For the past week I have been in Northern Ireland visiting my housemate Ciara. She has been a wonderful and enthusiastic host, and we have seen so many parts of Northern Ireland! My first day we explored Belfast -Most interesting is hearing how people in Belfast and Northern Ireland speak about "the troubles" that the city and the region faced for the majority of the second half of the 20th century. Throughout the city you can still see bullet holes in the buildings and massive murals dedicated to the paramilitary groups who fought (fight) for nationalist and loyalist agendas. We also took a day trip down to Dublin and toured the Guinness factory which was good fun.
Yesterday for Easter we headed up to the North coast of Ireland to Portstewart. The Northern coast of Ireland is amazing! Sheer cliffs line the coast and huge storm clouds loom along the horizon (there is ALWAYS a chance that it will rain on you in Northern Ireland!). We went to this famous rope bridge that connects this island with the mainland (the bridge is sturdy, but still a thrill to cross it). Then we headed to the Giant's causeway which is this really interesting part of the coast where all the rocks are shaped hexagonally. There is an old Irish legend that says an Irish giant was fighting a Scottish giant and the Irish giant laid down all of these hexagonal stones to link Ireland to Scotland so he could fight the Scottish giant (and of course the Irish giant one the fight). Hence the name "Giant's causeway"
Later that afternoon we headed to Barry's amusement park in Portstewart where we rode some fun carnival rides. Then we headed to Ciara's aunt's caravan for Easter dinner. It was a perfectly lovely Easter sunday! On Thursday I'll be heading to Istanbul with Ciara to visit our housemate Ece. Should be really good fun- its Ece's 20th birthday on saturday. Wish me luck!
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