Belfast and North Antrim coast

Last weekend I made another trip up to the north with a bunch of people who are on my program here. This trip was fun, but their were 9 of us, and if you don't know already, it is hard to make sure everyone is happy with so many people with you. But we did alright and we all shared one big hostel room, which was fun. I stayed up a little too late the night before, because someone from UPS (Greta) who I didn't know very well, came to Dublin, and I took her and her friends out on the town the night before I left. It was cool, that while I am meeting and making new friends in this foreign place, I still managed to make a new friend from UPS.

This whole trip was a little touristy for me, but it worked out really well with how many people were there and how we could best get around. The first day we spent in Belfast, and took a black cab tour of the city. We then went in search of the Ulster museum but little did we know it was closed. Then the rain started coming down, and by the time we got back to the hostel, people didn't really want to go out again. We got some groceries in bulk and make a big pot of spaghetti and bad of chips (fries) for dinner. We ended up making way to much, but it was good fun anyway. We then went up to the room and played some games before going to sleep. The next day we got on a tour bus which took us up the Antrim coast which is the coast of the Irish Island closest to Scotland. The coolest parts were the Giant's Causeway and Derry/Londonderry.

The Giant's Causeway is a geographical formation, where there are a bunch of octagonal shaped rocks that jut out into the ocean. There are big cliffs and small areas you can walk on, and the green the surrounds the area is beautiful. The wind was pretty bad there and I nearly got blown over a couple times. Our tour guide told us about the giant Fiann McCool who is a big part of Celtic myth and how he created the giants causeway.

Derry/Londonderry is one of the few towns in Northern Ireland that have a Catholic majority. The two sided protestant and catholic are separated by a river so there is no peace wall in Derry. Catholics call the city Derry and the Protestants call it Londonderry. There were murals there as well, and the tour guide was great. He told us a story about how an IRA member had blown up the city hall twice, and after the piece talks he ran for a position in government there and got it and when we was being given the position he said, "Last time I was here I brought down the house."

On the ride back into Dublin i watched perhaps the worst movie ever made. With John Candy called Delirium or something like that. Never watch it if you are ever tempted.