The Giant's Causway and Belfast

September 11, 2011

 Today I traveled to Northern Ireland and the Giant's Causeway. I found the meeting spot for the tour I was on with little trouble, found my driver and coach and sat up front for the journey ending up sitting next tot he driver's wife. We took the scenic route up along the coast and stopped at several stops along the way. Harbors and castles before our first real stop. Trouble started early on when people couldn't seem to make it back on the bus on time - annoying and frustrating - oh how I needed my adipose stress toy. It just meant less time at the actual sites.

The first was a rope bridge which I went across. It was a little scary. I went first and though that it wasn't a big deal but then the bridge started to sway as people got onto it. But I managed it, twice. There were amazing views and well worth it. It took forever to get back across. We had to wait for people coming over who kept stopping in the middle and taking pictures. Then when our side started to go and we tried that we got yelled at, quite unfair I feel. Either no pictures or allow pictures for everyone is my theory.

Next was the main event, the Giant's Causeway. There was an argument about time to see the sight and eat dinner. If we came back at 4 instead of 3:30 it would mean no tour of Belfast. Thankfully the 3:30ers were more vocal - although we still didn't leave on time. The Giant's Causeway is a geological area with hexagon shaped columns stacked up. There's a legend surrounding it about the Giant Finn McCool. He was having an argument with a Scottish giant who said they would fight if there wasn't the water separating them. Finn then built the causeway so the giant could cross over and then went home and was scared because he was so tired he wasn't ready to fight the giant. So he and his wife devised a plan. Finn dressed up as a baby and laid down in the crib so when the Scottish giant came to the door the wife told him that Finn was gone but he was welcomed to wait. When the Scottish giant saw Finn as the baby he really freaked out thinking that if the baby was the big how big was the father going to be. So he went back to Scotland ripping up the stones along the way. There are other features as well. There's a camel which is said to have been Finn's mode of transportation and his forgotten slipper and his mother turned to stone up on a cliff.

We left the Giant's Causeway stopping at the inspiration of Cair Paravel the castle from C.S.Lewis' Narnia books and arrived in Belfast. Since it was Sunday almost everything was closed but I did find a cuppa and a muffin. I'm really glad that I had decided to take this tour instead of staying in Belfast and going from there. There were really only two things that I was interested in in Belfast. Stuff to do with the Titanic, which the visitor centre was closed but we did see the cranes and the very last thing we saw were these murals they have in Belfast about the trouble times in Ireland which I had no idea about but I'm glad we got to see. apparently they are located in not the nicest part of town and the buses usually don't go down there but two people had asked about it so we got to go. The tension in the bus as we drove past the murals was thick and the atmosphere changed immediately.

The most famous murals is of Bobby Sands who is the subject of the film Hunger that I watched in Charlotte's class. That really was the highlight of the tour. Bud the tour guide/driver was excellent and stopped many places - more than the other coached which made up for him being late at the start. I found him funny but no one was really paying attention to him. And there was a group of 10 Asians who didn't help by being loud and taking forever to get back to the bus.

Back in Dublin dinner wasn't that great, the fish and chips was not the best and on my walk home I spotted an Ed's dinner so I know where I'm going tomorrow!