So for this trip we did a 3 night 4 day tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We had a new bus driver named Michael (he was also Scottish. Not quite as crazy as Ewan though). We had a much smaller bus and there were 2 other people from out Highland tour on it. The bus actually came to pick us up in Dalkeith which was really nice.
First we departed for Northern Ireland via a ferry. It was rather nice. It was a 2 hour trip to get there. It was clear out that day so I went to the observation deck. Couldn't see much from there though. On the way we saw "Patrick's Mile Stone" which is said to be a large stone thrown at St. Patrick when he was on his way to Ireland to bring Christianity (or something like that).
The weather in Ireland was -gorgeous-! It was sunny and beautiful everyday! I was also surprised at the tropical plants that could be found.
One of our first stops was to see Carrick-a-rede, Rope Bridge. The view was beautiful! We couldn't believe how blue and clear the water was! You had to pay to go on the actual bridge so none of us did (since we got an excellent view even without going on the bridge).
Next was seeing Giants Causeway. That place is amazing! All the rock there is formed from lava hitting the freshwater lakes that were there and creating giant rock pillars. The legend of the Causeway goes something like this:
There was a giant that yelled across the ocean saying how much bigger and better he was then all the giants out there. A giant across the sea got angry from hearing him yell all day and yelled he was coming over to settle this once and for all. The giant hid in the bushes and saw the other giant and thought "wow this guy is huge!" He went to his wife and she said she had a plan. She dressed him up as a baby and put him in a buggy. The other giant made a causeway across the ocean and was looking for the yelling giant. He saw the wife and the "baby" and said "where's the giant?" She told him he was gone for a while. The giant looked at the baby and thought "wow, if that's how big the baby is the father must be huge!" but he stayed around so the wife invited him in for some bread. While she was making the bread she put rocks in one loaf and left the other one plain. She gave the plain loaf to her husband and the rock-filled on to the other giant. When he saw the baby eating the bread he thought "wow if a baby can eat this tough bread his father must be really tough!" So he left, never to be seen again.
After that area we left for Port Stewart. On the way we stopped quickly to see Dunlua Castle. Port Stewart is a really nice port town. There were a lot of places to walk and see the ocean. We saw some really cute ducklings :) We stopped at a pub for dinner and had a good meal. Later that evening a group of us watched the 6th Harry Potter Movie.
I'm off to get ready for a pub crawl so I'll finish this post later :)
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