And by half past seven that morning, we were on the road headed north!
We booked our tour through Paddywagon Tours, and it was pretty well organized. We were lucky with the weather as well: I was worried it would be raining the entire time, but it was relatively sunny the entire time (thank you Ireland!).
Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It's an odd attraction, really, as it is literally just a rope bridge connecting the mainland to a little rocky island. The original bridge was built ages ago by salmon fishers, as the fishing was better on the island than it was on the mainland. This bridge used to be terribly unstable: back when the salmon fishers were using it, it was literally just two ropes--one to walk across, and one to hold on to. Now, however, it is a legitimate bridge with a wooden board down the center: you would have to make a serious effort to fall off the bridge, and it isn't scary at all, even if it shudders a bit when you walk across it.
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| The Bridge |
Although the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was pretty tame (and much shorter than I thought it would be), the scenery around it was absolutely stunning. After crossing the bridge (and then turning around to recross it, as there wasn't much of interest on the little salmon-fishing island), the five of us headed up the hill. From above, we could see the faint outline of Scotland on the horizon (my country! sort of, at least... my dad is half-Scottish, born in Glasgow). The rugged, rocky cliffs and the waves crashing upon them... it was so beautiful there, and even though the rope bridge was a funny attraction, I'm glad the tour stopped there.
As Bridget and I were headed back to the bus (lagging behind the rest of our friends) we saw a very clear rainbow out in the distance. We became really excited a few minutes later, as the rainbow seemed to be moving towards us across the ocean (yes! come bring us luck, rainbow!), and then, it suddenly became a full rainbow! It was so pretty. Ireland is such a great country for seeing rainbows, as well. I swear, I must've seen about 15 in the 8 days I was there.
The bus stopped next at a little lunch place, and then we continued on to the tour's main sight: the Giant's Causeway.
For those who are unfamiliar with this natural wonder, the Giant's Causeway is the sight of 40,000 basalt columns that rise up out of the ocean, resulting from a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. There is a second story, however (and many different versions of it, for that matter): Irish legend has it that an Irish giant named Finn MacCool saw a Scottish giant across the sea and challenged him to a fight. He then gathered up all these basalt rocks and built a causeway between the two countries. When Finn reached Scotland, however, he realized that the Scottish giant was three times the size of Finn himself, and he went running back to Ireland and hid in his house. Finn's clever wife, however, invites the angry Scottish giant into their home and offers him tea, then shows the Scot her "baby" -- in reality, Finn, dressed up as a baby. Finn's wife also bakes tea cakes, giving the hard ones to the Scottish giant, and the softer tea cakes to "baby" Finn. As the Scottish giant breaks his teeth on the tea cakes, he is astonished that this "baby" eats them with ease, and he gets frightened by the idea of how massive and how strong the real Finn MacCool is, since Finn's "baby" is so large and strong already. The Scottish giant backs out of the fight and runs back to Scotland, destroying the Causeway in his frightened wake.
Whichever story you choose to believe (the scientific one, or the mythical one), Giant's Causeway is an impressive sight to see. When we first arrived, it was pouring (no, Irish weather!!), but we decided to walk down to the Causeway in the rain anyway, and by the time we reached it, the sun was starting to shine.
It was absolutely gorgeous. The five of us spent some time walking along the basalt columns--it surprised me that we were allowed to walk on them, as they are quite slippery and a bad fall will toss you into the violent sea--then we went hiking to see a different part of the Giant's Causeway called the Amphitheater.
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| Walking back from the Amphitheater |
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| The group at Giant's Causeway! |
When we arrived to the Amphitheater, it was impossible to go all the way around due to a rockslide, but the views were still quite beautiful. Giant's Causeway was the site that Kat wanted to see the most during our whole week in Ireland, so I'm glad we had the chance to see it--and I'm especially glad that the weather worked out in our favor!
After the Giant's Causeway, our tour brought us quickly to a castle that is slowly falling into the sea (years ago, when it was still in use, the castle's kitchen did break away into the sea, killing everyone in the kitchen except a little boy). After that fast stop, we rode over to spend an hour in Belfast, Northern Ireland's main city.
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| Sunset at the Castle by the Sea |
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| The only picture I took in Belfast. It's a pretty building. |
What surprised me most about Belfast was how American it really was. Almost all the stores that I saw were American-based, and if I didn't know we were in Europe, I would've guessed some small city in the USA. Of course, we were only given an hour in the city, and even more, we didn't know much about what there was to see or do there (which means we saw very little of it) so that impression could be wrong. All I know that while we were there, Belfast received three different bomb threats (this is what our tour guide/bus driver cheerfully told us as we were leaving the city).
Exhausted from the long day, I fell asleep for most of the bus ride back to Dublin, and subsequently missed some of our tour guide's interesting facts. However, all in all, it was a great day, and such an interesting way to spend Halloween! In my next and final Ireland post, I'll describe a little of my Halloween experience in Dublin as well as our final day in Ireland!
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