This entry is mainly because I'm a bit bored and have been thinking about these things while I'm here. So instead of playing with Mathematica some more, I'm going to tell you the pros and cons of these various countries
What I like about Germany:
-Renewable energy everywhere! It's awesome, there are so many wind turbines and solar panels on most roofs. I very much approve
-Weather, its warmer than Ireland but not hot like Texas. Also, they have actual storms! There was a thunderstorm my first night and I was excited about it :)
-Trains. The Germans have a great transportation system, which is awesome and convenient
-Sooo cheap!! It's amazing, especially after Ireland, and especially because I'm running out of money. But seriously - döner and a beer for under 5 euro, and cheap fruit and veggies = happy Brady
-Flowers everywhere. Our neighborhood smells really nice, and its just happy to walk along and see roses everywhere
What I miss about Ireland:
-People. The Irish are really friendly in general, and the friends that I made in particular I miss. Also, not being able to speak German, and hence talk to people, bothers me more than I thought it would
-Tea! definitely miss this more than I thought I would. I've become addicted, and used to good tea rather than mediocre I'll-drink-it-because-its-tea tea
-Walking everywhere (we live too far away in Würzburg to walk places)
-The green-ness of everything
-Faffing, aka not doing much. I guess more particularly, not needing to things immediately, and having people to faff with
What I miss about Texas
-Strangely enough, the heat. I can still wear pants and a jacket if I want to, which is really weird
-Food - I keep getting cravings for things like Taco Hut, Amy's, bubble tea, sushi, greasy bacon (weird, I know. That one really surprised me) and good hamburgers
-Having my own kitchen with everything I need to cook things. can't wait for that again!
-The people (obviously) miss you guys!
-Low-key Austinites, especially when it comes to clothing (this is mostly directed towards Ireland, though they did succeed in making me at least think about what I'm wearing before leaving the house)
-Barton Springs/Town Lake. I won't have been swimming/in a swim suit (except for working out in an indoor pool, which doesn't really count) in nearly 10 months by the time I get back to Austin. This is sad and I need some warmer weather/a beach or pool!
Woo, so there's my nostalgia/comparison bit. Back to work I suppose.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Berlin etc.
My first full week in Germany! And I already managed to squeeze in some traveling :P Many stories to ensue, and I'm going to try and add pictures for the first time, which will probably mean a rather long post - get excited :)Last week wasn't super exciting but had some highlights. I practiced with the Würzburg ultimate team, Disc-0-Fever, Wed for womens and Thurs for open practice. It's really fun playing with them because they basically warm up, run a couple of drills and then scrimmage for an hour, so lots of playing :) They actually asked me to play with them this weekend in their equivalent of intervarsities, but I wasn't sure if I counted as a student and wanted to go to Berlin so didn't. It was cool that they asked though! After open practice I went with Hayley and two Germans to get ice cream (Eis - one of the few German words i know :P ). Eis stands are all over, and its really cheap - 80-90 cents a scoop! - so we eat a lot of ice cream.
On Friday my room mates and I went to visit a friend at the restaurant she works at, and get crepes and beer. It was really good, and good weather for sitting outside. The two boys left to go too the "Free and Outside" music festival while Hayley and I stayed because we were leaving early the next day. We ended up talking for a while to a man sitting next to us about America. It was cool, and interesting.
