So, if you've been following along, you might be aware that we landed in Dublin only 2 days ago. (WHAT.)
And that was the start of our Ireland trip. (The second you're in the country, that's when vacation starts right?.....I'm on vacation a lot in the US then. )
But we left Dublin the second our tiny kia could peel out of the rental lot.
Heading to the furthest reaches of Ireland was our goal the second we landed and we succeeded at that. We stayed at Ballintoy (as you recall from last night's blog) so we could explore North Ireland (both the UK Ireland and the Republic of Ireland....Ireland) first.
We went to the Giant's Causeway after breakfast which, if you're not familiar with the name, you're familiar with the geology.
Ringing any bells?
It's Basalt columns that are made from volcanic eruptions eons ago that cool in such a way that cooled lava is split in 120degree angles (typically) and that causes the hexagonal shapes of the stone, and of course, once the lava has cooled and split in such a way it tends to stay the same is what causes the basalt to form into these columns. At the 'beach' level, apparently the columns extend 40m below the ground.
That's pretty tall, and doesn't include monstrosities like the one behind me. (Nicknamed the Giant's Organ, these 40+ exposed columns were up a hill! So these fellows were....hundreds of meters tall?)
We spend the morning here at Giant's Causeway-and if you're wondering why it's called that, it's cause of folklore. Duh.
Alright alright, quick story.
There's a giant in Ireland, named Finn McCool. (Clearly self-named.) Finn is 54 m tall and enjoys his days with his wife Oona and his baby....Onstin? Something like that. Except he has a neighbor (Benadonner) in Scotland who....is I guess Scottish (? I dunno he's another Giant and they only said they don't like each other).
So Finn is like, 'Screw that guy. I'm gonna punch him' And he builds a bridge to do just that! Except when he's finally made it to Scotland, he's learned about the perils of perspective, and realizes that Benny boy is actually over 150m! So Finn's like, "Man, I took a risk, but am I bad at math." So he FLEES.
However, I guess his screams of terror alerted Ben who sees the retreating figure and chases after him, all the way to Ireland. Luckily, Finn beats him back, and his wife Oona is a genius and comes up with a plan that convinces Benadonner that Finn is actually 3x bigger than he is so then HE flees and destroys the make-shift bridge. (look it up if you want the full story, but I gotta leave some details for the tourism bureau.)
So we have this destroyed bridge made for giants and it's littered with giant things and frankly it is crazy what it looks like so folklore was the best thing before naturalists could begin to study it in the 1740s.
It's a beautiful place and I probably could have spent a few more hours there.
Alas, Dublin beckoned.
Well it sort of did. We stopped for 5 minutes at Dunseverick Castle and then we tried to hit Bushmills Distillery (which is apparently the oldest distillery in Ireland) but THEY WERE CLOSED.
For the holidays or something?
How inconsiderate. Don't they know that I'M taking MY holiday and want to drink whiskey????
(That is sarcasm if you can't tell, everyone deserves to spend time with their family.)
So at that point it was....about 3? So it was time to head to Dublin cause the sun was already starting to set. Though we took 15 minutes to go see the King's Road from Game of Thrones. Or tried to. Most of it was closed but we saw a bit of it.
We avoided the tolls so our trip was over 3 hours long but we saw some tiny towns and villages not on the main road.
That was 4:20.
But as darkness descended, Dublin appeared over the horizon. (Actually it was already dark by then but whatever.)
Finding the hotel was pretty easy and we're really close to the city center so we'll be out of the car for a bit!!! Hooray!
I can finally stop falling asleep in the car.
We went to a restaurant not too far from here and had some irish fare. I had a seafood chowder, Sarah had a beef chowder, lots of cider and then the bar had live music and AND there was Irish dancing!
I've got some (shitty) videos I'll share later. The girl was amazing and the music was great and at one point, pub crawl wandered in.We bounced around 10:30---I know, early night. But we're here for a bit.
The waiter asked us if we were here for New Year's and, yeah, we are. I asked if he had any suggestions, and he had a simple suggestion.....
"Get Pissed."
Well alright then.
So plan is up in the air tomorrow!
But drinking is on for tomorrow night...a little precursor for the night after.