These pictures are brought to you by: Ireland’s extremely confusing public transportation system. One loaf of bread and a pack of meat and cheese that sustained us for the entire weekend. A lame soup shop that turned off their wifi router when they realized we were just sitting in the corner “borrowing” wifi. The countless ATM’s that failed to let us take out pounds throughout the trip. The one bus driver who gave us a lift “free of charge” when we looked like we were on the edge of breaking down/becoming homeless. Our Air BnB where the front door didn’t lock. AND the flat tire on the bus we rode back to Dublin.
So you could say that we had a few problems in our little road trip to Northern Ireland a couple weekends ago, but you could also say we had a lot of adventure. In the moment, they were problems. On the last leg of our journey back, when we realized that nothing else could possibly go wrong, we were not going to run out of money, and we were not going to become Ireland’s newest homeless ladies, everything suddenly became a huge, hilarious adventure.
All of these snaps are from Giant’s Causeway in the very most northern part of Northern Ireland. It’s a natural rock formation of 40,000 interlocking hexagonal rock columns, and it’s insane. It looks far too incredible to be natural, and they let everyone just climb all over it! I don’t think my pictures do justice at all of how large and tall and expansive the whole thing was, so just go see it for yourself next time you’re in this lovely country (;
We also saw Belfast during this weekend, the capital of Northern Ireland, birthplace of the Titanic, and home to lots and lots of old buildings and memorials. We had a great day just wandering and finding all the interesting things to do, without much of a formed plan before hand. That was a new experience for myself, the ultimate over-planner when it comes to trips, but it was so much fun!
We didn’t make it to a church on that Sunday morning, so instead we perched on a few of the hexagon columns, crashing waves below us and wind around us, and read the Word of God to each other. I do believe that church is really important, but there was something so special about sitting in a remote and amazing corner of God’s creation and just enjoying Him together. I think to God, that counted as church. (:
Northern Ireland is such an interesting place, because as soon as you cross the border you switch from the Euro to the Pound Stirling again, seeing as Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Britain. I didn’t even realize until this trip that there are two different countries in the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland has only been a country for less than 100 years. It makes for some really…interesting relationships between the two countries, even though they have so much in common. One of the best parts of being up north is that the already charming Irish accent gets even that much thicker, the further up the country you go. I’m so glad we had the time to get away for a weekend and see this beautiful country, it was worth every flat tire and navigational trouble.
the joyful decrease 