The next morning we left early (tram at 6:49) for Berlin. It took just just under 5 hours to get there, but we made it safe and excited. We found our hostel and left our backpacks before heading out to the city. Our first stop was the East Side Gallery, which is the longest section of the Berlin Wall left standing. We walked along it and took lots of pictures. It is now basically a graffiti gallery, with some pretty cool paintings! Some of them were still in progress, and one guy was painting :)We left the wall and headed into the more central part of town, which is supposed to be a hip area/good place for bars. We decided that we could use a late afternoon cocktail after our walking and so went to find a good place. Along the way we tried currywurst from a stand. It's basically brautwurst but with a tomatoey-curry sauce and is supposed to be a Berlin specialty. It was pretty good, even for me who doesn't like tomatoes :P
We found an Indonesian restaurant that had a pretty good happy hour, so we decided to go there. After drinks we walked to Museuminsel, a small island in the middle of the river that has a bunch of museums on it. On the way we got distracted by an open market that had a lot of random things for sale, especially old records. I ended up buying a pair of earrings that are puzzle pieces :)After the market we went on to the island and took a lot of pictures of a cool looking building, I think it was called the Berlin Dom, but I'm not sure. It had a cool fountain though, which made a rainbow :)
From here we headed to Checkpoint Charlie, which was the point from which you used to be able to go from East to West Germany. They had a really cool wall explaining the history of Berlin, which was really cool to read, and a good history refresher for me :P We decided to go back to the hostel before continuing our touring, so we took the tram back, officially checked in and had a short break before continuing to Alexanderplatz, which it turns out is mostly shopping and a big tower that is expensive to go into. We wandered around a bit, took lots of pictures, and searched for food (which was actually hard to find cheaply - this surprised us as Berlin is apparently where döner, the ultimate delicious, cheap, eat on the street food, originated). We finally just took the tram back to a place we had seen earlier and ate a late dinner. We decided for the novelty factor that we would take beer with us on the tram (which you are allowed to do in Berlin). Back at the hostel we just went to bed, as it had been a rather long day.
The next morning we started out with tasty (but kinda expensive) breakfast at our hostel and then headed to the zoo. It took us a while to get there as there was a bike race and so buses weren't running, but we made it and looked at lots and lots of cute animals, and of course took lots of pictures :) I liked this bird, he was trying to eat the camera :)After the zoo we tried to go to a massive department store, KaDeWe, but sadly it was closed on sunday :( So instead we hate lunch of chips and currywurst and headed to the Brandenburg Gate. It was really cool, very massive. Again, pictures and a cool history lesson before heading out. We decided to head back to Würzburg at this point, so walked towards the train station. On the way we were going to go in the Reichstag, but there was a very long line and so decided against it. At the train station we found a very cheap ice cream stand and so had one last cone before getting on our train back to Würzburg.
We had some interesting adventures getting home - our first train was full so we had to just sit in the aisles between compartments (normal in Germany). Then, apparently our second train was delayed, but a train also going to Frankfurt was coming in at the same time, but this one didn't go to Würzburg. Guess which one we got on... An hour later we ended up in the Frankfurt Hauptbanhof and realized we had made a mistake, but luckily there was a train literally about to leave for Würzburg (we double checked this time) so we jumped on it and finally made it home. Long, but fun trip.
One more fun story as to why I should probably learn German (you would think I would have thought about this before moving to Germany). Today we decided to make chicken and pasta for dinner because we had bought a big thing of breast meat of what we thought was chicken - we don't know German, but what else is pink and sold in filets? Well, apparently turkey is because when we opened the container to take out what we expected to be several chicken breasts we found one very large filet. By very large I mean about the size of a plate. Thanks to a translator I now know that Putenbrust = turkey breast :P
Monday, June 15, 2009
Back to Europe
I've been back in Europe for a week now, though have only spent about 2 and a half days in Würzburg (my summer home). It was great to be home for a bit (a very short bit), just to get to see people and spend time with my family. Also to get rid of things that I won't need (though I still somehow packed 35 kilos of stuff to bring back). In the time I've been in Europe I've spent 2 days traveling, 2 days in Würzburg and 3 days in Amsterdam playing frisbee. Fun times :)
Getting to Würzburg was complicated, I had booked roundtrip tickets to Dublin, so I flew back to Dublin then got a Ryanair flight to Frankfurt Hahn, a bus to the main Frankfurt airport and a train to Würzburg where I met one of my room mates and we took a tram to our summer home. It's a cute house, four of us from UT are renting the top floor from a family, and we have a balcony and nice rooms. And the neighborhood is filled with gardens so it smells and looks gorgeous! That was Tuesday, and all of that traveling basically filled the day.
The next day I went into the city to get my tram card, cell phone, and sort things out with the university/what I'm going to be doing. I managed to get most of it done, and bought delicious strawberries and a cute flower plant for our kitchen. Hayley, the other girl from UT, also plays frisbee so we went to the Würzburg team's practice in the evening. It was fun, and I'm excited about having people to play frisbee with over the summer! After practice the four of us went to a party with some of the physics students and talked for a while before heading home.
