Our first real day in Belfast was really random but nonetheless a great introduction to Northern Ireland! Instead of hitting our hostel first, we hit a laundromat and spent an hour doing all our clothes... It's truly amazing how much you come to appreciate little things like a washing machine. What made our washing experience even better was the fact that we found a little pop-up Tim Hortons stand across the road. In all honesty, Kiri started crying; she was so excited! It didn't have anything that we recognized, other than some boston cream donuts, so we ate those for lunch as we watched our clothes go around and around in the washing machine.
We found our hostel after that; and quickly fell in love with it. It was located in a great part of the city and staffed by backpackers like us! So we made some friends who gave us some suggestions and soon we set off for the botanical gardens.
We spent just enough time walking through a really pretty greenhouse for me to take a picture to Instagram before reading a sign that alerted us to a mutant squid thing named Wilson that lived in the depths of the greenhouse. It freaked us out so we went and got some ice cream and watched all the dads and their kidlets play in the park (it was Father's Day).
After picking up groceries, we cooked up some surprisingly decent chicken fajitas and headed out to a pub called Robinsons with the most INCREDIBLE live music. Seriously. It was a Sunday night and it was standing room only; it was absolutely packed and we discovered why as soon as the band started their set. We absolutely loved it and right then and there decided that we'd be back every night of our stay in Belfast.
The next morning, we headed out on a tour to hit up the major attractions around Belfast. Our first stop was some castle on a pier where we petted a dog. I'm really bad at remembering castles and why they're important so I'm going to skip forward to the next stop, which was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge! It is essentially a rope bridge that was used historically by fishermen, as it connects the mainland to a tiny little island. We were incredibly lucky; the sky was so clear that we could see across the sea to Scotland and the ocean was as blue as the water in Hawaii. Absolutely breathtaking; I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!
After that, we headed to a place for lunch (Kiri and I packed some sandwiches because we bought too many groceries again and have yet to figure out portions). Then we hit the oldest whiskey distillery in Ireland (at least, the oldest licensed one haha) where Kiri almost bought a chicken tea kettle cozy because she's cool like that.
The last stop of the day was the most magnificent; we got to spend almost 2 hours exploring the Giants Causeway. This place; I honestly cannot do adequate justice to how insanely beautiful it is. There is a reason they call it the 8th wonder of the world. We were just so incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful day to explore the causeway; the crystal blue water sparkled as a backdrop in all our pictures.
I suppose I should explain what it is; scientists will tell you that the rock formations there were formed by some volcanoes and lava and etc (kiris boyfriend Ian gave her a great description) but locals will tell you that some giants back in the day are the cause of it. Apparently there was a feud between a giant who lived in Scotland and one who lived in Ireland and this caused lots of issues. So the Irish giant (his name was Finn McCool) challenged the scottish giant to a duel and built a huge pathway between Scotland and Ireland. However, McCool chickened out before the fight and wanted to run away, so his wife got smart and put some sleeping potion in his lunchtime beer to solve the problem. McCool obviously passed out and his wife dressed him up as a baby, even building a baby crib for the giant. And when the Scottish giant came knocking, McCool's wife told him that her husband was out working in the field but that he'd be back soon. She then invited the Scot into their home for tea. The Scottish giant took one look at McCool dressed up as a massive baby and freaked out, demanding to know if the massive sleeping thing was McCool's baby. McCool's wife said yes, that this was his baby and the Scottish giant lost it and got scared. If that tiny sleeping baby was that big, he thought, how big would it's father be? And so, the Scottish giant ran back to Scotland and smashed the pathway behind him, to keep McCool from being able to come after him, thus creating what we now know was the Giants Causeway.
Kiri and I spent two hours climbing the rocks and taking pictures; at one point Kiri became a tourist attraction as some other visitors slung an arm around her, held up some seaweed and posed for a picture. I just about died laughing.
After our tour, we came home to the hostel, ate our leftover fajitas (again, we will never understand portion sizes when cooking) before making some new friends to head back out to Robinson's pub with. The band that played there that night was even better than before; it was something you just have to experience once in your life. A traditional Irish pub, some drinks, and a local band singing songs like "Galway Girl;" the energy of that place cannot possible be adequately described.
Our last day in Belfast was really random; we decided spur of the moment to rent a car with two other people we'd met (who also just so happened to be Canadians!) and drive to the beach. Now, they drive on the opposite side of the road here and I am happy to say that Christine from Calgary wins a prize for successfully driving us all around Northern Ireland. It was also a stick shift vehicle and she did it all with her left hand, which is beyond impressive to me because I can't even drive a standard at home. She also did a number of traffic circles backwards to what we're used to, which makes me think that it's about time I just bite the bullet and finally figure out how to drive around one in canada (I'm that person who drives out of their way to avoid them). The only unfortunate thing about the day was that it was incredibly foggy close to the sea, so the bright sunshine we were having in Belfast didn't really follow us out to the coast. But we made the best of it, stopping at a restaurant for lunch where we ate way too much food because it was all just too great. We also stopped out at Dunluce Castle where we walked around and took pictures of the "Irish Mist" as you really couldn't see much in the fog.
After getting back from our "beach day" we changed and headed out to see 22 Jump Street with Christine... I know. We are in Ireland and we went to a movie theatre but in our defense, the movie was hilarious and we did go out after.
We finished our day again at Robinson's; we continued to be impressed by the music and the crazy crowds of people.
We definitely fell in love with Northern Ireland; I will be back to Belfast one day, that's for sure. We are currently sitting on a train destined for Galway, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the Republic of Ireland has to throw at us this week! There's no time to really miss the places we've been and the people we've met along the way yet; it's been an incredibly busy couple of months. With only a week left before we head back to Namao, we are trying to make the most of it!