Tour:
A bus took a group of us to North Ireland, through Belfast. We made a stop right before getting to Belfast, at a gas station, where a lady was almost left behind because she didn't pay attention to the time schedule. Super annoying. Then we drove through Belfast. The guide pointed out a crane marked H&W (wolf) that apparently is from the same company that worked with the Titanic. We did just a drive by initially of Belfast to get to the Dark Hedges.
The Dark Hedges were super interesting, it's a bunch of trees that grew to be intertwined. It is also a filming location for the show, Game of Thrones, which we all know I am a fan of. This film location was used during season 2 for the King's Road that my daughter, arya, traveled to escape Kings landing. After Dark Hedges, we drove to Crek-a-ride rope bridge which was pretty amazing. We had to walk quite a way to get to this bridge that connected the mainland to an island off to the side. Awesome views throughout but we were on a time limit so we rushed down and spent a lot of time on the island
It was very warm after a bit with all the walking we were doing. From Crek-a-ride rope bridge we stopped to eat at Fullerton Arms. I ordered a Steak Burger and my husband got the Beef Stew. Both items were amazing. I was worried about the beef stew as I am a picky eater but it was very good and we both had half of each meal. Fullerton Arms had a Game of Thrones dedicated room and Door #6. The tree's from The Dark hedges that have fallen due to storms have been used to create handcrafted doors representing Game of Thrones. There are said to be six different one's throughout northern Ireland. Which makes me think, where are the other doors?
After lunch, we went to Giant's Causeway. The story there is that a giant was trash talking another giant he saw from afar (in nearby Scotland). The Giant located in Ireland began throwing rocks across the ocean to build a bridge to go meet the Scottish giant. The Irish giant saw how big the Scottish giant really was and freaked out and ran back to his house. His wife hid him and dressed her husband up as a baby. When the Scottish giant did come by, he saw how big Irish's giant baby was and imagined how big his father must be and got scared and ran back tearing up the rock bridges along his way.
So, giant's causeway is a punch of rock formations caused by Lava according to my husband, when i asked how it really happened. It was an amazing site. There were stepping stones to nowhere all over. the earth around this part also had ridges all over. It was quite a site. I can't even explain, so here are some pictures.
Nature is amazing. We did some souvenir shopping at the Giants Causeway Hotel Gift shop.
After leaving Giant's Causeway the tour took us to Dunlance Castle and we took some photos there.
From the castle we drove about an hour or so south to Belfast were we had an hour to wander. We stopped by a store called Carrols. After we were in route back to Dublin which was two hours south.
In Dublin, we went to a pub called Buckers which was close to the Trinity Bar Hotel. They had Live music which is what I sought. My husband got two beers while I got a fruity alcoholic drink. He got Five steps and Petroli. We shared some nachos.
Around 10 PM we headed back to our hotel via rail. Issue was we had problems finding the entrance to the rail. We went to Tara Station but could not find the entrance. We accidentally walked into a business center thinking that was it and then got locked in like dummies. Security had to let us out. Then walked down to Pearce Station and began freaking out because we still couldn't find the entrance and thought it was closed. After asking a garda in a shop we found it. We got to the station and waited about 15 minutes to board train. Got off at Dillkenny station. We then walked back to hotel to sleep...
