Belfast: I haven't gotten around too much yet. Didn't get in until about 5:30 last night because I'm a loser, but I did get turned around trying to find the hostel. Because of that I've seen all of the city center. It's a really cool city from the quick overview I've gotten. The Titanic thing is way up at the other end of the city from where the hostel is, but I'll get there tomorrow before I leave. Anyways, last night I saw Queens University--the bits of it that were open until 9pm. There are botanical gardens in there that are really pretty. And the building itself is beautiful. I walked around the City hall a bunch of times. There's a new Titanic memorial there too--just opened in March or April. It's nice--all the gras and benches are perfectly groomed and aligned.
I did the pub crawl put on by the hostel last night. That was kind of crazy. I met two Canadian girls and I was hanging out with them the whole time. They did some serious pre-funking though. I didn't even know there was a pub crawl until 5 minutes before it was leaving, so I was starting out completely sober. I also ended that way. But anyway, the hostel staff is a lot of fun. They made us play a game that if someone drops a pound into your drink you have to just down it--chuck, do the shot, whatever you have. If you don't want that to be you then you have to make sure you never have a full pint. So, you kind of end up downing drinks fast for fear anyway. It was great craic though. I haven't been around so many drunk people while being sober for a long time though. It's crazy how close people put their faces to you when they're drunk. I left with the two Canadian girls after the second pub though. First off, we weren't going to the 3rd pub anymore because there was a fight and it just wouldn't be good. And secondly, one of the girls got kicked out of the pub so she was in a state. And thirdly, the last place was a club, and that's not really my scene. I did teach them the phrase 'getting the shift' though. They've been in Ireland for the last two weeks and hadn't heard it yet. It may be my favorite slang.
Came back here, chatted it up with two Germany boys right out of secondary school, and the other guy on the hostel staff. It of course ended up as a conversation comparing countries. And America wins. Even when it doesn't make sense it wins. They didn't really have anything bad to say about it though, which was good because I don't really like defending it. I don't feel that strongly about it.
Today was cool though. Another full day tour. This time around the Antrim coast. It's so beautiful. I'm torn between which county's coast is more picturesque: Kerry or Antrim. I'm just not going to pick. But, we stopped to take pictures of the Carrickfergus castle. It's alright. There's not too much too it, and it's not very old.
Larne is a gorgeous little village. I don't know if it was just a superior day or what, but the water was so clear and that brilliant blue/green color.
Apparently the Antrim Coast Road is one of the most beautiful scenic routes in the world. I wish I were on the right side of the bus, but I was the last one on the bus, so not such luck. It was still beautiful though--just not many pictures.
The first thing we really did was stop at this suspension bridge: Carrick-a-Rede. The bus driver kind of hyped it up a little much. It's only 60 feet long and 80 feet off the ground. 80 feet is plenty high, but you know. It was really cool though. And once you get across the thing the view from the island is amazing. There was this ass-hole of an old man behind me going back over the thing. It's only 3 feet wide, so only one person can go across a time, so they have to do it like a traffic or construction zone: people going one way have to wait while the other direction goes. But, you've gotta get a picture of you on the bridge right? That's the real point of doing this shit, but my camera has to be a little complicated, and the girl that was trying to take my picture was having an issue and this old guy behind me just starts going : "can we move?" I ignored him and then he threw some "darlin's" in there. I ignored him some more and he finally got angry and said "I'm freezing here!" I wanted to tell him to calm down and shut the fuck up, but that's rude.
We were then at the Bushmills Distillery. Just for lunch, but it was cool. It doesn't look fancy at all.
Then the Giant's Causeway! That was really cool. I liked it. It's a lot like Devil's Tower and Devil's Postpile. If it were in the US it would be the Devil's Causeway. A giant is better. The scientific explanation is that it's 60 million years old and it's the results of the breaking up of cooling lava from a freaking massive volcano. I think it's really cool because the same rock formations are on the coast of Scotland too. The Irish version of events is a bit more fun. There was an Irish giant named Finn MacCool, and a Scottish Giant named Fingal. They both knew of each other, but had never seen each other, so they didn't know who was bigger or stronger. So, one day Finn MacCool was fed up and built the Causeway in order to get Fingal to come across and then they could square each other up. Turns out Fingal was twice the size of Finn MacCool, and MacCool could see him coming, got scared, and ran to his clever wife to figure out what to do. The woman saves the day. She dressed him up as a baby and when Fingal came pounding on the door she (Una was her name) told him (Fingal) that her husband (MacCool) wasn't there and that he (Fingal) would have to be quiet not to wake the baby. Well, Fingal saw the baby--who was a Giant--and freaked out because if the baby was that huge, the man must be more massive than himself. So he ran away back to Scotland.
Last stop was a quick one to take pictures of Dunluce Castle. That was pretty cool. I mean, I'd heard a lot about Dunluce castle and it's on my Irish calendar and looks all Romantic and all that. From our vantage point it wasn't spectacular, but it was nice to see.
And now I'm back here. Tomorrow I only have a few things to do: Titanic for sure, Albert Memorial Clock for sure, and Ulster Museum if I can. Then I'm on to Derry. I'm super psyched for that.
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