On Thursday I spent most of the day traveling. It was a German holiday so no one was going to be in lab, so I could head to Windmill early. I decided to try and see Hannover on the way, as some of my ancestors were apparently from there. Unfortunately I slept in more than I expected and so was only in the city for 2 hours before having to catch the train to Amsterdam, but it was fun to see, and a good break from sitting on a train. I finally got to Amsterdam and got the bus to the pitches where I was very excited to see all of the Irish there. We spent the evening talking and drinking before climbing into tents.
Friday was the first official day of the tournament - a long but good day. We played 4 games (at this tournament they were full length matches, 90 min or game to 15) that day. They went pretty well, we won 1 and lost 3 but played fairly well in the first 2 (won the 3rd) and then were tired and kept making silly mistakes in the last game. After our last game we ordered pizza and hung out at the main tent for the rest of the night. They had a table quiz which was good fun - there were I think 5 Irish teams finishing in the top 10 teams. The rest of the night we were very Irish and spend the night singing, having push up contests, and Kev brought out his guitar until we were forcibly removed from the tent and told to go to bed.
The next day we only had 2 games as our pool had one less team so we had a by game in the middle of the day. Our first game was against the top seed so while we tried to put up a good fight we ended up losing that game. Our next game wasn't for several hours so we hung out at the teepee the tournament had set up and watched the guys teams play. Our next match was against the team we had played first in the tournament, and sadly we lost to them again. Saturday was the night of the tournament party and bbq. They had delicious food for us and then we sat in the grass for a while relaxing and drinking. Then there was a beer race which I entered with a German guy who had been in Ireland for a while and so knew most of my team. They had us spin in circles, ride a bike, drink a can of Heineken, leap frog back, eat this Dutch caramel cracker thing, run and drink another beer, and then hit a cone with a frisbee. We were doing alright until the cracker thing, which was really hard to chew. It was a fun race though. After a game of Mingle Mingle we met the Swiss team in the teepee for a drinking game (they had beaten us earlier in the day, we said we could probably take them in drinking though) and ended up hanging out there the rest of the night. I apparently napped through most of it (I was exhausted) - as say the pictures of me asleep on the couches. :)
The final day was a bit disappointing, our first match was pretty bad, we lost 15-1 in less than 45 min and so spent the time before our next match getting our heads together and cheering for the guys in their match. Our final match was actually well matched, we played really hard and the other team was about the save level as us so it was a really good game. Sadly we let them get a few easy points and then couldn't catch back up, but it was a much better way to end the tournament than our previous game. We finished in time to see the end of the women's final and then were watching the men's final when I had to leave. It was sad to say bye to everyone as I don't know when I'll see them again, but the tournament was a great way to do it! I had a 7 hour train ride back to Würzburg - fun times. I was knackered enough to sleep for large portions of it and read for the rest of it.
Today I basically recovered (aka, sat around home) and read some articles about the research I'm going to be doing this summer (negative index of refraction in either iron or metamaterials) and then in the afternoon went up to the University to meet my professor, who basically told me that I just need to read more and talk to him again soon so I have lots of physics papers waiting in my future... After dinner my room mates and I went downstairs and had tea with our land lord and his wife and talked for a bit. They're really nice and are trying to learn English so it was an interesting conversation involving online translators from time to time :)
So that's what I've been up to recently (and why I haven't posted in a while ;) ) Now that things are settled more or less I'll probably just be in Würzburg with a few side trips for most of the summer - I just have one trip out of the country (to Venice/Rome!) planned and a few cities in Germany. Looking forward to a relaxing summer :)
Getting to Würzburg was complicated, I had booked roundtrip tickets to Dublin, so I flew back to Dublin then got a Ryanair flight to Frankfurt Hahn, a bus to the main Frankfurt airport and a train to Würzburg where I met one of my room mates and we took a tram to our summer home. It's a cute house, four of us from UT are renting the top floor from a family, and we have a balcony and nice rooms. And the neighborhood is filled with gardens so it smells and looks gorgeous! That was Tuesday, and all of that traveling basically filled the day.
The next day I went into the city to get my tram card, cell phone, and sort things out with the university/what I'm going to be doing. I managed to get most of it done, and bought delicious strawberries and a cute flower plant for our kitchen. Hayley, the other girl from UT, also plays frisbee so we went to the Würzburg team's practice in the evening. It was fun, and I'm excited about having people to play frisbee with over the summer! After practice the four of us went to a party with some of the physics students and talked for a while before heading home.
