I Heart Northern Ireland

After the better part of an afternoon in Belfast we headed for Portrush along the A2/Antrim Coast Road. Not sure what we were expecting but were amazed at how beautiful the drive was...despite the rain, snow and hail we encounter along the way!

It was freezing! And windy! But gorgeous!!

The water was crystal clear and when the sun was out it was blue like I have never seen! Parts of the drive reminded me of Highway 1 in California. Every 2 or 3 miles I was begging for Chris to pull over for a photo opportunity... eventually, he just stayed in the car while I froze! But the pictures were worth it ;-)

All these pictures were taken on the same sporadic day. So far we've had some dark clouds and a little rain... still to come heavy rain, snow and hail!

Seems like all our trips within the UK include graveyards and sheep. Now where are those sheep???

Happy Sheep!

And here comes the snow...

This is the view of Portrush Harbor from our B&B. Please note the snow on the roofs.

We got in to Portrush around 5 and met my friend Steven for a quick drink. Within 20 minutes of heading into the pub there was a full on hail storm! Hail the size of marbles was pouring out of the sky for about 2 hours!!! And when we woke up the next morning there was about 2 or 3 inches of snow!

Steven and Ray... on the snow covered beach!

Look at the smile on my face.

A Florida Girl standing on a snow covered beach in coat, gloves, and scarf.

Steven and I.

We travelled to Northern Ireland to see Steven off to Australia. But then he decided to stay in London. I think the whole thing was just a ploy to get us to his hometown ;-)

While the snow made driving and walking a bit treacherous... it sure does make for pretty pictures!

Where is my coat?

Silly Florida Girl, just because the sun is shining does not mean that it is warm!!!

Dunluce Castle. Picture Perfect!

The Giant's Causeway. Built by the Irish Giant, Finn McCool, to get to Scotland to fight the Scottish Giant. The Scot was so much larger than Finn that he was horrified and ran away. His wife dressed him as a baby and when the Scot Giant saw him he thought that it was Finn's baby and that the father must be gigantic so he ran away destroying the causeway as he fled! Or it was caused by the cooling of volcanic lava... whatever.

Whatever or whoever built the causeway, it was impressive. Steven was a brilliant tour guide... he told his own version of local folklore which I found entertaining... even more entertaining was when he heard the more accurate versions at the visitors centre!

The morning after the "Going Away" party, Chris and I headed back to Belfast. Our plan was to tour Bushmill's Distillery and then take the less scenic but faster route back to Belfast. However, Bushmill's had other plans for us so we just retraced the original route but detoured through a forest road. It was a lovely ride but true to my nature I was asleep for about an hour!

Before my nap, we stopped to check out the beach. Try as we might we couldn't find the pot o'gold at the end of this rainbow!! Maybe on our next trip!

An Afternoon in Belfast

About 2 weeks ago Chris and I headed over to Northern Ireland for a long weekend. We spent the early afternoon in Belfast before driving along the coast to a little town called Portrush. Several people recommended a black taxi tour of Belfast that would take us through the history of the "troubles" as well as tour the hotspots. The sky was only slightly ominous...

Apparently back in the 70's when things first started to kick off, people started painting murals as a way of marking their neighborhoods. This practice continues. Our tour guide insisted the murals are now peaceful and positive but the neighborhoods are about 100% segregated and the murals are specific to the neighborhood...

I don't think a man with a rifle in a ski mask is how I would depict a positive and peaceful message! To each their own!!!

The picture to the right is the peace wall. It is one of 6 or 7 walls that divide a Catholic neighborhood from a Protestant one. This one is just about covered in grafiti. Most visitors sign their name on the wall to show their support of the peace process. However, am not so sold on the idea that they have peace. Things are clearly better than they were in the past but the country still has a long way to go to be at peace. The Monday or Tuesday after we got back there was a car bomb outside a courthouse in Newry. The bomb was apparently in response to a decision to return policing responsibility to the capital of Belfest from London...     

                                        

The wall on the left is covered in murals in support of "troubles" in other parts of the world. Irish refer to the fighting as the "troubles."

Downtown Belfast was pretty small and fairly rundown but we did visit a pretty awesome pub. The original plan was to have a pint but since we had a couple hours worth of driving ahead of us so we just took a look around the loos and then headed on our way! The capital was impressive and looked very similar to St Paul's Cathedral in London...they even have their own mini-Eye!

Next post... pics from the drive and Portrush!!!

Until then...

The Late Great Gnoah Gnome...

Gnoah's last great adventure was to Dublin. He was enjoying life up to the very last moment... and then he was gnome gnapped by a group of gnome hating hooligans... I can only hope that he is off somewhere enjoying his little gnome life and keeping his basket full of flowers.

Me and Gnoah at Powerscourt waterfall.

True to form... Gnoah making friends.

Also true to form... Gnoah insisted on his own pint of Guinness.

And the next thing we knew...

He does look happy.

I guess if it is your time there is no better way to go than in the bottom of a green beer in Dublin!

What will you choose?

So this post is not going to tell a very fluid story... I realized after I had uploaded 3/4 of the pictures that I had put them in backwards. Opps! I always forget that I have to upload the pictures from last to 1st so they will be in order on the post... and uploading takes a decent chunk of time.

So... As readers, you have a serious decision to make here... do you read the post from top to bottom or from bottom to top? The choice is yours! Let me know how it turns out...

This is where it gets awkward...

If you are just getting started... enjoy!

If you are a bottom to topper... Until next time! XOXO

The end of our walk around the lower lake... very peaceful and also windy! I tried my best to snap picture during the brief moments of sunny blue sky... I think I missed the boat on this attempt. However, if you squint a little you can make out a slight sliver of blue!

