Belfast Day 3: Indescribable Beauty

Today marks our 3rd day in Belfast. We woke up bright and early at 7 a.m. and loaded the bus at 8 a.m. to head about two hours outside of Belfast into the countryside. Our TA, Brian, told us that we could nap for the first hour of the trip, but that he would wake us up for the rest of it because we were going to be traveling down a coastal road that is ranked as the 2nd most beautiful road in the world. (1st place belongs to the highway that runs between Los Angeles and *insert other big city in California here*)

Brian wasn't lying. When he woke us up the sun had just begun to rise over the hills of Ireland. Around 9 we stopped at a gas station to grab coffee and to use the bathroom, but most of us went to take pictures. The gas station was in a little coastal town with some docks and sailboats. Incredibly cute. The sun was rising over the hills when we were there, so we took a bunch of pictures and soaked in the beauty. It's hard to describe how surreal it was, but once I am able to load my pictures, I'm sure you will see that it's indescribable. This was my favorite part of the day, although the rest of the day was really fun as well. //Edit: Here is my favorite photo of the day: http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs124.snc3/17151_1214678491496_1364820170_30545686_162078_n.jpg

We continued down the road for about another hour or so until we reached a cliff area. Here, there was a little rope bridge (the name is escaping me) that connects two cliffs. For my Oswego bros, it reminded me of the bluffs a lot, but over water. It was pretty much the scariest thing ever, and I was freaking out the entire time I crossed it. The scenery was beautiful there as well, with a view of Scotland in the distance if you could see far enough. I was just as scared when I had to cross the bridge back to the mainland, except this time Christine and I wanted to try to take pictures of each other on the bridge, which required letting go of the rope railing. That was scary in itself, but of course Wolfgang was yelling down to some of the boys to start jumping on the end of the bridge and swinging the ropes so that it swung. Let's just say, I almost had a panic attack. Not fun. Thanks, Wolfgang.

After we finished crossing the bridge (and after I finally convinced myself that I wasn't having a heart attack), we loaded the bus and drove about another 20 minutes up the road to Dunluce castle. Dunluce castle was a castle built in the 1400s-ish (I can't remember the exact date) when a rich Scottish family moved to Ireland and inhabited the coastline. There isn't much left of it now, but you can distinctly see the foundations and many of the walls (the roofs and all of the interior woodwork, flooring, etc., is gone). Interesting story: the castle was built on a cliff for maximum protection from invasions (the cliffs were too high for any one to attack). The kitchen was the portion of the castle that was on the outermost part of the cliff. One day the woman and man who owned the castle heard screaming coming from downstairs, so they ran to the kitchen only to find that that portion of the cliff had broken off and fallen into the sea with the kitchen and 7-8 servants. They then decided to leave the castle, believing it was unsafe to live in (no more of the castle has fallen into the sea besides small pieces of rocks in more recent years).

When we finished exploring the ruins of Dunluce castle, we were invited into a place called the Wee Cottage (absoultely adorable) for lunch. Wolfgang likes to fatten us up, so we had a hearty lunch consisting of soup, sandwiches, scones with butter, whipped cream, and jelly, and apple pie. (When I told Wolfgang I didn't like apple pie he replied, "Your grade in this class depends on how much apple pie you eat. If you eat none, you get an 'F'" To which I replied, "Well, I could give you my piece of apple pie...", to which he replied, "Well then, you get an 'A'!") All of the food was homemade by a woman named Avril who owns the Wee Cottage. I loved the atmosphere there because it truly felt like someone's cottage, complete with tacky decorations, mismatched furniture and a roaring fire in the fireplace.

Last, but not least, we drove a little bit further down the coast to a place called the Giant's Causeway. Apparently it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, although I haven't had a chance to fact-check that yet. Basically the Causeway is a coastline that consists entirely of hexagonally-shaped rocks. I would say that each rock is about the size of a large dinner plate (or perhaps a little bit larger) and they are all flat on top. Each stack goes to a different height, which creates different mountains so to speak of these rock formations. (You might have to Google it to get a better idea because it is really difficult to explain). Nobody knows how the rocks were formed and why they were only formed in this particular area. Apparently they were formed by lava from the ocean, but the Irish have a myth about a giant from Ireland and a giant from Scotland. Long story short, the Irish giant challenged the Scottish giant to a fight and built the causeway as a means for the Scottish giant to reach Ireland. The Scottish giant became afraid of the Irish giant, so when he ran from Ireland he destroyed most of the causeway so that the Irish giant could not follow him home. Interesting stuff.

After the Causeway we loaded the bus for the ride home, and I slept most of the way. When we got back to the hotel, Christine and I went on an adventure searching for an Internet cafe in Belfast (which are pretty hard to find). Everything in Belfast seems to close around 5 p.m., so that made it even harder. Afterwards we ate a quick dinner (leftover sandwiches from lunch) and headed to the boys' room to play some cards before going out. I decided I had been out enough this week and really needed to lay low tonight, so I stayed in. Tomorrow is the last night of the trip, so I decided I would go out well-rested tomorrow and have a really good time.
Today is also the first day that I've really gotten homesick. It's finally hitting me that when I leave Belfast I'm not going back to Syracuse, I'm going to London to start making new friends. I'm excited, but also scared because London is so big. I feel much better though, because now that I have a cell phone I was able to call home and also call some friends to catch-up, and my homesickness has subsided a little.

Tomorrow is our free day in Belfast, so hopefully I will do some fun things. Either way, I'll be able to sleep-in past 8 a.m., which will be a nice change of pace.