Top o' the mornin' to ya...

My Irish weekend began when I caught the number 42 bus from outside school all the way to Liverpool Street Station. It was here that I thought perhaps my only option to get a Stanstead express train ticket was to buy online and pick up from all the machines dotted around, as there didn't seem to be an option for buying at the station - which I thought strange. I went online on my iPhone to buy a ticket, thinking how ever so clever I was. Fail. It said you had to allow at least three hours for pickup. I needed it NOW! 

I ended up joining a queue at the National Express ticketing office, thinking I could ask one of them for the next fastest way to Stanstead Airport. As I waited in the queue, I observed a mother and teenage son having an argument which was not very pretty- and then a woman at one of the ticket desks started screaming "Well call f**king security then! They can drag me away!!!". My turn in the queue couldn't come quickly enough. 

Finally it was my turn, and as luck would have it I mentioned that I really wanted a Stanstead express return ticket- and much to my delight the woman serving me said "No problem." Sorted. Whew. Tragedy averted!! 

When I boarded the train (which is only two weeks old- so amazingly clean and nice inside) I walked carriage to carriage looking for a window seat. No such luck. Then I had the problem of having to decide who I wanted to sit next to for the next 45 minutes. Luckily, I had options. 
• The overweight lady who was eating BK which was dribbling down her front. 
• The Asian man who was already sleeping and rather sprawled across both seats. 
• The business woman who had her suitcase on her seat and clearly didn't want company. 
• The cute guy who, as I got closer, stunk of B.O (bummer)
• The older gentleman with the white hair and red nose. Harmless. Probably wouldn't even talk to me. Perfect. 

"Excuse me, would you mind if I sat here?"
...."I'd mind more if you didn't" he replied in the thickest Irish accent. Outstanding! I was off to Ireland, and was sitting next to an Irishman on the train for the next 45 minutes. I decided to make friends after he asked if I was going on holiday, or going home. He was friendly. I managed to pick his brains about Belfast and he recommended some things to not miss- he even wrote these places down on the back cover of my TNT magazine. Hoorah! 

When we arrived at the airport, he invited me to join him for a pint, but as I was waiting for Kylie, I didn't. He said I was the loveliest girl he'd met, and that I had a beautiful smile and sparkly eyes. I thanked him and told him that I got that from my mother. Did you hear that mum? Winning!! He then offered to give me his number so we could catch up again in London some time. Hmmm. I wasn't sure about that and didn't know what to say, so just said "That's kind of you" and then his check in desk was closing, so he had to go- much to his disappointment. Not so much to mine! Bless. I even seem to get picked up by Irishman who are older than my father. To be sure, to be sure. 

And so my weekend began...

As the plane was descending in preparation for landing at George Best Airport, the city could not be seen through the thick fog. Welcome to Ireland... You can't see it, but it's green as green can be! We found our way out of the airport and eventually to our hostel. If you come to Belfast, I can recommend Global Village Hostel. An easy walk to the city with nice and clean rooms and bathrooms (highly important on my list!!!). We made up our beds and then ventured out into "town" (it isn't a big place!) and found a "wee" cocktail bar. After a couple of cocktails and nutting out a weekend itinerary, including booking a day trip to The Giants Causeway, we found our way back to the hostel and hit the hay. 

We woke early on Saturday morning to find our way to Donnegal Road (tee hee)- the girl at our hostel was not too sure how we would walk there, so called us a taxi. The meeting place for the tour bus bound for The Giants Causeway was literally three minutes by taxi. That was a little embarrassing! By 10am, after waiting for other passengers to arrive, we finally left. We stopped off at several locations along the way, and Ian, our friendly wee Irish bus driver, was hugely knowledgable and talked away about different locations as he drove the bus. He also used the word "wee" a lot. A lot, a lot!

