A Weekend in Northern Ireland

This weekend, two of my housemates and I decided to take a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland! We flew in on Friday (because none of us have class that day). We walked, in the pouring rain to our hostel and were immediately greeted by a hilarious South African man, who runs the place. He told us that there was a "Black Cab" tour leaving in five minutes and that we would be sorry if we missed it, so we hopped on board. The "Black Cab" tour is basically a political tour of the city from a taxi driven by someone who is an ex-convict from one of the sides of the Protestant/Catholic conflict. We rode all around Belfast and saw all of the murals on either side, as well as the Peace Line that divides the city into religious sectors. We learned more about politics in Northern Ireland than I could ever tell you in this blog, but I will never forget that tour! The most important thing that I learned is that neither side is fighting about any particular belief central to their religion, the religions are just a label for political parties, killing each other over money and land. Honestly, the tour was very upsetting... but also extremely educational.

After the tour, we met up with Colleen, who is my very good friend from school and is studying in Belfast for the semester. She took us to a restaurant for lunch called "The Other Place" where we had bacon (which is not like American bacon, it's more like ham), brie, and cranberry sandwiches. Then she had to go to class and Melissa, Shaina, and I went back to Lagan Hostel to take a nap! The hostel was surprisingly nice, moderately clean, and felt very safe. The owner let us lock our passports away in a lock box behind the front desk, but we had our own room with it's own key, so we didn't have to carry all of our stuff around with us. After the nap we went to dinner with Colleen at this adorable French bakery!

Saturday morning, we decided that in order to see all we could of Ireland, we should take a tour of the coast! So, with the help of our host, we booked a tour and hopped on a coach bus for an all day tour for only 17 pounds (about $25).



We drove from Belfast all the way up the Irish coast. We saw two different castles (Carrickfergus and Dunluce). You aren't allowed to go in the castles anymore, because they are falling down, but we got out and looked at them for a few minutes. The main attractions on our tour were the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge and Giant's Causeway. We didn't actually cross the rope bridge, but we climbed up to it and in the process got an amazing view. It was very windy and cold, so we walked fast and wrapped our scarves around our heads as we tried to take in the beautiful landscape unfolding before us. Giant's Causeway is where I got the best pictures. When you get to the fork in the path, you are suppose to go left, down to the coast and the rocks that make up the causeway, but instead we decided to go right and hike up to the top of the cliffs above the coast. It was the single most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life. You could look to your right and see over the edge of the cliff, down to the ocean, then look to your left and see what looked like the entirety of Ireland stretching out before you. There were green hills with sheep grazing, little farm houses, and snow capped mountains under a bright blue sky all at once. It was truly amazing!

The three of us took the opportunity to call our families and tell them what a beautiful place we were in. Then, we climbed down, trying to burn the image into our minds so that we would never forget it! We went to the gift shop at the bottom (Hannah, you should be excited) and then back onto the bus.

The end of the tour was a stop at the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery. It was the end of the day, so they were closing and we couldn't go on a tour, but we went in and looked at the buildings and bought a few postcards. Then, we were thoroughly exhausted and preceded to sleep the entire bus ride back into the city.

We had pizza for dinner, with Colleen. Mine was BBQ sauce, chicken, spinach, sweet corn, and sour cream. It was fantastic!!!! It was called the Las Vegas at this little dinner place called "Cafe Renoir." We completely lucked out with the weather, because it only rained on Friday and then decided to be sunny for the rest of our adventure!!!!!

This morning we had English breakfasts (made for us by our hostel host) or eggs sunny side up, baked beans, sausage, bacon, and toast. We packed and then met Colleen for brunch, then took a bus, a plane, another bus, and a train back to Linley House!

It was a weekend that I will never forget, but it feels really nice to be home... and get to shower in my own bathroom!