Long Overdue

This is probably the third time I promise this so I won’t promise it anymore, but I vow to at least try harder to update my blog more frequently than I have been! Anyway, I love and miss you all. Here is a long overdue blog entry. <3

Every time I take a journey to a new destination in Ireland, I tell myself “this is the most beautiful place on Earth.” Apparently, there are several “most beautiful places on Earth” in my head.
A few weekends ago I decided to cross over into Northern Ireland which is actually a part of the United Kingdom, uses the pound as currency, and is a separate country from the Republic of Ireland where I am studying, although the two countries make up the greater Ireland.
The journey began early in the morning with four other girls from my house by taking a bus trip from Dublin to the northern city of Belfast. As usually, the countryside along the drive was brilliant. Thousands of sheep and endless, rolling green fields passed by my window until I finally dozed in and out of a light sleep before waking up to find myself in Belfast’s city centre. After gathering my belongings the girls and I set out to see all we could of the city before having to catch a train to our hostel later that evening. The city was much smaller than Dublin and the hills surrounding it were covered in a light snow, which was fairly rare as snow doesn’t usually stick around for long. In the center of the city near the government buildings was a large “ferris” type wheel that one could have a ride on for the small price of seven pounds. That roughly converts to about twelve US dollars, so we passed up the ride. Some brilliant person decided that the best place for a Titanic memorial statue was right in the center of the ferris wheel and all of its workings where it was barely visible. Belfast is where the Titanic was built and launched and although we were unable to make it to the actually site where this occurred, we were able to see the cranes that had pieced it together in the distance.
While walking through the city we stopped at St. Ann’s Cathedral, a beautifully built church with amazing architecture and colorful stained glass windows. The WWII museum was simply a small room full of WWII artifacts and glass cases that told about Belfast’s role in WWII. After walking around the city a bit longer and on a tight budget we decided to try our luck at a little restaurant named “Blinkies”. The food was cheap and the menu contained items other than a chicken liver plate or black and white pudding. Black pudding is a sausage filled with I believe a pig’s innards and blood while white pudding is the same but the blood is replaced with bread stuffing. Delicious, I know. After eating our meal it was time to take our north bound train to Coleraine where we would then catch a bus to our hostel for the night in Portstewart. The train ride passed quickly. I read my book while the other girls napped and spoke with two locals, an older man and woman who had been childhood friends and were returning home from a reunion. I couldn’t help but laugh when the woman said she was surprised at home many people attended the reunion and were still alive.  Two hours later our train arrived in Coleraine where we then hopped onto a bus to Portstewart where our hostel was located. The hostel itself was an adorable little apartment situated literally 100 feet from the ocean and was owned by a man named Rick and his little cat Gingie. The night ended with a trip to one of the towns pubs where it was a nice change to see the price of a pint about half of what it is in Dublin.
The next morning I woke to sunlight streaming into the window. After packing our belongings we boarded yet another bus which took us on a short journey to Giant’s Causeway, a formation of thousands of basalt columns on the ocean’s edge that were caused by an ancient volcanic eruption. The scenery along the route to the Causeway was stunning as it usually is driving along a coast in Ireland. The bus raced pass castle ruins with views of an ocean below where people could be seen riding horses. The Causeway itself was amazing as well. It is supposedly composed of over 40,000 pillars that range in height, are almost perfectly hexagonal, and serve as great stepping stones arranged all along the shore. With the waves crashing all around me and the sun shining down from a clear blue sky I couldn’t help but feel at great peace.
The remainder of the trip was fairly uneventful. A bus and train back to Belfast followed by another bus to Dublin left me feeling exhausted. Belfast and Northern Ireland we beautiful. Really though, I feel like I need a new word or way of describing my experiences. I have trouble finding words for what I’m experiencing it and try so hard to paint an image of it all using my words but I feel like I’m falling short. The only words I can think of to describe what I’m experiencing are beautiful, amazing, wonderful, stunning, breathtaking, exciting…and though they all seem generic and repetitive sometimes I’ll do my best to continue to fill you all in on my journeys. Hopefully my pictures help a bit as well.  Next stop: London, England.

Cheers and Love,
Sam