Places we visited included Glenarm- made famous for salmon fishing, Carnlough which was a quaint seaside village, Carrick A Rede- which means "Rock in the Road" where Kylie and I braved the death defying rope bridge, strung 30m above the sea- and notably the best place to catch salmon from. I was stoked that for the first (but certainly not last! time I could use my National Trust membership and get in for *free* thanks to Dave and Anne Nellist- (best farewell gift ever!!) The bridge wasn't really death defying- Kylie and I walked across easily... And Kylie was being a true Australian wearing thongs. I mean jandals! 

Outside Carrickfergus Castle in Glenarm

Carrickfergus Castle, Glenarm 

Carrick A Rede, with 'Sheep Island' in the background

From there we had a quick visit to the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery which has distilled whiskey since 1608 (mad - isn't it?!) then onwards to the whole point of the trip; The Giants Causeway. I was only aware of the Causeway as I had heard David speak of it on a few occasions, and he had a poster in his bedroom back in the day, it was somewhere he was always keen to visit. Kylie had not heard of it before, but we both can now safely say that it was well worth the trip. The Giants Causeway is a world heritage sight, ranked alongside Mt Everest for it's importance to humankind. 

At Bushmills Distillery. Shame I'm not a whiskey fan. I thought of Vincent Lipanovic when here, though!

The Giants Causeway, Antrim

An impressive natural phenomenon!

There are two possibilities which explain the phenomenon that is The Giants Causeway. One is that is was caused 65 million years ago by a shift in the earths plates, which caused cracks that lava poured through, hardened and formed layers of basalt rock. Apparently hardly any volcanic eruptions occurred for 2 million years. The warm and wet climate of the time weathered out the rocks, and formed a deep red soil. The cracks then opened up again and allowed more lava to flow out. 

Some of the lava poured into a river valley where it cooled really slowly, shrinking and cracking quite evenly. This, evidently, is where the Causeway columns were created. Approximately 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, the shoreline of the Giants Causeway was exposed, and this is what we see today. And it is impressive. Whew. Long-winded explanation. There may be a pop quiz at the end of this blog so I hope you absorbed some of this information. 

The second option? 'Tis a story about Finn MacCool, an Irish giant, who wanted to battle with a rival in Scotland. Think Australia Vs. New Zealand. Or Murrays Bay Intermediate Vs. Northcross Intermediate. The Scottish giant was called Benandonner. The two giants had never met- so Finn decided to build enormous stepping stones across the sea so that the Scottish giant could cross to Ireland and face him in battle. 

It gets funnier... because Finn, upon seeing how gargantuan Benandonner was, fled home in fear and asked his wife to hide him. His wife did hide him, by disguising him as a baby and placing him in a huge cradle. When Benandonner saw how large the baby was- he decided that the baby's father, Finn, must be very giant indeed and fled home to Scotland in terror, ripping up the Causeway - just in case Finn followed him. This is why the causeway is not linked- there is some on the coast of Ireland and some on the Scottish coast... The surviving ends of the Causeway built by Finn MacCool- with the clever-clogs wife! 

Once we were back in Belfast after a fabulous day of learning and sight-seeing, we were utterly exhausted. We climbed off the bus, and decided that to go back to the hostel at 7pm would be a mistake- we were so tired that we were afraid we wouldn't come out again! On venturing out, we went into Lavery's Pub, a famous family owned pub in Belfast, where I enjoyed a Guinness (it had to be done) and a meal. We had another secret agenda... Kylie's surname is Lavery... We were hoping for a discount or a free pint but no such luck! We finished up there (after being stared out by ugly, balding and fat Irishman smacking their lips) and went back to the hostel, stopping along the way to try our hand at "planking". We enjoyed a 12 minute powernap before getting dressed to go out for a drink- and a spot more planking. We weren't out for long and were tucked up in bed shortly after midnight. 

Kylie is a fast mover. She opened a pub on her first day in Belfast. Not bad... not bad...

To be sure, to be sure... have a pint 'o Guinness!

Kylie and I at her pub.

Kylie planking inside the University grounds...

Kylie planking on a couch...

Me planking outside The University...

...and on a brick column... this was hard... and I was holding on (cheating!)

