Northern Ireland {Weekend Getaway}

August has been a busy!  Last weekend especially.  We took a weekend trip to Northern Ireland, then came home and moved on Sunday.  More on the move later....let's talk Northern Ireland.

Brian @ Giant's Causeway

I was sucked into buying a Daily Deal for a 2 night stay in a Castle.  It sounded romantic, it looked grand in the photos, and I even priced checked online and it seemed like a great deal.  The back side of the castle did not disappoint, it was beautiful countryside as far as you could see.  The front side is what they didn't talk about.  I'll get to that in a bit.  In the end, it would have been great for a 1 night stay, but the second night was a bit too long.  

The drive was 3 hours from Dublin.  About an hour into the drive, the speed on the highway suddenly changed from 120 to 60, and we just couldn't figure it out, there was no reason at all for us to slow down that much on the highway?!?  We kept up with the pace of traffic, around 100, but the signs kept saying 60.  It took a good 20 minutes to finally figure it out.  We had crossed the boarder into Northern Ireland and were now in the UK - so the signs went from KPH to MPH (yep, they do use MPH in the UK).  No "Welcome to Northern Ireland" signs, no indication that the road signs were changing from metric to imperial, and no difference in what the speed signs looked like. How were we supposed to know?

Part of the front of the Castle

We drove through some amazing countryside before finally pulling into the town of Dungiven and arriving at the Castle.  The room was nice, and the view we had of the countryside out back was great.

The room

The view was beautiful

Like I mentioned earlier, the views from the back were beautiful and you would think that you were out in the middle of nowhere.

Back of the Castle

Self timer shot - the view

Cute one

The part that made the second night a little awkward was the town.  I'm not even sure if you could call it a town.  The only sit down restaurant in town was at our hotel.  Other than that, you had your choice of take-away pizza, Indian or fish & chips.  There were plenty of pubs, but only shady looking locals were there, not really the night life scene we were looking for.  Needless to say, we had dinner at the hotel both nights.

This says "Summer in Ireland" quite well.  Sun, but always rain looming nearby

If you know anything about Northern Ireland, you'll know that it's a very divided country.  Driving through a town you would instantly know their allegiance, it was crazy.  You're either in a Catholic town that supports a unified Ireland, or you're in a Protestant town that supports the UK.  Some areas like Belfast (which we only drove though) are so divided that fences separate neighborhoods where you see the Union Jack on one side of the fence, and the Irish Tricolor flag on the other side.  Even the town of Derry which we stayed close to is called Derry by the Catholics, and Londonderry by the Protestants.  It's very interesting how close to home the divide sits.  Usually when you think of religious and political strife, it brings to minds Sunni and Shiite, Hutu and Tutsi, the Middle East or Africa.  We hear that the North is much better (and safer) than it was even 10 years ago, but still today it is incredibly divided and you get the feeling like it can combust at any time.

This town clearly was in support of the UK

On Saturday, we took a drive further north along the Coastal Highway stopping for some sightseeing at Dunluce Castle & the Giants Causeway.

I thought the coastal views were amazing here

Visting Dunluce Castle

It was in ruins, but very impressive to think what it once was

Just a few miles down the road from the Castle was the Giants Causeway.  In short, the story goes....Finn MacCool, an Irish Giant, built a walkway from Northern Ireland to Scotland.  He challenged the Scottish giant to a fight, but then fled when he realized how massive the Scottish giant was.  The giant from Scotland came looking for Finn.  Finn's wife disguised him as her baby boy and when the Scottish giant saw how big the baby was, he was scared to see the Dad.  He stomped back to Scotland tearing apart the pathway so Finn couldn't come after him....

on the rocks

In reality, due to some volcanic activity, these hexagonal rocks formed and created the Giant's Causeway.

Hexagonal rocks

part of the Causeway

our photographer forgot to get the background...

This is what the one above should have looked like

Lot's of rocks

Rocks and green cliffs - we are in Ireland

We decided to walk up 167 stairs to avoid the crowds on the way back up
and were rewarded with this view

A view and a lot of wind - the sign said it is the windiest point in all of Ireland

And we saw some "happy" sheep, of course.  We call them "happy"
since they are living on large field of green grass, not the industrial farming that you see in the States.

And we saw this newborn cow.  It seriously just came out - the mama was helping
him stand and cleaning off the goo. He still had the cord attached and everything, eww.

Back on the road, we made a loop back inland and stopped in the town of Bushmills.  And what's a trip to Bushmills without stopping at the whiskey distillery?  Well, honestly, I probably would have been ok without it.  Lucky for me, at the end of the tour, I was able to order a Hot Toddy, instead of straight whiskey.

Bushmills Whisky distillery

Yep, I made him pose for me

And then we headed back to the hotel, for dinner at the hotel restaurant.  The food was decent, but the atmosphere was a bit bleak.

What's an Irish road trip without this shot?

Due to the lack of things to do in the town, it was an early night.  We were up and on the road by 8am the next morning - on our way back to Dublin to move into our new Bungalow!