On Thursday I spent most of the day traveling. It was a German holiday so no one was going to be in lab, so I could head to Windmill early. I decided to try and see Hannover on the way, as some of my ancestors were apparently from there. Unfortunately I slept in more than I expected and so was only in the city for 2 hours before having to catch the train to Amsterdam, but it was fun to see, and a good break from sitting on a train. I finally got to Amsterdam and got the bus to the pitches where I was very excited to see all of the Irish there. We spent the evening talking and drinking before climbing into tents.
Friday was the first official day of the tournament - a long but good day. We played 4 games (at this tournament they were full length matches, 90 min or game to 15) that day. They went pretty well, we won 1 and lost 3 but played fairly well in the first 2 (won the 3rd) and then were tired and kept making silly mistakes in the last game. After our last game we ordered pizza and hung out at the main tent for the rest of the night. They had a table quiz which was good fun - there were I think 5 Irish teams finishing in the top 10 teams. The rest of the night we were very Irish and spend the night singing, having push up contests, and Kev brought out his guitar until we were forcibly removed from the tent and told to go to bed.
The next day we only had 2 games as our pool had one less team so we had a by game in the middle of the day. Our first game was against the top seed so while we tried to put up a good fight we ended up losing that game. Our next game wasn't for several hours so we hung out at the teepee the tournament had set up and watched the guys teams play. Our next match was against the team we had played first in the tournament, and sadly we lost to them again. Saturday was the night of the tournament party and bbq. They had delicious food for us and then we sat in the grass for a while relaxing and drinking. Then there was a beer race which I entered with a German guy who had been in Ireland for a while and so knew most of my team. They had us spin in circles, ride a bike, drink a can of Heineken, leap frog back, eat this Dutch caramel cracker thing, run and drink another beer, and then hit a cone with a frisbee. We were doing alright until the cracker thing, which was really hard to chew. It was a fun race though. After a game of Mingle Mingle we met the Swiss team in the teepee for a drinking game (they had beaten us earlier in the day, we said we could probably take them in drinking though) and ended up hanging out there the rest of the night. I apparently napped through most of it (I was exhausted) - as say the pictures of me asleep on the couches. :)
The final day was a bit disappointing, our first match was pretty bad, we lost 15-1 in less than 45 min and so spent the time before our next match getting our heads together and cheering for the guys in their match. Our final match was actually well matched, we played really hard and the other team was about the save level as us so it was a really good game. Sadly we let them get a few easy points and then couldn't catch back up, but it was a much better way to end the tournament than our previous game. We finished in time to see the end of the women's final and then were watching the men's final when I had to leave. It was sad to say bye to everyone as I don't know when I'll see them again, but the tournament was a great way to do it! I had a 7 hour train ride back to Würzburg - fun times. I was knackered enough to sleep for large portions of it and read for the rest of it.
Today I basically recovered (aka, sat around home) and read some articles about the research I'm going to be doing this summer (negative index of refraction in either iron or metamaterials) and then in the afternoon went up to the University to meet my professor, who basically told me that I just need to read more and talk to him again soon so I have lots of physics papers waiting in my future... After dinner my room mates and I went downstairs and had tea with our land lord and his wife and talked for a bit. They're really nice and are trying to learn English so it was an interesting conversation involving online translators from time to time :)
So that's what I've been up to recently (and why I haven't posted in a while ;) ) Now that things are settled more or less I'll probably just be in Würzburg with a few side trips for most of the summer - I just have one trip out of the country (to Venice/Rome!) planned and a few cities in Germany. Looking forward to a relaxing summer :)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Last days in Ireland
Well, I’m currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean on my way back to Texas. I’m actually very excited and not sad to go as I thought I would be. I think a large part of this is that I will be seeing most of my friends from Ireland in a week at Windmill Windup (so excited!) and because I had a great last few days. I loved my time here, it was a great semester and wonderful experience. I’ll do my reflecting later, but here’s what my last few days looked like.
After my last exam before the week-long break I spent the morning doing laundry. I had literally worn everything I brought with me except for the dresses, and had even worn some of those and so was desperately in need of laundry time. While waiting for it I went and tried a mexican food place that my friend wanted an ‘expert’ opinion on, and they did make quite good enchiladas (I was pleasantly surprised to find good mexican food in Ireland, though during my last week). On Friday I had my going away party. I spent the morning trying to study a bit and then made salsa with Courtney in the afternoon. She, Jen and I went to a maritime festival that was along the Liffey. It was pretty cool, and they had lots of food stalls so we got paella for dinner. We headed back to my apartment before people started coming. It was great to see everyone and have one last night out. We ended up in Doyle’s, which I thought was fitting. It was a really good night.
