The Giants Causeway Day

      Today was my last full day in Belfast, and it was my Giants Causeway Tour. I did wake up slightlt sick, bit of a sore throat when I swallow, and I slid/fell down the stairs of my hostel on my way to the shower this morning. still, I like to think I made the best of it. I was only interested in the sceneary and the Causeway, so the dystillary that we stopped at for 30 minutes and the rope bridge were not my thing, but it was still worth it. the North Coast of Northern Ireland is so beautiful! I was slightly worried I would not be able to find the meeting place, 25a Donegal Road. I looked up directions online but you never know, and there are a lot of roads named Donegal here in Belfast. Anyways, I found it, exactly where the directions said it would be. we were a bit late leaving, were supposed to leave around 9:30am, but that was okay, I was in no hurry.

     The thing with Day tours is that everything is a bit rushed, you don't get a bunch of time at each place, but that has never bothered me. We went through the Glens of Atrium, along the coastal road, Atrium Coastal Road, and it was gorgeous! the entire tour alone was worth it just for that drive in my opinion. Glen is a Scottish word, the Irish use it too, it means "at the base of the mountain/hill" something like that. In other words, a valley. I took some videos with my camcorder, and it was so amazing! truly beautiful and breathtaking.

We passed through a lot of these cute little villages, the driver told us the names but I forgot them. anyways, they were small, but so cute! each house was different, different colors, different styles, etc. of course they would be super expensive! I kept thinking these little villages would be great to live in, but at the same time the reality might be that I would be easily bored you know? as you can see from the picture above, this road is very dangerous, lots of twists and turns and driving it at night is sure to be more dangerous. so it's not like I would be able to drive into Belfast even if I stayed in one of these villages you know? Still, I loved the character and the charm of these villages.

 Part of the tour was goign to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope bridge, an actual rope bridge like you see in movies over a cliff. This one was not as high, but I did not go over it. It was 5 pounds, but still, I was too scared to go over it. So I went to the restroom, then bought an ice cream and apple juice box and postcards at the gift shop and then went out for a few minutes, took some paranama pictures of the Coast. To the right is one of them. the tiny island behind me is called Sheep's Island. We learned Scotland is only 13 miles away, and since it was so clear, at least for a bit, we could see Scotland, at least a bit. it was only about 1 hour or so by Boat/Ferry.

 After the bridge we arrived at the Giants Causeway! It started to rain of course, which actually made the rocks more dangerous because they became slippery, but it cool. Me and that friend I wrote about last night, the one from Australia, hung out during the tour, which is was fun. We climbed around the causeway, carefully of course. We took pictures, and it was a great time. I took the bus down to the causeway and she walked down, and we both took the bus back up. it was 1 pound each way. While we were at the causeway, we climbed around them, and it was fun! it was like climbing on a giant set of clocks, all different heights and shapes. it's hard to believe that nature created this millions of years ago with a volcano erupsion!when the lava came into contact with the water, the water slowed the lava down and cooled it, creating the causeway. pretty neat huh? I liked that there were certain stones that were famous because they resemble a boot, a granny,etc. but I did not see them, I just took it all in, climbed,etc. I liked that it was not all marked out, because it made it less touristy and more real you know?

  as you can see in the picture above, some of the rocks are

black and others are more of a sand colored. Not sure why that is, maybe the closer it is to the water the more black it is due to the laval? to the right is a picture of me, with the causeway behind me. took it myself, so not a bad picture.

 We were supposed to go to a castle on the way(we also did a 10 minute photo stop at a castle near Belfast, but Susie Millar took me there during the Titanic Tour so I just looked, did not take a whole lot of pictures)but the road to it was closed due to a car wreck,so  we skipped it and went straight  to the oldest licensed dystillary in the world, Bushmill's. we were only there for 30 minutes, and frankly, I was bored. I already had a tour of one in Scotland, and also I am not a drinking, alcohol type of person, so I was glad when it was time to go after the 30 minutes. after that, it was time to head back to Belfast. Since, like I said, I am slightly sore of the throat, I feel asleep or dosed during the hour or so drive back to Belfast. me and my friend went to dinner at a resturant near my hostel , a cafe actually where I went a few nights ago, where I had the chocolate chip cheesecake and hot cocoa, and then went next door for some dessert. she had some coffee, and i had a sprite bottle and an eclair with cream in the middle. the eclair was not good though. she said the bread was stale, when i said i did not like the bread part, and it was cold. somehow, i would have prefered it room temperature or warm, not cold. still, it was fun. Since she's going on to another city and I'm headed for Dublin, most likely wont see her again and I don't recall her name. she told it to me once but you know how I am with names. still, it was a good opportunity to hang out with someone.

This is a Paranama picture I took of the Giants Causeway. pretty neat huh? it really did feel like we were playing on giant, uneven, playing blocks.

This is a Paranama view I took of the coast view where the Carrick-A-Rede Rope bridge is. as you can see, it's beautiful. there is not a curve there, just the way the picture turned out.

on the way, I decided to do a Black Taxi Tour of Belfast in the morning, lasts about an hour and our driver arranged it for me. 30 pounds, any time I want, pick me up and drop me off where I want. So I decided to delay leaving for Dublin until about 12:30pm, and get to Dublin around 3pm, not having time to do the hop-on, hop-off tour there, and since I did not do it in Belfast, I pretty much wasted my money with that, but only $30 so not too bad. and I think the Black Taxi tour will  be good and a good way to see some things in Belfast I did not get to see. besides, nothing specific I want to see in Dublin, so I'll just walk around and stuff when I get there. This way, I get to see parts of Belfast I would have seen on the hop-on, hop-off tour but did not.  so tomorrow it's: taxi tour in the morning at 9am after checking out, then taking a 12:35pm train to Dublin, check into my hotel after taking a cab there, and then walking around the city until about 6:30pm, where I will most likely take another cab to the Duke Pub for my pub-crawl, and enjoy that a ton and then take a cab back to my hotel. not a bad day. I do have about $500, not counting the $365 for the hotel in Dublin, but I should be getting paid Friday, $201 but that money is for my books for my MA in English Literature & Creative Writing-Fiction Concentration starting on April 1, 2013 which I still need to order those books for! next friday I will not get paid, since I did not work this week, and very little the week after that. not lookign forward to going back, to be honest. I hate working at Wings Stop, I feel lonely in Abilene to be honest. I want to stay in Belfast, I love it here, I love this city. I'm going to find a way to come back, for good or for an extended period of time.

But Tomorrow...on to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland!