The Causeway, Northern Ireland

Thursday, 9th August '12
I spent most of Thursday travelling to Belfast. I left my hostel in Killarney early, caught a train at 9:45 to Dublin, had a two wait in Dublin and then took a train from there to Belfast. Arrived at my hostel around 5 o'clock ish. Was fortunate enough to be given a free feed. The manager of the hostel, his nephew, another guest, an American who now lives at the hostel and a guy who lived down the road... had all congregated to try a newly bought barbeque. Free food always tastes the best, and they were all good company. I am so glad I made the journey here, probably my favourite leg so far.

Friday, 10th August '12

Following day, I hop on a coach early in the morning and don't arrive back at the hostel till around 8pm at night. It's been a super long day, all of my muscles ache, my eyelids are heavy, but heart is light with happiness. (Yeah, I went there. Deal with it.) We went to a few places along the way, two castles, a few small haven towns, the Rope bridge, a whiskey Distillery and then finally, The Giant's Causeway. 

(The Castles and small marinas along the way)

The two main stops were the Rope bridge and the Giant's Causeway and both involved a fuck-tonne of walking, stairs and aches and pains. The rope bridge was far worse than the Giant's Causeway, but the view the whole way round was definitely worth it. The bridge itself was quite disappointing. The line on both sides was busy, so they just hurry you across the bridge and you're barely given a moment to BE in the moment, before you're on the other side and being bustled away. There was a rather unpleasant section that smelt like rotten Salmon, but on the other side, on a super high little mountain island thing, the view was incredible, the air fresh and cooling.

A highlight of this part of the journey was the bus driver left two guys behind because they were late returning to the bus. The bus driver waited 5 minutes and that was it. I didn't feel bad because the same guys had been late and the last ones to arrive at every single stop before hand. Suckers.

It was such a nice day today, especially comparing it to the weather I had on the Ring of Kerry tour. The entire trip the sky was a clear blue, sun shining down, and whilst driving down the coastal road, we could actually see mainland Scotland on the other side. It was insane. The actual drive along the coast was stunning. Incredible!

(Pics from the road trip)

Lastly, The Giant's Causeway. For those unaware of what it is, it's a natural rock formation on the coast. It was caused some 60,000 years ago when a volcano erupted and the lava met with the ocean and a whole series of these fascinating rock formations came about. It's a world heritage sight, and one can see why.

I was somehow disappointed at first, because I thought it would be so much bigger than it was. But after a while of climbing the rocks, sitting down and looking around, I'm amazed that something so symmetrical and... designed has occurred completely without human intervention. It must be God and intelligent design! Total kidding, fuck that guy. But seriously, bonkers. Bonkers that a place like that exists. I just keep thinking that every year that place must get smaller and smaller, the hexagonal, sharp shapes losing their edge and definition not cause of just natural erosion from sea, wind, water etc, but also from the mass amount of visitors that it receives everyday.