The next day I studied until the library closed at 4 (Trinity doesn’t believe in long library hours during exam time) and then tried to study outside but ended up just throwing on the cricket pitch (this was exciting as normally they will bodily drag people off of it to keep the grass nice) for a while. The next two days were my Belfast adventure which was way cool, and even though it did mean I studied far less for my last exam than I should have it was definitely worth it. I spent all of Tuesday studying and packing and then had my exam Wednesday morning. It went well enough and I was very excited to be done :D I finished packing and then me, Jen and Courtney went to the Botanical Gardens in Dublin for the afternoon. The gardens were lovely! I took nearly 200 pictures of flowers :P but now I have had my fill for a while... at least for the day ;) Courtney and I had lunch there and then went to Penney’s where I bought a dress (I know, crazy right?) and Tara met us. She and I tried to go to the Guinness Factory but sadly got there after it closed :( So we went to Trinity for a bit of throwing instead. I finished up packing, watched two episodes of Friends (I have a feeling I won’t be watching nearly as much of that back home as I did here) and then went to the Pav with my room mates. When we got there some of the frisbee kids were throwing so I went to say hi and ended up staying for an hour :) We then went to the Pav and had time for one beer before they closed and then I went with my room mates to the Globe. We finally made it to a pub together, though Steph had gone home and Breda was studying for her last exam. Overall it was a great last day, and a wonderful way to end my stay in Ireland :)
After my last exam before the week-long break I spent the morning doing laundry. I had literally worn everything I brought with me except for the dresses, and had even worn some of those and so was desperately in need of laundry time. While waiting for it I went and tried a mexican food place that my friend wanted an ‘expert’ opinion on, and they did make quite good enchiladas (I was pleasantly surprised to find good mexican food in Ireland, though during my last week). On Friday I had my going away party. I spent the morning trying to study a bit and then made salsa with Courtney in the afternoon. She, Jen and I went to a maritime festival that was along the Liffey. It was pretty cool, and they had lots of food stalls so we got paella for dinner. We headed back to my apartment before people started coming. It was great to see everyone and have one last night out. We ended up in Doyle’s, which I thought was fitting. It was a really good night.
The next day I studied until the library closed at 4 (Trinity doesn’t believe in long library hours during exam time) and then tried to study outside but ended up just throwing on the cricket pitch (this was exciting as normally they will bodily drag people off of it to keep the grass nice) for a while. The next two days were my Belfast adventure which was way cool, and even though it did mean I studied far less for my last exam than I should have it was definitely worth it. I spent all of Tuesday studying and packing and then had my exam Wednesday morning. It went well enough and I was very excited to be done :D I finished packing and then me, Jen and Courtney went to the Botanical Gardens in Dublin for the afternoon. The gardens were lovely! I took nearly 200 pictures of flowers :P but now I have had my fill for a while... at least for the day ;) Courtney and I had lunch there and then went to Penney’s where I bought a dress (I know, crazy right?) and Tara met us. She and I tried to go to the Guinness Factory but sadly got there after it closed :( So we went to Trinity for a bit of throwing instead. I finished up packing, watched two episodes of Friends (I have a feeling I won’t be watching nearly as much of that back home as I did here) and then went to the Pav with my room mates. When we got there some of the frisbee kids were throwing so I went to say hi and ended up staying for an hour :) We then went to the Pav and had time for one beer before they closed and then I went with my room mates to the Globe. We finally made it to a pub together, though Steph had gone home and Breda was studying for her last exam. Overall it was a great last day, and a wonderful way to end my stay in Ireland :)
Northern Adventure
Jen and I decided to take one last trip during our break in exams. I had taken four and had one left, she had taken 9 and have 2 left. We figured we deserved a break, and had been planning on going to the north since about March, so went.
