Belfast – Giant’s Causeway Edition

May 20

HBD KB

I want to mention two things before moving on to the second of this three part series.

1. I got an email from my sister that informed me she was laughing at something I’d written in the last post and then felt bad about laughing at such a sad situation. I made a mistake in the last post by not mentioning that Peter, our taxi guide, was incredibly optimistic about his city and was an incredibly upbeat person. He inserted jokes and had us laughing the entire time. Nobody in the city seems to be moping about, depressed about their history. They all are living their lives and looking towards the future.

2. Although this is the second post about Belfast, it is actually not about Belfast.

After taking our tour and grabbing food at the market, we jumped in our car and drove out to Giant’s Causeway. Giant’s Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns which was caused by an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones and are mostly hexagonal in shape.

The tallest are about 40 feet high.

So now for the good stuff… the legend.

So there were two giants: Finn MacCool, the Irish giant, and Benandonner, the Scottish giant. Finn MacCool was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant and built a causeway between Ireland and Scotland so they could meet and fight. Finn MacCool somehow finds out that the Scottish giant is much bigger than he is. Finn’s wife disguises Finn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the ‘baby’, he assumes that his father must be huge. So Benandonner flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway behind him so that Finn would be unable to follow him. Across the sea, in Scotland, there are identical columns… the other side of the destroyed causeway.

So one of the helpful hints that Peter had given us before heading out on our day trip was a suggestion that we park at the hotel next to the national park. Apparently it is free to enter the park, but they charge you 11 euros per person to park. But, if you park at the hotel and grab a bite to eat or a coffee, then you can see the site for free. Good to know. It was interesting because apparently he is appalled at the price they are charging and is under the impression that the entire local population is also appalled by this. Who knows, but we are more than happy to pay our money to local businesses instead if we have the option.

Pretty incredible, aren’t they? I’m talking about the stones. Ok, us too.

The woman who took the above picture had seen us sitting down before she approached us (to take a picture of her) and demanded that we sit back down so she could take this photo. Maybe Michael can get IG famous with this.

After Giant’s Causeway, we grabbed a bowl of soup and some drinks, retained our receipt and headed out to our next stop: Carrick-a-Rede bridge. Carrick-a-Rede is a few kilometers down the shore from Giant’s Causeway and is a rope bridge out to a small island that fishermen use to cross.

The rope bridge looks terrifying and the island is beautiful.

How scary is it crossing that bridge? Just how beautiful is it out on that island?

I guess I’ll have to come back and find out another time. The bridge was closed. Super closed – not like the first Cinque Terre barriers where you can just step over it. Closed. Still it was beautiful enough that it was worth the hike just to see the island. Look at that water!

Half of the fun of Giant’s Causeway for me was actually getting there from Belfast. The drive around the coast took about 2 hours and was gorgeous.

We made a couple of stops to see the beautiful scenery and take a few small hikes.

OK – so a little lighter than the first Belfast post, right? Apparently it’s easy to get away from some tension when you physically remove yourself. We had a wonderful day in the country and now it is back to Belfast for the end of a great Sunday.