Upper Lake? Lower Lake? We may never know...

We speculated that this was a leprechaun trail... however, we followed it as far as we could and found no signs... evasive little creatures!

Ivy, iron fences with scrolls, stone work... the ultimate picture ;-)

Eat your heart out Laurie!

The Monastic ruins at Glendalough. Glendalough means "glen of two lakes." And the 2 lakes are appropriately named, lower lake and upper lake. As it turns out we ran into our friends who where on a day trip from Dublin in the cemetery... creepy!

I think I would live here if I were a wee little leprechaun!

Views of the blanket bogs driving through Sally Gap.

Our flight arrived in Dublin at about 8 am. We picked up the rental car and made a bee line to the B&B. We came prepared with Susan, our trusty GPS navigator who has successfully lead the way in Germany, England, California, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, as well as countless other destinations and journeys). However, Susan is utterly useless in Wicklow County Ireland!?! Her Gaelic is bloody awful and according to her calculations we were driving around in the middle of sheep fields and off the sides of mountains for 2 straight days! Of course, we are dependant on GPS and came prepared with NO maps other than the Hertz freebie... and let's be honest that map is a joke... Through some skillful navigation on my part and a little luck of the Irish we found the B&B! The owner of the B&B, Marilyn, greeted us with a map (hooray!) and outlined a great scenic drive... we were off! Our first stop was Lough Tay (Lough mean Lake and is pronounced 'lock). There is a house down by the river were the Guinness family used to "summer" and scenes for the Showtime show Tudors are filmed. Next we headed to Sally Gap were scenes from Braveheart were filmed. Apparently, Wicklow County Ireland is a hot spot for the movie business... who knew!

Wicklow Way Lodge is just outside of Roundwood, which happens to be Ireland's highest village... which I think explains the ridiculous wind! If you are reading this from bottom to top you will get the joke... if not scroll down...

The view from our B&B. After dinner on Saturday night, we stood on the deck and looked up at the stars. I don't I have ever seen so many in the sky! I really wish that my dinky Nikon could have captured that picture because words can't describe it. Chris and I just stood (in the freezing cold wind) with our mouths open, staring... then the motion light turned off and there were even more! We could only stay outside for about 10 minutes because it was so windy and cold. I had wind burn on my face the next morning! Seriously, it was like I had been in the Florida sunshine in August with no sunscreen!

Top to Bottomer's... Until next time!

XOXO

Dublin

After 2 days in the Wicklow Mountains we headed north to Dublin...

Chris enjoying his first pint of Guinness in Dublin at O'Donoghue's. This would start our weekend pud crawl. We managed to hit most of the famous Dublin pubs (McDaids, The Brazen Head, Temple Bar, to name a few) without realizing they were all that famous... Now that is what I call skill!

Chris at Guinness Storehouse with the waterfall behind him.

I think this sums it all up.

Pulling the perfect pint of Guinness. I even managed to top it off with a shamrock... it disappeared before Chris could see it but I promise it was there!

It looked like this. Just kidding!

This is Chris's 30th Birthday Pint... it was free!

Drinking the B-day pint... shamrock and all.

We finally found a leprechaun! And I apparently had the camera set on black and white... Very artsy, don't you think!?!

After a day in Dublin, we met with some friends and headed south again to catch Hooley (pronounced 'Who-lee') Night at Johnny Fox's. Hooley is a night of Irish dancing and music and is very similar to what Southerners might call a Ho Down. The pictures are not the best but I figured I would share anyways...

This guy was amazing. He was drenched in sweat by the time he finished.

The dancers were made up of 4 girls and 1 guy. The stage was tiny and we were sitting in the corner beside/behind the stage. Our view was mostly of their bums! Luckily they were in pretty good shape ;-)

It is hard to tell but this is a picture of four dancers jumping in unison!

The Hooley band... they were entertaining. However, I am pretty sure we missed most of the jokes because of the think Irish accents. The whole crowd would laugh at something and we would just look at each other and shrug!

The band played Beautiful Tonight! We tried to recreate our 1st dance... 3 pints of Guinness made the dip a little scary!

Irish Coffee.

The only way to start St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!

And just to set the record straight... Despite popular belief that the Irish don't go all out to celebrate St. Paddy's Day...

This is the start of the parade route...

This is the middle of the parade route...

And this is the end of the parade route... The Bull & Castle Beer Hall. Simone and Christine are some friends from Atlanta. Christine is a fellow ex-pat who works for E&Y. Notice the green beer... yep, the Irish really do go ALL out for St. Paddy's day!

Including this guy. I wish I could remember his name but let's just be honest... remembering is a lost cause. Chris and I did a shot with him. I think he is in his early 70's and he is from Dublin. He was sharing his memories of St. Patrick's Day events over the years. His memory was about as good as mine! However, he could drink me under the table in an instant! After the shot, Chris and I called it a night... notice the sun is still up!

The day after St. Paddy's day at St. Stephen's Green. This is Dublin's most central park but it is not nearly as big as Hyde Park in London. This picture is at about 9:30 am and the park was pretty empty. We came back around 2 pm and people were lying in the grass, walking about and enjoying a BEAUTIFUL day. Chris and I spread out on the grass and soaked up some rays, too!

This is the Campanile in the middle of the Trinity College courtyard. It was built where they believe the center of the original Monastery was located. We spent our last day in Dublin touring Trinity College and lying in the sun. Our flight left late in the day and it was nice to relax after 4 days of non-stop going... We got the bus to the airport and while we sat at a red light I say this out the window...

Jesus in a Box.

Our last image from our 5 day Irish get-away...

How appropriate!