On Sunday morning, we got up, packed our things and checked out. We walked towards the city in order to find a hop on/hop off bus tour and saw a man in a "blue coat" who worked for Allen's tours, the same company we went to The Causeway with, standing across the road shouting "Day trips, hop on bus tours", so we crossed the road and said "Yes please"- and were incredibly stoked to hear that it was only £5- usually £12.50! We were picked up within 10 minutes and started the tour, which was incredibly informative, but a little annoyed at the weather as it made the sights difficult to see. 

Highlights included Falls Road, where there are incredible murals, the Titanic Quarter, where the great lady Titanic was built, and the East and West sides of Belfast. I didn't realise that the city was still divided to this day, and as the tour guide was explaining to us all about it, I felt tears burning in the back of my eyes and a lump in my throat- it just seems so very sad all that has gone on, and continues to go on. It is far more peaceful here now compared to 15 years ago, but the Catholics and Protestants still don't really communicate and the walls are fully closed and locked by nightfall. The stories we heard were gut wrenchingly sad- it seems that too many innocents were caught up in it and lost their lives. 

These murals are quite incredible

The tour ended and we hopped off, deciding that we wanted to go back to the Titanic Quarter, so we grabbed the nearest taxi and made our way there. When we got closer, Lee, our driver told us that there wasn't much to see- and that he would wait for us. We thought this was really kind, so hopped out. It looked like we hopped out to nothing but a dockyard. Which was exactly what we did.... There was a hole in the ground which we thought *might* have been where the Titanic was built... We were quickly approached by a man in a fluro yellow jacket who told us that we weren't allowed to be in there. Oops. We just followed our taxi man under the barrier- we thought it was ok! He then said we could ask any questions of him and he would be happy to answer, so we asked him a few questions which he kindly answered (this was not the location Titanic was built!) and went on our merry way- back to the taxi and onwards up the road to where the Titanic was *really* built. 

The taxi driver offered to wait for us again as we had a look at the visitor centre, so we took him up on his offer, left our backpacks in the taxi and wandered into the Titanic Pump house and visitor centre. The pit, or slipway, where the ship was built is *huge*, but then, it had to be to build a monstrosity of a ship that was 11 stories high! The visitor centre itself was disappointing, not much to see or read. Even now I am surprised that there is no purpose built museum for the Titanic, being it was built here and all! Good news, though- in March 2012 an interactive Titanic museum is opening, in time for the centenary- complete with artifacts and interactive displays. It sounds really impressive and the building looks like a star from above, to symbolise the White Star Line. It also looks a little like an iceberg... But sounds fabulous. I would like to come back when it is finished- Saxon! What do you think?!!!!! Anyway, we were out of the visitor centre within ten minutes and hoping that the taxi, with our backpacks on board, was still waiting for us. It wasn't. 

So very cool!! Such a surreal experience to be on the very location that Titanic was constructed.

The slipway that Titanic was built in... surreal!

I called the Taxi driver (thank goodness we had his number!!) and he said that he had to drop some people off and that he would be back in five minutes. My faith in humanity was restored. Briefly. 

Fifteen minutes later, after starting to think about the hassle to report our bags stolen (hmmm.... Is it stealing if you leave your bags on a taxi? Or did we *give* them away??) at long last the taxi came back. Our faith in humanity was restored. We then had Lee, the taxi man, drive us back to the East and West walls so that we could take some photos, which due to the bad weather, we were unable to do on the bus tour! We even wrote our names on the East wall which is something most people who visit do, even Bill Clinton, supposedly. 

Leaving my mark....

The Beatles were really onto something...

The murals on Falls Road

We finished off our day with lunch at The Kitchen Bar, which came recommended by Lee, then phoned him up again to come collect us and deliver us to George Best airport. We were so fortunate to have our very own taxi driver at our beck and call- so we left him with a tip and a Bushmills Whiskey chocolate bar and headed into the airport to end our Emerald Isle weekend. And that is how far we made it... Hours later we are still delayed and bored of waiting... But we have enjoyed our time here and I for one, would love to come back- to be sure, to be sure! And with that, I shall leave you with an old Irish blessing...


May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Cheery bye :)