A LegenDERRY Weekend--Part III

Now, let's see… Where was I… Ah yes! And so we left the Giant's Causeway (so sad), and were on our way to the Old Bushmill's Whiskey Distillery. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures on the tour… But I do have a few to show!

We took a guided tour around the distillery and saw how and where the whiskey is made. My gosh, this place is HUGE. They have more whiskey in storage than I could believe, plus the hundreds of thousands of litres that were being made while we were there! It was great to see all the different elements of the process, I was impressed for sure. So much so that I bought a bottle to bring home!

Our final stop before heading back to the hostels was the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge, a bridge to a little fishing island that is now a lovely tourist attraction.

It was a long walk down to the bridge, up and down a hundred and eighty-comething steps and a bit of slope. It was positively exhausting, but positively deadly (awesome). I still can't believe I crossed this bridge. As someone who is very freaked out by heights, I thought it would be much worse than it was. However, I did it, confidently and excitedly. I wanted to stay on it longer! I felt very safe and secure, and I had a craic time snapping pictures of my friend while trying to walk across and view the scenery.

When we got back to the hostel after a long day of walking and climbing, we had a Derry pub crawl to look forward to!

Beforehand, though, we decided to go out for Mexican food for my friend Jessica's birthday. It was pretty good, but not as good as Chipotle. We headed to the first pub, where we got a free cocktail comprised of something sweet and red. At the second pub, we got nightclub-style dancing all to ourselves, plus sour apple shots, and the third pub provided me with my first-ever shot of Jäger! I also discovered a DELICIOUS new flavored cider called Kopparberg. I especially enjoyed the peach and mixed berry flavors. We also met a couple of really drunk guys, one of whom looked just like Neil Patrick Harris (all the way to the right in the picture). Very entertaining guys. I even got a bit of a taste of Irish karaoke! Not my best karaoke ever, but hey, it's been a while.

One more installment, friends! Until then :)

A LegenDERRY Weekend--Part II

We began Day 2 of my amazing trip to Derry with a stop at this lovely castle. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the castle, but I know it has a long history of going back and forth between Scottish and Irish families, and it has been changed and rebuilt several times. It was really cool to see how much of it was still standing, and to get to walk around and see what the different rooms would have been, including a watch tower.

After a quick stop at the coffee shop, it was back on the bus, and off to the Giant's Causeway. This was my absolute favorite stop on the trip, and I'll tell you why after you have a look at some of my favorite pictures.

The legend of the Causeway is this. Finn McCool was the biggest and fiercest giant in all of Ireland, and he liked to stroll along the coast of Northern Ireland and watch Scottish giant Benandonner. Finn McCool would yell across the water at Benandonner and make fun of him because there was no way he was as big and as fierce as he. But Benandonner would just ignore him. Finn McCool was getting impatient, so he started building a pathway out of rocks over to Scotland to challenge Benandonner to a fight. But as Finn McCool was getting closer, he started to notice how big Benandonner really was. There was no way he could beat him! So Finn McCool ran in fear! But Benandonner was fed up, so he chased him. When Finn McCool got home to his wife, he didn't know what to do--Benandonner was chasing him and was going to kill him! His wife told him to quickly lay down in the corner with a baby bonnet on. So Finn McCool did as his wife told him, laying in the corner dressed as a baby. When Benandonner knocked on the door, and told the wife he was looking for Finn McCool, she said, "Oh I'm sorry, he's not here, but he'll be back soon. Why don't you come in for some tea and you can wait with me and the baby…" Well Benandonner looked inside at the big "baby" in the corner of the room, and was surprised. He thought to himself, "If the baby is this big, how big is the father!?" And he ran back home away from Finn McCool, tearing up the stone pathway in his fear and haste. And so, Finn McCool remained the biggest and fiercest giant in all of Ireland.

I absolutely love this bedtime story. It's fun to tell and funny to listen to, and I'm sure the children of Ireland are totally in love with it. It's one of the many reasons I'm so in love with the Causeway. Another thing I love is that I can climb the rocks. It made it so much more interesting to see all the different formations when you can get up close and personal with it all. And it is endless--there's so much to see and do, you tire out doing just the first half. But it's completely worth it.

When we were there, since we were with a group, we got free audio tours, which were great to hear about the different rock formations and the legends of each one. There's things like the camel, Benandonner's boot, Finn's organ, and the chimney stacks. In all actuality, all of these rock formations came about from several volcanic eruptions, combined with the intense weathering of the wind and sea. But I much prefer the fictional stories.

I think that's enough for now, I'll be back with more in a couple of days! Until then...

FIELD TRIP!!

I'm enrolled in a class here called "Discovering Ireland: Landscape and Heritage," and literally the class consists of two field trips and a final essay and THAT'S IT. It's pretty grand.

Our first field trip was last Saturday, and we went to three different historical sites. We had a lovely day for it, and even though we had to leave early in the morning, it was well worth it.

Our first stop was Castledermot, an old Protestant church in the middle of a farming town. It was neat to see the history there, with the cemetery around it and the round tower on the side. We also learned about the high crosses, and how they are carved with picture scenes from the Bible. It was a beautiful site, and our professor had a lot to say on it. To be honest, I don't remember most of it, but it was still pretty cool to see. 

Now, this isn't just any ordinary pile of rocks. This is a megalithic tomb, literally in the middle of nothing. All that surrounds it is a large field, which may or may not still be used as farmland, I couldn't tell. But this was one of my favorite sites, because I learned so much. It's estimated to be around 5500 years old, and no one's really sure how it got there, since the stone on top is guessed to weigh 30,000 tons. But what we do know is that at this time, the people in the town around it would cremate their dead and put their ashes in the middle of the pit under the large rock. It was a sort of "sanctuary" for life and for death, and I felt the spirituality when I was standing next to it. 

Our final stop was Ballymoon Castle. It doesn't look like much, and that's because it was never finished. It was completely abandoned, and my professor has been doing research on this site for practically his entire graduate career, and according to him it went like this. The people building it were under an English Earl (or something) and when the Irish attacked them at this castle during building, they left everything and fled. Then the Earl died, and the funding stopped, and it was just abandoned. It was much more interesting when he was telling about it, but the castle was still cool to see. We could tell where the window wells were, where toilets were supposed to be, and where fireplace shafts were put in, which helped us figure out where different rooms were going to be. We also learned that the castle itself was probably going to be about two or three times the height it is at now. 

It was absolutely grand to visit this site, and all the others as well. It was a long day, but I saw and learned some Irish history, which, let's face it, is indeed what I came here to do. :)