We left Dublin at 7 am on a bus to Belfast in order to catch a train up to the northern coast to see the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Distillery. The trip was rather uneventful, though long (as most traveling in Ireland is) and we got to Portrush just before 12. At the visitor’s center we found a map of a trail to the Giant’s Causeway, the buses weren’t running as it was Sunday, and it was gorgeous sunny weather, so we decided to just walk there. Here begins our adventure :) We got fish and chips for lunch and had a picnic on the beach and then headed down the coast. We spent a good bit of time looking at the limestone rocks along the beach and trying to get to a particular one that was an arch over the water. When we decided to head on our first attempt to climb up to the road was foiled by nettles lining the path so we decided that wasn’t the place to go up and went back to the car park to go up the safe way.
At the road we saw a sign that said Bushmills - 4. Thinking it was in kilometers we thought that was grand and started walking. An hour and a half later when we got to Bushmills we realized that Northern Ireland definitely measures distance in miles. Oops. Because of that we ended up getting to the distillery just after the last tour had left so we just went to their restaurant and had whiskey cheesecake (didn’t taste like cheesecake but was really good) and a whiskey each. Jen decided she wasn’t a fan of whiskey straight though, so we bought ice cream so she could pour the whiskey over it :)
We then headed to the Giant’s Causeway, another 3 miles along the road. Our feet were rather sore at this point. The causeway was really cool, I took lots of pictures and we played on the rocks. The Giant’s Causeway is a basalt formation where an ancient lava field cooled and separated into polygonal columns, leaving a field of these polygons out into the ocean. There’s a legend about it that I couldn’t remember except that it involves an Irish hero, a giant, and getting to Scotland, but don’t remember why or who was doing the going.
After the Giant’s Causeway we decided to take a taxi back to our hostel, which was in Portstewart, on the other side of Portrush and we were definitely not walking back. The hostel was nice and right on the beach. We walked to a store and bought cheap meat pies and a bottle of wine for dinner and then back to the hostel to cook. It stays light in Ireland until about 10, which is very cool and makes for great traveling ;) Dinner was finished just at sunset so we sat outside and I took lots of sunset pictures - there was a gorgeous sunset over the ocean! While we ate we laughed at the strange custom of Portstewart - cruising. All of the teenagers get out and drive up and down the main street for hours. The would turn around near our hostel and then head back in the other direction. Now, as nearly the whole town was doing this there was bumper to bumper traffic for most of the way. It was kind of a rather ridiculous thing to do, but amusing to laugh at.
The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and then walked back to Portrush to catch either a train or bus. We made it in time for a bus, but realized when it came that we didn’t actually have enough money for it so went to get the train, realized we didn’t have enough money for that either, so ran to an atm before the train got there and wondered how we spent all our money (hostel, taxi and train apparently). We made it back in time and headed back to Belfast. One of the trains was delayed so we ended up getting to Belfast about 12:30 and so got a cheap lunch and ate it at the city hall, which had a nice lawn and lots of people sitting around. Our first plan was to walk to the Belfast Castle, but then went into Primark and decided shopping was cool too. We got new swimsuits and then headed out to go find the murals.
First we went to West Belfast to see the political murals. There was a long line of murals for all of the oppressed cultures and/or times, like the Basque region and one about Frederick Douglass. We saw quite a few smaller murals in that area and then headed back to the city center. We stopped in a pub that we found from the “historic pubs” tour leaflet and mapped out the rest of our day, which involved more murals, a park, Queen’s university and a bus home. We headed out towards East Belfast to see the Titanic mural (the Titanic was built in Belfast, I hadn’t known that) and two C.S. Lewis murals, as well as loyalist murals. It was cool. We bought cheap food and Bacardi breezers on sale and headed to the park for our last picnic (the weather was so nice the whole trip we couldn’t help but picnic :) ). After dinner we walked to the Botanical Gardens, but unfortunately they were closed so we just walked around them and to Queen’s University. They have really cool buildings there - pretty red color and castle-ish. We sat in their grass for a bit and talked before heading back to the bus station.
