Off Off and Away to Northern Ireland

This blog post is from Tuesday: May 22, 2012.

                               

          Today we boarded the magical Paddywagon bus and were off off and away to Northern Ireland. Our first magical stop was in Belfast where we picked up tour guide Troy. Troy is quite a hilarious but unusual sort of fellow he is as he says a true irishman! After our quick stop in Belfast we were on the road again to the Carrick-a-Rede. Carrick-a-Rede is an island that is on a cliff and you travel on a rope bridge from another cliff to get there. This 30-meter deep and 20-meter wide chasm is traversed by a rope bridge traditionally erected by salmon fishermen. Troy told us about how people fall off or get so scarred they do not move on the bridge and lock up as he called it. He also informed of us if we fell how we would be eaten by a shark and hit lots of rocks on the way down! When Troy was telling us stories about Carrick-a-Rede I was like NO WAY AM I GOING ON THAT! 

        Once we got there and with a little peer pressure from the group I decided I would get a ticket...I mean I could always just go up there see it and then walk back I did not have to cross! On the long trek up there I just kept thinking you can do this...you can do this....then we came up to the straight shot stairs down to the bridge and I was like oh *** no I cant do this! With a little talk and a hit of courage I got on those stairs to go down to the bridge the entire time thinking what in gods green earth are you doing! I got down the 18 stairs to the bridge and I grabbed on to both sides of the bridge and began walking slowly but walking! Lois, Josh, and Kayla were on the other side cheering me on and Dave was right in front of me...I actually went to so slow that Dave got off and took a video of me! Its sort of a funny video I will have to get it but basically I am walking at a snails pace then it gets till the last 6 steps and I RAN off of it! Needless to say I was shaking slightly in the legs and the hands...Lois claims that was from the hike up there but I think it was nerves! I was so proud of myself once I got across and I was so glad also! The views were amazing!!! I kept thinking how god is an AMAZING ARTIST!     

           Well after I did not die and get eaten by a shark..we were on our way to lunch and Giants Causeway. Once we arrived at our destination Troy told us all to go into the pub order lunch then go down and see the Giants Causeway! I ordered a Steak and Guinness Pie after hearing a 5 minute speech from Troy on how they were the best thing you would ever eat in Ireland! After ordering at the pub I made the half mile trek to Giants Causeway. A quick background Giants Causeway is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns,  the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. There also many folklore stories of how the Giants Causeway came about which are pretty convincing themselves! The Causeway was like something I had never seen before..it looked like kids building blocks or similar to like someone just landscaped with tons of stones! It was very uniquely beautiful! 

         After enjoying our wonderful lunch we got back on the Paddywagon and headed to Derry. Derry is the second biggest city in Northern Ireland it is a very dirty, politically charged, historical town. The town is divided between the Catholic side and the Protestant side and they do not like each other and have feuded for years! Before going they told us to not where orange because we could be shot...orange stands for Catholic because they fly the Irish flag (green, white, and orange).  I don't know if we were in that bad of an area but you could definitely see how the side was divided it was literally dived by a river and a giant wall! They even call Derry different things by which side you come from and depending what you say they can tell if your Catholic or Protestant. Since Troy is Protestant I definitely heard a few Catholic slams that day! While taking our walking tour around the city we saw many "real ira" signs and graffiti...which is a gang! We also learned about Bloody Sunday and saw a monument for the people that lost there lives that day. Bloody Sunday is a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence in total, 31 people were killed – fourteen British, fourteen Irish civilians and three republican prisoners. After our tour we headed to back to the bus to stop off at a castle ruins it was gorgeous! We then went to Belfast to drop off Troy, and other people then headed back to Dublin!