Our first stop of the day was at this castle. The bus driver said he has a daughter who is having her reception after her wedding here next summer. He told us it is so popular that you have to book in three years in advance!
The bus ride was absolutely beautiful throughout the entire day. At one point of time we could see a beach, green hills, cows, farm houses, and beach houses, . It was an interesting combination. The water was the bluest, most sparkling water I’ve ever seen. Pictures can’t show how truly amazing it was.
Our bus driver said this is the cleanest beach in Europe!
We saw lots of sheep and other farm animals today. Most of the sheep have spray paint on them. The bus driver told us the orange sheep are the Protestant sheep and the green are Catholics. This is funny because that’s actually what the Irish flag represents. He also said the black cows are the ones that make Guiness, and the black/white cows make the Bailey’s Irish cream. Too funny.
I had no idea what I was in for today before I began this tour. The bus driver stopped at this place that had some beautiful scenery with a few mini-islands. Sounds nice until you find out that we had to get to the next island by a rope bridge. It was ridiculous, shaky, and didn’t seem sturdy. It was obviously a “must-do” though, so we risked our precious lives. It ended up being worth it because we lived and it was a neat experience.
On the other side!
After this I was exhausted and thought we were probably about done for the day. I then realized we hadn’t even stopped at Giant’s Causeway yet, which was pretty much the main reason for going on the tour. We finally stopped there and it was, like everything else, amazing! I am having a difficult time coming up with better words, but I can’t describe how beautiful it was. Giant’s Causeway is an ancient volcanic eruption site. Somehow a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago formed countless basalt columns that are all shaped like hexagons. Everywhere you look you seem them. They’re really neat to walk around on and just look at. We had lots of fun jumping across the rocks and columns.
Doing some stretching after a long day on the bus.
Our next stop was at the oldest distillery in the world. A lot of people were really excited about trying Bushmill’s whiskey, but Steph and I weren’t too excited about it so we took one picture.
Then we went to the Spar across the street for some food. Did I mention I thought this tour stopped for lunch, therefore didn’t bring any food? I was wrong. The bus driver was very serious about leaving ON schedule today. He mentioned to us at every stop that he WOULD leave on time, whether or not everyone was on the bus. He even told us he left 12 people once. Once it was time to leave Bushmill’s there was one woman who hadn’t made it back on the bus yet. We waited for her for about 7 minutes, then we took off. The bus driver was telling us how unfortunate it was for the woman because taxis back to Belfast would be about 150 pounds (about $240), plus there wouldn’t be many since it’s a bank holiday weekend (not to mention all her stuff was still on the bus). Thankfully for her someone on the bus spotted her RIGHT as we were almost too far away to see anymore. The driver was kind enough to stop for her, and we all watched her BOOK IT back to the bus. Poor lady.
When we got back to Belfast at about 7pm almost everything was closed. Steph and I were super hungry so we were worried about being able to find food. Thankfully Subway was actually pretty much the only thing open. We bought some subs and made our way back to the hotel. Now we’re just hanging out here and getting ready to fall asleep. Tomorrow we’ll be going back to our houses at about 10am
Most amazing pictures of the trip so far! The blue water and green grass - wow, how vibrant! That must have been amazing in person. You looked calm on the bridge, but the video revealed a little nervous laugh!
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