Our original plan had been to just stay out and go to pubs until we were ready to go home and then get on a bus back to Dublin (buses between the city run every hour all day), but as we were now out of money we decided to just head back. We slept on the bus and got back to Dublin at 12:30 and walked home. We ended up walking between 25 and 30 miles over the two days and finally got to see Northern Ireland. All in all, a good last trip :)
We left Dublin at 7 am on a bus to Belfast in order to catch a train up to the northern coast to see the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Distillery. The trip was rather uneventful, though long (as most traveling in Ireland is) and we got to Portrush just before 12. At the visitor’s center we found a map of a trail to the Giant’s Causeway, the buses weren’t running as it was Sunday, and it was gorgeous sunny weather, so we decided to just walk there. Here begins our adventure :) We got fish and chips for lunch and had a picnic on the beach and then headed down the coast. We spent a good bit of time looking at the limestone rocks along the beach and trying to get to a particular one that was an arch over the water. When we decided to head on our first attempt to climb up to the road was foiled by nettles lining the path so we decided that wasn’t the place to go up and went back to the car park to go up the safe way.
At the road we saw a sign that said Bushmills - 4. Thinking it was in kilometers we thought that was grand and started walking. An hour and a half later when we got to Bushmills we realized that Northern Ireland definitely measures distance in miles. Oops. Because of that we ended up getting to the distillery just after the last tour had left so we just went to their restaurant and had whiskey cheesecake (didn’t taste like cheesecake but was really good) and a whiskey each. Jen decided she wasn’t a fan of whiskey straight though, so we bought ice cream so she could pour the whiskey over it :)
We then headed to the Giant’s Causeway, another 3 miles along the road. Our feet were rather sore at this point. The causeway was really cool, I took lots of pictures and we played on the rocks. The Giant’s Causeway is a basalt formation where an ancient lava field cooled and separated into polygonal columns, leaving a field of these polygons out into the ocean. There’s a legend about it that I couldn’t remember except that it involves an Irish hero, a giant, and getting to Scotland, but don’t remember why or who was doing the going.
After the Giant’s Causeway we decided to take a taxi back to our hostel, which was in Portstewart, on the other side of Portrush and we were definitely not walking back. The hostel was nice and right on the beach. We walked to a store and bought cheap meat pies and a bottle of wine for dinner and then back to the hostel to cook. It stays light in Ireland until about 10, which is very cool and makes for great traveling ;) Dinner was finished just at sunset so we sat outside and I took lots of sunset pictures - there was a gorgeous sunset over the ocean! While we ate we laughed at the strange custom of Portstewart - cruising. All of the teenagers get out and drive up and down the main street for hours. The would turn around near our hostel and then head back in the other direction. Now, as nearly the whole town was doing this there was bumper to bumper traffic for most of the way. It was kind of a rather ridiculous thing to do, but amusing to laugh at.
The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and then walked back to Portrush to catch either a train or bus. We made it in time for a bus, but realized when it came that we didn’t actually have enough money for it so went to get the train, realized we didn’t have enough money for that either, so ran to an atm before the train got there and wondered how we spent all our money (hostel, taxi and train apparently). We made it back in time and headed back to Belfast. One of the trains was delayed so we ended up getting to Belfast about 12:30 and so got a cheap lunch and ate it at the city hall, which had a nice lawn and lots of people sitting around. Our first plan was to walk to the Belfast Castle, but then went into Primark and decided shopping was cool too. We got new swimsuits and then headed out to go find the murals.
First we went to West Belfast to see the political murals. There was a long line of murals for all of the oppressed cultures and/or times, like the Basque region and one about Frederick Douglass. We saw quite a few smaller murals in that area and then headed back to the city center. We stopped in a pub that we found from the “historic pubs” tour leaflet and mapped out the rest of our day, which involved more murals, a park, Queen’s university and a bus home. We headed out towards East Belfast to see the Titanic mural (the Titanic was built in Belfast, I hadn’t known that) and two C.S. Lewis murals, as well as loyalist murals. It was cool. We bought cheap food and Bacardi breezers on sale and headed to the park for our last picnic (the weather was so nice the whole trip we couldn’t help but picnic :) ). After dinner we walked to the Botanical Gardens, but unfortunately they were closed so we just walked around them and to Queen’s University. They have really cool buildings there - pretty red color and castle-ish. We sat in their grass for a bit and talked before heading back to the bus station.
Our original plan had been to just stay out and go to pubs until we were ready to go home and then get on a bus back to Dublin (buses between the city run every hour all day), but as we were now out of money we decided to just head back. We slept on the bus and got back to Dublin at 12:30 and walked home. We ended up walking between 25 and 30 miles over the two days and finally got to see Northern Ireland. All in all, a good last trip :)
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