This weekend, my fellow rotational colleagues and I took our first international trip from Dublin; To…drum roll please…Northern Ireland!
Correct, Northern Ireland is another country! With a separate currency! So check this out, and consider your “learn something new every day” box checked off for today:
The UK consists of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK is on the British Pound. Ireland is it’s own independent country, and is on the Euro. I know, it’s cray.
The 5 of us rented a car, after I convinced the group driving on the left side of the road isn’t scary! We first stop in Belfast, where we get a tour of the Protestant v Catholic saga:
After our history lesson (sort of, I couldn’t understand our tour guide’s accent at all), we head to Giant’s Causeway, where I will let the pictures speak for themselves:
After Giant’s Causeway, we head to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (I sneak in through the exit route), where fisherman used to construct a rope bridge in the summer to lure in their salmon catches.
After the rope bridge, we are all starving and head to Ballycastle, for what we hear has fantastic fish n chips. Many things happen here:
- We meet Niamh (traditional Irish name, pronounced “Neve”). She is 13, and a hoot and a half. She had never met Americans and was fascinated by us. She also guessed our ages, ranging from 16 (Lisa, #Asian) to 40 (Max, #beard), then proceeded to guess our names (Miley was pretty much her only guess, then she gave up), followed by exclaiming how mental we all were for choosing Ireland over Spain.
- The fish n chips restaurant ended up being a hole in the wall…pretty much the opposite of the castle we were expecting.
- I found out I don’t like fish n chips…this is going to be a long 3 culinary months.
- The “salad” the came with my fish n chips was 2 slices of tomato and some lettuce.
After eating, we check in at our adorable hostel, with a great view of the coast:
Not only does the hostel have a great view, but I have the best night sleep since I arrived in Ireland! Which means I only wake up once throughout the night and it only takes me 45 minutes to fall back asleep.
The next day is what I came to Ireland for. Decrepit castles on cliffs overlooking the ocean. Cue Dunluce Castle:
Seriously, how great is this?
Then we visited the Dark Hedges, from the Game of Thrones:
#GoT
Next, we got lunch from St. George’s Market in Belfast:
Market!
And last but not least, we go to this place “steeped in history” which is basically a bunch of grass mounds we are convinced is an Irish joke on tourists.
In other news, I’ve officially created #Irishhacks for life in Ireland
Wooden spoon in fire door, to keep it from slamming shut
Aluminum foil and duct tape to prevent hall light from keeping me awake
VPN to access Hulu
Until next time!
Tracey Michele 