Ireland Part 2-The North

As great as Ireland was, we couldn’t wait to get back to Northern Ireland to spend time with Ross’s family and friends. We rushed back from Kinvara so we could see Ross’s friend, Mark, and his wife, Hannah, and their 2 kids who were in town visiting from Australia. Ross met up with a few of his close friends that night as well and I stayed home with Anne and relaxed. I was wiped from our week and couldn’t wait to get to bed!

The next morning we headed up to the North Coast. Ross’s friend, Chrissy, offered us their family summer home for a few nights. On the drive up we stopped at the Dark Hedges. A lot of you are probably familiar with them from Game of Thrones, but they were famous with locals long before the TV show. The Dark Hedges are a long row of Beech Trees that line both sides of the road and make a tunnel covering the road. They were planted back in the 18th century and are really tall and really pretty! They have also been voted one of the top 5 most beautiful tree tunnels in the world. There were soooo many tourists there but luckily for us they were down on the far end of the hedges where there is bus parking. We were able to get some great pictures with no tourists around! After the quick detour, we hopped back in the car to finish the drive up North. Portrush and Portstewart are both beach communities on the North Coast of Northern Ireland. Ross’s family has a summer home in Portrush and growing up he spent his summers there. They now rent it out so we stayed down the road in Portrush at Chrissy’s place. It’s only about a 45 min drive from Ballymena, which threw me off the first time we went there because Ross always made it seem like it was really far! I was just there in February but I forgot how beautiful it is. The drive along the coast is breathtaking! You drive along tall cliffs over looking the sea…there is even a castle on the cliffs (Dunluce Castle)! Port Rush is where the Open was about a month ago and they were still tearing down a lot of stuff from the golf course. This is also where the Giant’s Causeway is, which we visited last time. We got settled in at the house, relaxed a bit and then went down to the beach for a walk. In Northern Ireland you can drive your car right on to the sand! We drove down and parked around 6pm (sunset was still hours away haha!) We took a very long walk along the beach, down to the jetty and where Bush River flows into the Sea. It was a bit chilly and very windy, but a beautiful day in Northern Irish terms haha! Back in California no one would be on the beach on a day like that, but not here! Tons of people were out walking their dogs, collecting shells, even playing in the surf! No way would I have gotten in that water! We headed back around 8pm, stopped and got a frozen pizza, and headed back to the house to chill! I am not going to lie, it was nice having a day of relaxing. Ross introduced me to Midsomer Murders that night! It’s basically a cheesy murder show that takes place in the town of Midsomer. He has been talking about it for ages and I finally got to watch it (great easy watch!) We were originally going to stay in Portrush for 2 nights but decided we wanted to spend more time with his family, so the next day we headed back to Ballymena. We stopped along the way at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. This is another place that is featured on Game of Thrones. It’s basically just a nice walk along the cliffs to a rope bridge that takes you across to a little Island. It used to be used by fisherman crossing over to the Island to collect their fishing nets. Ross used to go there a lot as a kid, just for fun. It was free back then but now costs £9 each! Luckily we had borrowed National Trust passes so we got to go for free. The walk along the cliffs was very pretty and the rope bridge, of course, made me very nervous. I know it was super safe, but my fear of falling always gets me on things like that. For some reason I feel safer when I squat down a bit so I wound up doing this weird squat walk across the bridge…at least I survived! Honestly, now that I have done it I would never pay £9. You can walk all the way to the bridge for free and watch people do it. You only have to pay to walk across it. There isn’t even anything to see or explore on the other side. It was fun but I definitely don’t think it’s worth the money.

Showing no fear on the rope bridge 

Rope Bridge 

Dark Hedges

 We spent the next few days just hanging out with Ross’s family and friends and eating! So much eating! Seriously, I don’t want to get on a scale! I was able to get a few workouts in at least. One day I went for a run around town I ran up around to the golf course and the Galgorm Castle. Yes, there is a castle, on a golf course, that you can just run by! I also got a haircut (finally)! A cut and color was half the price it would have been back in California so from now on I will just schedule my hair appointments around visits to Northern Ireland haha! I also discovered my love of power washers! I had never used one before but now I want to use them on everything! The satisfaction of watching dirt and grime fly off things when you power wash them is like nothing else! We did find some time one of the days to head into Belfast to visit the Titanic Museum. Back in 2016  it won “World’s Leading Tourism Attraction.” If you couldn’t tell by the name, it is all about Belfast, the building of the Titanic, and its eventual sinking and it is really well done! We spent about 4 hours there and it was worth every minute! Afterwards we got to meet up with Ross’s uncle John and cousin Stephanie again! We had a wonderful dinner in Belfast and it was great to finally meet John.

Titanic Museum 

Galgorm Castle & random old building 

Our last day in town was spent getting organized for our trip and cooking. Anne and Alistair were nice enough to host a bunch of people for a bbq on our last night. It was a much easier way for us to see everyone and not feel stressed. There was a huge turn out and I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen since February and also got to meet a few new people. The weather even cooperated a bit and we got to sit outside for a few hours!

Side Note: When Ross and I first met I had a hard time understanding the Northern Irish accent…especially Alistair! I am proud to say now that I am almost fluent in “Northern Irish”! I understood 90% of what everyone was saying…even Alistair!

All in all it was a wonderful week back in Ross’s home town. As much as I loved Ireland, Northern Ireland will always have the #1 spot in my heart.

Now, on to the next adventure….Scotland!

At the airport with Ross’s family