The tour I went on Friday was actually awesome. Giant’s Causeway is interesting enough on its own, but we also stopped in Carnlough (little fishing village), Cerrickfergus Castle, Dunlance Castle (inspiration for Cair Paravel!! I nerded out, haha), and the Carrick-a-rede bridge, which was used by Irish fishermen to catch Salmon. All of it included lots of awesome commentary from our rad tourguide (who was actually Scottish), beautiful cliffs, and lots of fields. And man, so many great animals! Scottish cows, all kinds of sheep and little lambs, swans, horses, mini ponies, etc. The cliffs anywhere in Ireland are gorgeous; it really does make it feel like the island just burst forth from the sea (burst, Frank, burst :p ). Oh, as for Giant’s Causeway, y’all can look at my pictures once they’re up, but basically it’s this weird, huge collection where the rocks split into hexagons. What it LOOKS like though is that someone made these piles of hexagonal rocks. It’s found only two places in the world, on the shores opposite each other from this spot in Ireland and Scotland. From here comes the legend of Finn McCool and Cuchulain’s fueding, and legend has it that Finn McCool used these rocks to build a bridge to Scotland, and Cuchulain then destroyed it. It’s hard not to believe it; the rocks are way strange.
I made friends along the way, namely Steve (from Austin) and Joran (from the Netherlands, who is biking around Ireland for two months; how Dutch!!) Steve bought a round of pints in the pub at Giant’s Causeway, and so I can mark “drink Guinness in an Irish pub” off my life list of things to do. It was awesome to get out of the city, and also to get some more background about C. S. Lewis and Winston Churchill’s lives here, etc. The Hotel Europa (this is for you, Mom) was the most bombed hotel in the entire world, according to World Records, until four years ago: now it’s in Beirut.
I guess the problem in general with Belfast is that it’s not really ready for tourists yet. The ENTIRE city is under construction; Joran was bemoaning that he couldn’t take a single picture downtown with nine big cranes in it. Even the Ulster Museum is closed for several years for renovations. It’s cold and rainy and you have to make appointments to do anything, which is nearly impossible for backpackers or those who can’t afford cabs. Maybe in 10, 15 years –maybe even less– Belfast will be great. In the meantime, it feels like England’s kid brother that they only want around as a landing point to go visit the coast. The only good news is that Belfast is overall pretty cheap. With British pounds, I was expected London prices, but it’s not bad at all.
Am now in Galway, which is really cute. It reminds me of a cleaner Brussels meets Freiberg meets Ljubljana. Small, quaint, clearly kept up with tourists in mind but also still maintaining more uniqueness than Dublin. I mean, it’s very small, and you can’t really get around the fact that they are used to tourists here. The main little shop street is cute but jampacked with souvenir and trinket shops. But the river is pretty, I went inside a beautiful church, and there are enough distinct buildings or ancient things to appease me.
It’s five now, and I’m probably in for the day. Which is lame, I know. But I think I might be sick — which isn’t surprising, seeing as the rain has been following me around, and at times my clothes aren’t warm enough. Besides, tomorrow I do another day tour which INCLUDES visiting an Irish family farm (the tourguide’s), drinking his mum’s tea (really?! YES), visiting some caves and a few other things I can’t remember, and the Cliffs of Moher. I’m thinking Monday I might actually linger and do another tour, either out to some Islands, or up Connemara. Then off to Cork, but probably only for a day in order to visit Blarney Castle, because I’ve been warned Cork is uber lame, even lamer than Dublin. That still would give me one day to play with, either down to Kinsale (which I’m only considering because it’d be cool to say I’ve been to all four Irish coasts, but there isn’t much to do there except eat), or maybe over to Kilkenny to see the castle and I think there’s an abbey there, too. I don’t know, though; a lot will depend on how I feel and how much money I have.
Now . . . I am chilling in the kitchen of my hostel because some people are cooking, and if I have my choice between a room with a TV or a kitchen with cooking going on, I would rather sit in the kitchen. Kitchens in general are just very comforting to me. Except now that I am typing this, it is making me homesick . . .
Cross your fingers the weather clears up! It would be really, really nice to be able to go outside without getting drenched. 😦 I’ll work on getting Howth pictures up tonight, I think.