This past weekend I picked my self up and out of the manor and headed off to Northern Ireland (yes, by myself. no, I wasn't nervous. and no, I don't regret it.) I left Friday morning (early!) and took the trains to London Stanstead Airport, then hopped on a plane to Belfast. Once I got to Belfast, I took the bus into the city center and went off looking around. I ended up at City Hall. In the lawn in front they have this cool exhibition of pictures (and explanations) of the building of the Titanic, since it's the 100th Anniversary this year and it was built in Belfast. It was cool to see those pictures and learn more about how they built it and get a sense of the scale of it! City Hall also had free tours, so I went in there and got myself one. Their city hall is really ornate. The guide told us not only about the building itself, but also about the history that took place in the building and Belfast itself. It was really interesting! After the tour I walked around the city centre a bit, picking up something fluffy for Mindy and grabbing a quick bite to eat for dinner. Then it was off to find my hostel. It seemed pretty easy to get to, but mapquest didn't take into account the fact that Europeans have a love for not posting street signs! When I ended up at the other end of the university by the park, I knew I had gone too far, so I sat down on a bench and pulled out my various maps and figured out what I had to do to get there. I was only a block or two away, so that wasn't a big deal. However, once I got to the street, I walked right past it! Still not entirely sure how I did that with the massive signs they have in the windows (one of which was mine) but I did. I figured out what I did wrong though and got there eventually. =) The hostel was great. The owner and employees are really nice and friendly and it was really clean and everything. Breakfast was included in the price! And they had a single room for me (I had to share a bathroom, but let's face it, I'm in college so I'm always sharing bathrooms with random people I don't know!). I spent the evening in my room, watching a movie and such. It was nice and relaxing, especially since I didn't have anyone to go out with or feel like I had to interact with (for a change of pace).
The next day I took a Paddywagon tour of Northern Ireland. I got to the place they were picking us up and had to wait a long time for the bright green coach to roll up (I had overestimated the time). As I found out throughout the day, I was apparently the only one in the entire group of 40-some people who was alone! That made it a little lonely at times, but overall it was good. =) Our first stop on the tour was Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, which goes from the mainland to a little island (cliff to cliff) and was built by salmon fishers according to our guide. It was about a km hike/walk from the car park to the bridge, but it was absolutely gorgeous, so you didn't even notice! And yes, I did go across. I was scared as heck going across and stared straight ahead the entire time and had a firm grasp on both sides of the bridge, but I made it across and back! And it was worth it. The bridge isn't as long as I thought it was before seeing it in person, which made it better, and you got some amazing views of the coast from the island (and the birds!). Our next stop was the Giant's Causeway, which is this little stretch of coast that has all these rock formations on it that look like carved stones, as if it's the ruins of something. The story goes that the giant Fionn McCool had gotten tired of yelling obscenities across the sea to the Scottish giant Benandonner and wanted to go over there and fight him instead. So Fionn carved all these stones by hand and built a causeway over to Scotland (on a related note, you can see Scotland from both the Giant's Causeway and the rope bridge). Once Fionn got over there and saw Benandonner, he realized that the Scot was 3x's his size and hightailed it back across the causeway! He ran to his wife for help, because he knew the Scot would come looking for him now and she told him to get into the bed and dress up like a baby. The Scot did come over and Mrs. McCool invited him in for a cuppa tea, saying that Fionn would be out until 5. While the Scot was drinking tea he noticed Fionn and asked Mrs. McCool who that was, to which she replied, why that's Fionn's baby. Now the Scot got nervous, thinking, if that's how big Fionn's baby is, how big is Fionn? So the Scot ran back across the causeway, tearing it up as he went so that Fionn couldn't follow him across! Now, the geologists say that the Giant's causeway was made from an ancient volcanic eruption, but personally, I like to think that some of Hagrid's ancestors were involved. The walk to the causeway was about a km again, but it was still beautiful to look around, so you wouldn't get bored on the walk! And it was awesome to come around the corner and see the Giant's Causeway! This is the reason that I made the trip! It's amazing how the rocks look! Because they really do look like some giant sat down and carved each and every one individually! I really enjoyed clambering up and around on them as well. It was quite a lot of fun. I was getting hungry though, so eventually I made my way back up to the car park and the hotel where I got some lunch (which was pretty good). While I was eating, the four Welsh gentlemen that were on the tour came in for their lunch and asked me if I was all by myself. When I answered yes, they started talking to me and for the rest of the trip made sure I was on the coach and on the tour and everything! It was so cute! And apparently (because my name's Caitlin) I should tell people that I'm the daughter of some famous Welsh poet and was named after my mother (his wife, whose name was apparently Caitlin as well, though I didn't ask how she spelled it. I had a feeling they'd be disappointed if I told them it was different.). Anyways, it was fun to meet them and have their random comments the rest of the day! Our last stop on the tour was Derry (also known as Londonderry). The city has the most complete city walls in the United Kingdom and had a lot of IRA activity during the Troubles. I chose to take the walking tour of Derry, and throughly enjoyed it! We had a guide who grew up in Derry, so he knew about everything first-hand, which was really interesting. We got to learn about the older history of the city, like the fact that the London guild built the city walls, which is why they added London to the name of the town officially, and about the more recent history of the Troubles. Murals and things like that are still up and it was interesting to hear the stories behind them and everything. I'd really like to learn more about the more recent history on the island, picking up where my Irish history course left off last semester. After Derry, it was the coach trip back to Belfast, where I picked up some food on the way back to the hostel for dinner. I spent the evening in my room, happily eating and chatting and watching a show and went to go get ready for bed early-ish since I had to be up so early the next morning in order to catch the bus to the airport and get my flight. However, that didn't happen because as I was walking back to my room after brushing my teeth, the owner and one of the employees nabbed me and the owner wouldn't let me go to bed until I had stayed up and talked with them awhile! It turned out to be fun and I got to learn a lot of stuff, but I certainly regretted it in the morning when I only had 5 hours of sleep! The employee was really nice though and offered to make me toast in the morning before I left, even though it wasn't breakfast time (and I took advantage of that!).
Sunday morning it was simply breakfast, a walk to the bus centre, a bus to the airport, a flight to Stanstead, a train to a station, the underground to King's Cross, and a train back to Grantham. There, Chloe met me and her mum cooked us (Alayna too) a lovely Sunday roast dinner for Mother's Day! It was really nice! And yummy! I really appreciated it. It was so good to have homecooked food again!
So, I think I have one more post for next week, when Christine and I go find Robin Hood, then nothing for a couple of weeks until Italy (and I'll actually be back in the states when I write them!).
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