belfast and the causeway

SB part 1B: Belfast

The last day of the Paddywagon tour left us in Dublin, where Sam and I stayed at yet another hostel and made yet another dinner of pasta (our cheap way of not spending money on dinners, except pasta for 3 weeks in a row eventually loses its appeal) and went to bed early in order to get up early for part 1B.
The next morning we woke up, walked around Dublin's main university college campus- Trinity College- and then hopped on a bus headed to Belfast. The bus ride was a couple of hours and fairly uneventful, but the weather was nice yet again. When we got to Belfast, we checked into our really nice hostel (Belfast International Youth Hostel in case anyone was planning on going to Northern Ireland) with the intention of leaving the next day and catching the bus back to Dublin and from there, Cork. While planning out our day, we looked at a brochure about the Giant's Causeway up in even further North Ireland, which happened to have a tour bus that went every day and left from our very hostel. Being as that there was absolutely no way to go see one of Ireland's major attractions and still catch that bus back, we decided that the only logical decision would be to just stay another day in Belfast. With this new plan formed, the plan for that day just became to wander around the city and see what all we might happen upon.
I would just like to say that while I'm sure some people really love Belfast, it was whoa rough around the edges. Sam said that it used to be one of the 5 B's of places you did not want to travel to (Baghdad, Belfast apparently, and 3 more that I'm sure are equally sketchy). Now Belfast is fine, especially since it is not being bombed anymore, and tourism is starting to skyrocket. But that being said, it was still not a city that I would rank as safe as Cary. For example, while we were taking pictures of Queen's University (left), we got approached by this mostly-likely homeless guy on a bike who I swear was an idiot-savant because he was slightly mentally disabled, but had an unbelievable photographic memory. He was asking us things like where we were from and what we studied, and with every answer we gave him, he started spouting off random and complicated facts about everything and anything related. It was fascinating at first, until we got kind of sketched out and weren't sure what exactly he wanted so we peaced out. Queen's University had really pretty botanic gardens and green houses, so we decided to duck in there to avoid said creepy guy. The gardens around the university were very well kept and pretty, but what was really amazing was the 'Tropical Ravine' and 'Palm House', two huge plant and flower sanctuaries. From the craziness of the streets in Belfast, the two houses were a huge stress relief. We stayed in the Tropical Ravine for a while, and then barely made it into the Palm House before it closed. I think if I could have any job in the world, other than a National Geographic photographer, it would be the maintenance person who kept up the Palm House. The fragrance and serenity of a huge glass house of flowers is pretty much the most calming experience I've ever had. It'd be the exact opposite of working at K.B. Toys in the mall.
After getting kicked out of the flower house, Sam and I wandered around the park some more and then headed into town. Being that everything was on the English pound, we didn't do much shopping. Actually none at all-towards the end of the trip Sam and I were even counting out our change to make sure we had enough for pasta dinner #2324. Why Northern Ireland doesn't just become part of the Republic, I don't know. Euros are so much better. Anyway, we wandered past all the H&M's and went sightseeing in the city center. On our way into town, we passed this billboard:


2 things:
1. What is Dolly Parton doing still in concert?
2. How in the world is it sold out?

Next, we passed by the Belfast Opera House, and then a church or two which were quite statuesque, and finally the City Hall (left)...and its accompanying Ferris Wheel. City Hall was beautiful. We spent quite a while looking all around it at all the beautiful statues and white columns. And then, of course, we rode the 'Belfast Wheel'. Apparently it was for raising money for the new and safer Belfast, but we didn't really care about that seeing as how the Ferris Wheel was only like 6 pounds and was a 15 minute interactive tour of the city from above (right). It was really high-tech and had music playing on the inside, as well as this somewhat annoying man's voice pointing out all the buildings in sight. Well worth 6 pounds in our opinion. That night, Sam and I cooked more pasta, changing it up a bit by trying a new brand of sauce, and met some really fun Australians who were in Belfast for their daughter's Irish dancing competition. The whole family was there, down to the crazy grandma who shared her wine with us. Why Irish dancing is popular in Australia is beyond me, but apparently the daughter was really really good (and would end up winning 10th in the world the next day).
The next morning, Sam and I got up early again for our tour of the Giant's Causeway. Our first stop was at the Carrickfergus Castle, which was pretty much just a standard castle, and then got back on the bus and headed down the coast, where off in the distance was, I believe, a glimpse of Scotland. We took another break at Carrick-a-Rede, which was the home of a 30m rope bridge high up in the cliffs that is put together every year by fishermen who are in search of Atlantic salmon. I was picturing a really terrifying rope bridge with unstable planks, similar to the one in the Emperor's New Groove, but it turned out to be quite a safe one, despite the fact being very high up in the air. After crossing over to the other side, we explored the small little island and took a million pictures of the Northern Ireland coastline. I think the whole bridge thing is supposed to be the 3rd most touristically visited place in the UK- the 2nd is the Giant's Causeway and the 1st is the castle where the movie Harry Potter was filmed. Another Harry Potter fact which I forgot to mention on the paddywagon tour post is that according to Joe, within the next 10 years, Harry Potter will be the most read book in the entire world, even more so than the Bible. Crazy. Then again, that's another Joe fact.
The last major stop of the day was the Giant's Causeway (we did stop off at Bushmills, the world's oldest whiskey distillery in Ireland but I didn't have any money and didn't like whiskey so I think I was eating a sandwich or something during that photo opportunity). The Giant's Causeway was unbelievable. According to the Giant's Causeway brochure, it is called the '8th Wonder of the World', but despite this quite biased opinion, I would have to agree. It reminded me a lot of Stonehenge, in that it was a completely natural phenomenon that got its name because people claim that giants built it. The Causeway was a huge span of coast, filled with perfectly hexagonal columns of stone, some small enough to jump from one to the next, while others were so huge that I couldn't even link fingers if when I hugged one (for an example, see left). There was a cliff walk up over top of the causeway, which Sam and I walked and it was really cool to see everything from above. We took about a hundred pictures because everywhere you turned you could see hexagonal pillars coming out of the earth, in varying sizes and directions. When we walked down toward the coast, there was a whole section of them that were a lot smaller and that extended out to the sea. I climbed out on the farthest one I could in order to touch the tip of Ireland's North Antrim Coast. I think that the stones were made from ancient volcanoes or something, but it was really crazy the way that everything fit so perfectly together. I had never heard of the Giant's Causeway before coming to Ireland, but I'm really glad I went especially since I'm not sure when I'll be back to the tip of Northern Ireland again.