Giants and Whiskey...

Belfast..
Again I got up at the butt crack of dawn. What's gotten into me?
The lady from the hostel talked us into taking a tour of the coast and talked us out of visiting the Blarney stone.

In her words, "I've got a stone right here you can Kiss." (Imagine that sentence in a really thick Irish/English accent). She basically said the Blarney stone was a tourist trap and not worth it, so we will pick another destination on Sat.

Ok....took a cab to our tour launch. Our driver filled us in on Belfast politics and all I can say is wow. Also, their prison system was recently reformed in the early 90's. You can guess much of the political conflict was over religious reasons and the whole issue with Irish vs. English rule and Nationality. Much of the city is covered with large political murals and yes Bush was a subject on the international mural section. The cabbie also filled us in on what parts of the city were bombed. A hotel downtown was bombed 43 times. Some people from our tour are staying there...hahaha.

Also, the Titanic was built in Belfast. The Titanic was fine when it left the Belfast docks, but Unfortunately there was a Scottish navigator and an English captain (that was the joke the driver told us).

We went to Carrick-e-Rede Rope bridge, North Atrim Coast, stopped by the Bushmill's distillery (unfortunately we couldn't get on the tour). Peter had a Guinness pie for lunch...it's like a roast stew with no veggies. It was a lot of meat. Then we went to the Giant's Causeway and Dunlace castle. The Giant's Causeway is basically rock formations formed from cooling lava that burst through the surface in the Cainozoic period, but the Irish say it was created from a giant in Ireland that wanted to fight a giant in Scotland, so he built a bridge. There's a long interesting story that goes along with it. Sounds like a story my Dad would have told me when I was little and swear up and down that it was true.

The scenery was quite breathtaking. I've included a few photos of our fav. pics. I tried catching a goat, but they were too far.

Our luck continues....Peter got lunch for free, I felt bad and paid (they forgot to charge us). We also got a free beer last night. Our Euro rail to Dublin was not to be included on our Euro rail pass and the train dude told us to just go ahead. I'm wondering if this will get us in trouble when they come to verify during the trip. Hmmm. So now we are sitting on a train headed back to Dublin and we don't have a place to stay. I hope the Hostels aren't full.

The train guy hasn't come yet.

Ok this is way later in the night...the train guy never came and we couldn't find a hostel for the night. Apparently it's a big "curling" weekend....like football, but not, so there's this big competitive event and there are hardly hotels left. So note to self always book in advance on the weekends or you are SOL.

We are going to a seaport town tomorrow and then Galway...we didn't book a hostel yet, but we did book a flight to London on Monday...it was cheaper to fly than take a ferry. I'm drunk typing right now...so I hope my grammar rocks.

For more pics just click here.

Eli