Northern Ireland
climbing misty hills and driving on the wrong side of the road
Jordan and I arrived in Belfast after a nice and easy train ride from Galway. After setting down our bags in the airbnb, we walked into the city to explore. We found a nice pizza shop and then headed to the famous Bert’s Jazz bar where Jordan and I ordered very distinguished cocktails and listened to some music for an hour. After some rewinding at the bar, the seven miles we walked that day finally caught up to us, so we walked back tot he airbnb and went to bed to prepare for adventures ahead.
We woke up bright and early to hike Napoleon’s Nose, a short but surprisingly demanding hike that left me panting and sweating despite the freezing and strong winds. The summit was supposed to offer panoramic views of Belfast, but the thick fog made it feel like we were looking over purgatory. Despite the slightly disappointing views, we had a great time and it felt like a productive and invigorating start to the morning.
Next, we visited the Crumlin Road Gaol (pronounced jail) and did the tour of the jail which was very interesting, to find out about a jail that ran for most of the 1900s, and about the living conditions. The coolest part for me is that I remember learning about this specific prison design in one of my philosophy/psychology classes at university, so making that connection was really interesting.
After the gaol, we lightened things up with two rounds of mini golf back in the city. I am happy to report that I finally beat Jordan. We ended the day with dinner, opting to not see the Titanic museum due to our waning energy and the steep ticket prices.
The next morning, we to St. George’s market for breakfast. The market was filled with craft vendors, fresh fish stalls and food trucks. After a delicious meal of crepes, we grabbed a baguette and some hummus to-go before catching the train to Ballymena.
In Ballymena, we spent a few quiet days looking after Harley, a shy but sweet rescue racing greyhound. We didn’t do too much while staying here outside of plotting and scheming for our next week, but we did manage to make it into town, where in the center of the main shopping area they had a DJ playing Christmas music.
One highlight of staying here was finally managing to get Jordan to watch Hamilton. I did by absolute best to restrain myself from singing all the songs, but I’m not sure I was very successful.
The plotting and scheming mainly came from our tight itinerary. In less that 24 hours, Jordan and I needed to go up to bushmills, see the giant’s causeway, and then get back down to Belfast to catch our bus to Glasgow at 2pm.The only problem was if we were to take buses and trains that morning after seeing the causeway, we would only have about 15 minutes of leeway for the bus that we could not miss without disrupting so many plans and wasting a bunch of money.
So, we decided to rent a car. An interesting choice considering the only driving on the other side of the road was for about twenty minutes in Zimbabwe.
Picking up the car from the airport was an adventure in itself, miraculously I made it home unscathed. The car was a stick shift, and shifting gears with my left hand was a whole new challenge, I would instinctively try to shift gears with my right hand and slam my hand into the car door before remembering. Add to that Northern Ireland’s endless roundabouts—it felt like I was driving in an obstacle course. After a few struggles, seriously hard focusing, and one or two (or five) curbs hit, we made airbnb, ready for our early start to see the giant’s causeway!
The next morning, we woke up before dawn to hike to the Causeway in time for sunrise. The causeway is a natural wonder formed by lava cooling into columns upon reaching the ocean, then the pressure from the adjacent columns forcing each other into hexagonal shapes. Unless you like rocks as much as I do, the myth of how it was formed is probably more interesting. As the story goes, an Irish giant named Finn MacCool built the causeway to reach Scotland where there is a similar land formation - whether for love or for battle depends on the storyteller.
The sunrise hike was well work the early wake up call and the many layers of clothing. Although we barely mistimed the hike, so we were just a few minutes late to see the sunrise while at the causeway, we got to see the sunrise for the final part of our hike.
Jordan and I spent about an hour at the causeway, admiring its uniqueness and playing with Jordan’s camera trying to capture the beauty. We took some long exposure shots to try to capture the movement of the waves over the rocks, and for non-professional camera guys with no tripod, I think they turned out super cool!!
Eventually the cold got to us, and we started our long hike back to the car, returned it to Belfast airport, and made our way over to Belfast Grand Central. From there, we caught a bus to the ferry yard, and while on the bus, I felt an overwhelming pride for how much we have accomplished. Here I was, on a bus on the way back to the mainland UK after traveling around Ireland for two weeks, on a plan that we had made a week prior. I definitely learned a lot during this short span, and certainly boosted my ego after driving on the other side of the road.
Jordan and I had an easy and relaxed ferry ride back to Glasgow, stayed the night at a hostel and then made our way over to Edinburgh where we would be staying for two weeks!
Stay tuned for the next adventure.
xx abby