{Saturday, October 11th}
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| Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge |
We got up at 7:30a again this morning to get ready for the day. We had yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast at the hostel, before continuing along the Causeway Coastal Route.
Our first stop was at the Carrick-a-Rede Ripe bridge. It didn't open until 9:30a, so we waited for about 20 minutes before we were able to go in. Once we got our tickets, it was a 1km walk to the bridge. It was the first time we paid full price for tickets!
We walked along the cliffs edge over to the entry of the rope bridge. It's quite high, and the rope bridge sways and jumps as you cross it, high above the sea. Once we crossed, there was a small island we could walk around.
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| Carnlough |
From there, we continued following the coastal route around the north-east corner of Northern Ireland. We passed through several small villages, and for most of the time we were driving right on the coast.
We stopped in Carnlough for a quick walk around, and saw where they had built a gravity-powered railway for moving granite from the mines.
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| Carrickfergus Castle |
Our next stop was at Carrickfergus Castle. It was built in the 1200's in the medieval period and it is in great condition. It was built right on the coast and had three gates/walls surrounding it.
From there, it was a short drive into Dublin to the Titanic Quarter. We saw the new titanic exhibit, and drove on to the pump house and dry docks.
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| Titanic Dry Dock & Pump House |
We walked around the dry dock area where the RMS Titanic was built, and were able to see where it all began. The dry docks have a massive pumping system that is able to empty the dock in 1.5 hours; half of the time that it gravity takes to fill it.
From there, we headed to Maeve's, and got there shortly after 3p. It was great to see her and her flat! We also met her flatmate Lynn and their cousin Michael. We left their flat shortly before 4p to go to an Ulster rugby match.
The stadium is quite large, but it only has one level of seating with the bottom section all the way around being standing room. We were standing along the sides of the field, and had quite a good view. Once I understood a little of the rules of the game, it was actually very good! It also impressed me that every time a kicker needed to kick, the entire stadium with thousands of people would go dead silent. It was a great experience and Ulster ended up defeating Glasgow 29 to 9.
After the game, we all went to Tony Rama's for dinner. It was quite delicious, and great to get to know them all a bit better.
After dinner, Michael dropped us off at Lynn and Maeve's and we followed Lynn over to Chris' apartment, where we will be staying tonight. Maeve let us in to the apartment and showed us around, since Chris is currently in New York. It's a very nice apartment overlooking the river.
We went back to the car to grab our bags, and in the process of closing the trunk I managed to drop the keys - right into a grate in the ground. Of course, the grate was fixed in the ground, but we could see the keys about 14" down. We had absolutely nothing in the car to use to fish them out, and no way of getting in to the building. Thankfully, Paul found a piece of wire coming out of the ground off in the corner. We were able to use the knife (my new paring knife, which was quite sharp, and probably is no longer) to cut a piece of it off and fish the keys out. Phew. Once that catastrophe had been averted, we speedily get ourselves upstairs.
We had a quiet night then, with the exception of a private fireworks show. Well, not private exactly, but it was directly out the window, over the river, which was pretty awesome.
Of course, when I was brushing my teeth, I knocked a little clock and made it start ticking ferociously. It made it's way quickly out to the living room, and then off the bed for me - in the most comfortable bed in all of Ireland.
J.
Design Life. Inspire Originality. Create Wonder.
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