The library was everything I could have hoped for and more. Except free. It wasn't that, which was a bit of a surprise to me. We had to pay 6 euro each (which was 1/2 price, due to the Book of Kells not being on display). There was a little information display on the Book of Kells (some 8th or 9th century gospel book that's survived the test of time, in full colour) - honestly, I wasn't that interested. The display on pigments for the book was neat, but I spent maybe five minutes in that room before I bee-lined it to the library...where I stood and stared and took photos until Jamie and Alan came and dragged me away. I could have happily stayed there for the entire day.
"What did you see in Ireland, Katee?"
"Oh, just a library."
"A library?"
"Yes. For seven days."
(Read: this story is fictitious)
See what I mean? Total heaven.
After that, we all got mocha's at a chain cafe called Insomnia (two shots of espresso in every cup!), and meandered our way slowly over to the museum. We took a detour through St. Stephen's Green, which was a pretty little park in the middle of the city. The trees all had name tags with their species on them, and we saws swans, and a crane, and a bunch of other birds (seagulls, ducks, some little songbirds, etc). It was really a beautiful park.
I don't know what's up with this bust. But I liked it.
I tried to make a pigeon friend...
...and this is what happens when you make friends with pigeons. I made a mistake. An awful mistake.
He is incapable of looking normal in photos. I think I said, smile?
When we were done, we headed to the museum (it was free!). It was kinda neat - there have been a bunch of hoardes found in Ireland dating back to the bronze age (a hoarde is a buried pile of tools and treasure, essentially) and I found it really fascinating to look at gold jewelry from 1200 BCE. It didn't look any different than if it had been made today. I love gold for that. Diamonds aren't forever, but I'm convinced gold is. There was also a giant longboat canoe, and some bog bodies. I was morbidly impressed with how well preserved the bog bodies were. One guy still had chin hair, and on another, you could still see hair follicles on the arm.
After the museum, we went to a cheap burrito place and ate burritos until it hurt, and wandered towards the whiskey distillery for a tour. We walked past a cathedral (St. Patrick's Cathedral), and on the way, we saw an old man wave his stick at a car in anger. It might have made my day. This old man across the street was walking at the crosswalk, and a car had to slow down for him, and he just kept shouting and waving his stick at the car, over and over. I didn't think real people did that.
It gives me hope for old age.
The distillery tour was really fun. We did it at a local craft distillery called Teeling Distillery. They were an old distillery that shut down in the 1800's, and have recently been revitalized by the founding member's descendants. They never got rid of the whiskey when they shut the distillery down though, so even though it's old a few years old, they're selling 30+ year old whiskies.
Spoiler: they were all delicious. We brought back with us the single grain whiskey.
We got a brief video of the history of the distillery, and then we walked around the warehouse, and got to look at the distillation process. Afterwards, we sat down to try three whiskies. It was really well done. Apparently in Ireland, you can't call a liquor a whiskey until it has barrel-aged 3 years and one day, as opposed to Scotland, where a whisky has only to age for three years. According to our guide, the extra day was solely to one-up the scots. The same reason Irish whiskey is spelled with an extra 'e', but in Scotland, they just spell it whisky, without the e. As far as I can tell, the Irish and the Scots and the English all hate each other.
The Irish claim to be the first to discover whiskey, having brought the process of distillation back with them from the middle east in the form of perfumes. They drank it, got a buzz, and have been making liquor ever since. Although, I don't know if I believe they were the first to ever make it. The Scots would have you believe the same.
After the tour, we went to the bar and drank another glass, bought a bottle to bring home, and took our buzz and our bag of cheap doughnuts we bought earlier in the afternoon back to the hostel with us.
For dinner, we headed to a local pub for some live tunes since it was a Friday night. When we got back to the hostel, we started chatting with the guy at reception, and it turned into an hour long history lesson (with a heavy grain of salt, I'm sure), and I felt like I knew the Irish just a little bit better by the end. He was very animated, and clearly very interested in Irish history, and surely missed his calling as a storyteller or a history teacher.
My little sheep buddy!
The next morning (Saturday, yesterday), we slept in a little by accident. None of us were feeling particularly well (as the mix of whiskey and beer gave us all upset stomachs), but we dragged ourselves out of bed at 9, and tried to make sense of the day. Alan and I had to head to the bus station for around 11:30 to head north, so we made the best of the morning, and said our goodbyes to Jamie as the bus showed up. Jamie spent the day wandering around Dublin, and then flew back home to England, and Alan and I headed north.
We took the bus to Belfast, and then the train to Coleraine, and then another bus to Ballintoy. We had tight connections with each stop, so we didn't do much but travel. We alternately dozed on and off, and I spent most of my time staring out the window at the rain, and the rainbows, and the green, green farmer's field that gives this isle the nickname, Emerald (Ireland, the Emerald Isle).
We spent last night in Ballintoy at a bed and breakfast, because we wanted to share a bed after two nights in a hostel, and because the UK is known for their B&B's, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stay in one. Donagh was our host, and he was very accommodating. We got a big beautiful room with wooden floors and ceilings, and he gave us directions into town to get a bite to eat. After two nights in a row of fish and chips, I can safely say I'm over the craving for a proper fish n chip.
Old cemetery near the B&B. Some of the tombstones were from the 1800s, some were from a few years ago. All mingled together.
This whole region we are in now is made famous by Game of Thrones, as a lot of the scenes from the show are filmed up here. We ate dinner at the Fullerton Arms, and it had a whole little room filled with Game of Thrones memorabilia. One of the scenes was filmed in the harbour nearby, apparently.
We went to bed early, and got up for a full Irish fry-up (soda bread, fried egg, tomato, beans, meat for the meat eater). Then, we said goodbye to our host and headed out for the whole reason we're up here: to walk 16 kilometres across the coastal causeway walk to Giant's Causeway.
Ballintoy Harbour.
I found a hole in the rock.
Bunnies literally everywhere.
The whole landscape was super moody like this.
The hike today was great! We saw sheep, and idyllic irish countryside, rough waves and coast, literally dozens of rabbits, a few people and passerbyers, a couple of rainbows...and well, a lot of rain and mud. We were soaked totally through once, though we dried by the time we were done hiking. The views were stunning. We walked past Dunseverick Castle (or its remains), on sandy beach, past a few dog-walkers, down some completely shoulder-less roadways (people drive SO FAST here), but any time we've needed to stop for directions, everyone has been very friendly.
A rainbow in Ireland!
Dunseverick Castle.
We reached Giant's Causeway at 4pm today, and it was very busy with tourists and tour buses, and we were wet, and muddy, and sore, and tired, so we hiked right past it and straight to the hostel. We'll go see it in the morning.
Sheep-a-boo
Other than popping into town on the bus for some groceries and back, we haven't done anything this evening except relax. I made us some soup, and we binged on some British sweets, and other than that, we've just chatted with other people in the hostel. We have a four person room to ourselves tonight, and the only other people here are four Canadians and two Dutch. I haven't even seen the Dutch couple yet, but we ate dinner with the other Canadians. Two are from Vancouver Island and just here for the week, and the other two are two guys from Ontario who are at the end of a seven month trip across the world, and about to head back to Canada soon. We watched them play nintendo for a little while in the living room. It's been a nice night.
the columnar jointing is so coooooooooooool
.jpg)
