this tree into their dumping grounds for garbage and was a little disgusted BUT then I learned about the significance. Rag trees are really popular among travelers and it is said that if you have a problem you want to get rid of then you tie a piece of cloth around a branch of the tree. When you continue on with your journey you are leaving your problem behind!

Fairy Trees

A fairy tree is a single tree that is in the center of a large field. It is said these trees are the portal for the fairies to enter our world and are considered sacred. Most people who have fairy trees on their land build huge stone walls around them to keep people and animals from harming the tree. If the tree is harmed in any way you will be cursed with bad luck. In this picture the family built a house-like structure to protect the tree for eternity!

Famine Walls

If you look closely in the gray area of the picture you can see a wall. These walls are all over the mountains of Ireland and are called Famine Walls. They were built during the Great Potato Famine by starving people who had no work or no money for food. The British didn't want to give away food for free so they made the starving people build random walls that served no purpose whatsoever.