Ireland Adventures Day 7: Back to Dublin, stop in Belfast

We decide to loop back to Dublin to complete our trip.. we broke up the drive by stopping in Belfast. I felt like Belfast was very similar to how I imagine London to be. Fast paced. Crowded. Busy. Loud. And boy do a LOT of people in this country smoke. And all the time. Walking down the sidewalk so its hard to get away from it.

We found a huge outdoor shopping center and got out to walk around Belfast..we brought Grandmas wheelchair so we have been able to go longer distances without a problem. We stopped at great store that specialized in woolen goods and I bought at great pair of socks.

We used Yelp to find a good place for lunch and ended up at a Chinese buffet which we found funny. Dont worry we had our share of the traditional irish fare. Lots of fish and chips.. anyways the buffet was awesome.

We got back in the car and finished our trek to Dublin. Seth did so great driving for this trip. It's hard to navigate and for him tricky to follow the signs and all while keeping on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car, he did amazing.  Only.once or twice did we go the wrong way down a street.

We ended up at our final destination hotel and it's very pretty. Tomorrow we plan to do one final tour of Dublin

Ireland: many random photos

As you can imagine, I've taken numerous pictures and so I wanted to dedicate a post to just photos. Enjoy!

Cool steps on the roof of Bunratty Castle. 

Ireland Adventures Day 6 Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-rede bridge, Dark Hedges

We packed all 3 of the things i had hoped to see into this day. We started at the Giant's Causeway. It's an incredible natural wonder...
It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. They are all pretty amazing because they look hand carved. Straight edges and some symetric. Very cool... it was a long hike down to see them but if you paid extra you could take a shuttle. Grandma took the shuttle down and we all rode it up to the top at the end. I took MANY photos as usual.

Next we made our way into town and had lunch at a local café.  I ate fish n' chips for the 3rd time this week and it was delish.

We then asked the locals for directions and made our way to the mysterious Dark Hedges.

The story is that a very wealthy family wanted to line their very long driveway with these nice little birch trees and over the centuries they've become massive.  They are a popular landmark for photographers and tourists and and locals alike. Quite creepy at night. Beautiful.

Last, but certainly not least, we made our way several miles to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge. It was over a mile long hike so Grandma stayed and took a nap in the car. The wind was so powerful I could knock a man over. We hiked to the base of a cliff essentially. . Walked down a stairwell and onto a steel rope bridge accross to a small Island (Carrick)  ... very different than America.. the island had no safety railing or fence.  It was up to your own discretion to be careful. And it was crazy exhilarating.  Enough chatter. Enjoy the pictures!

Ireland Adventures Day 5 : Cliffs of Moher and our journey to Northern Ireland

We spent day 5 doing a LOTS of driving. Traveling from the town of Shannon all the way to Cushendun up in Northern Ireland.  Our first big stop was the Cliffs of Moher. So majestic and awesome. The photos don't begin to capture how grand it was. But i tried...

Next we traveled into Northern Ireland. It was in total about 6-7 hours of driving including stops. We passed the border into the UK and realized that it's very different than the south.  Even though it's still ireland the atmosphere was different. We had also finally gotten used to using the Euro, and had to readjust to learn the use of Sterling (pounds)...confusing! Anyway we drove for what seemed like forever but the scenery was absoloutly stunning. The Irish countryside was endless and we ended up on a lot of back roads as that's all that's all thats available in some parts. There are lots of sheep but also lots of cows. Instead of wooden fences most fields are seperate by stone walls. Pretty impressive to see.

At one point we passed a few peole training their hounds and stopped to take a picture like a typical tourist would do and the Irish gentlemen came to the car and started chatting. 30 minutes later we continued on our way. He talked politics, local sights,  presidental history...he, like 99% of the irish, and VERY friendly, always chatty, talk WAY too fast,  and very helpful.

We ended up at the far northeast coast of ireland in a town called Cushendun.(not to be mistaken for Cushendall) and the last 6 miles of the trip was on a "street" that was literally a glorified bike path by American standards... it was very curvy and we stopped at least twice for sheep in the road and had to pull over to the grass or back up a ways just to be able to let oncoming traffic pass. It was really exciting to say the least.

We arrived at 9 pm at our B&B and got settled. It was seriously the nicest one we've ever seen
Sweet hostess.  Lovely rooms. Beautiful clean home with antique decor. Very nice. :D