The concept of this
trip began when my husband purchased one square foot of land for us in Scotland.
Lochaber Estates, in an attempt to preserve a tract of land in the Highlands from
being developed, sold off plots in such small sizes they knew the owners could
never be gathered together and convinced to sell. My husband purchased one
square foot for him and me, and then another couple square feet for our
friends, Charlie and Lynee. We jokingly tossed out the idea of visiting our
land, and the conversation quickly changed from a joke to a reality.
We decided if we were
going to Scotland, we had mine as well tour the whole thing. From there, it
grew; I have family in England, and we’d always wanted to see Ireland. Months
later, we had a full trip to the UK planned, with limited time and money
available to us. Everything had to come together quickly, with Matt recently
returning from a deployment, three of us in college, and two of us slaves to
work.
Salt Lake City to
Chicago to Dublin. What a change. I’d been dreaming for years of what Ireland
would be like, wondering if there were really green rolling hills and
breathtaking scenery. Dublin was not what I expected. We picked up our rental
car with ease from the airport, but spent twenty minutes in the parking lot
practicing how to drive on the left side of the road. Matt did very well. Our
GPS was our saving grace. Do NOT go anywhere in the UK without one. It’s worth
downloading the UK maps onto your GPS at home (which is what we did), or paying
the $15 a day for one. Dublin isn’t on any kind of a grid system like Salt Lake
City is, and most of the roads have names instead of numbers.
It was only about
a six mile drive from the airport to our hostel, which we were admittedly
worried about. None of us had ever stayed in hostels, and they tend to have a
bad name.
(Matt and I in front of Isaac's Hostel, in Dublin)
We stayed at Isaac’s
hostel. The bottom floor is a cozy common area, with a fireplace, walls full of
tourist pamphlets, and tables were people call eat and work on their laptops.
It was more welcoming than I’d expected. We checked in with ease, but found
that we’d been split up into different rooms: Charlie and Lynee were in one, Matt
and I in the other. But the cheap price made it worth is (around $35 per
couple). The rooms had key-card access, and three bunk beds per room. We nervously
stored our bags beneath our beds, then headed out into Dublin city to explore.
The area of Dublin we
saw was incredibly touristy. There were cheap gift shops everywhere full of
clover-plastered mugs, pens, towels, plates, shot glasses, etc. It was
impossible to find anything that looked like a real Irish person would use. The
gift shops were splattered all over in between pubs and mini-marts. I didn’t
feel like Dublin was even remotely authentic. Granted, I was staying in an area
where the hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts were located, but we didn’t
overly enjoy the city. We found the last-touristy pub we could, and were treated to lamb stew, soda bread, Guiness, bangers and mash, and other Irishy stuff. We went to bed early to try to fight our jet-lagged
exhaustion. I discovered I was the only girl in a room full of guys who had no
modesty and came and went at all hours of the night. Combine that with the
time-difference and the rickety train outside my window, and it was a long
night of very little sleep.
The next morning, we
ate “breakfast” (basically toast and coffee) at the hostel because it was free,
then started out for Northern Ireland. It took about 45 minutes of driving to
leave behind touristy Dublin, and then we were in vast rolling hills full of
sheep. The drive to Northern Ireland is about three hours from Dublin, and it
gets progressively more and more beautiful. Everything was SO green. We somehow
caught a break from famously wet Irish weather, and instead got wonderful
sunshine that allowed us to walk around comfortably without jackets. By the
time we arrived in Ballycastle (past Belfast), we were in considerably better spirits. Then we
arrived at our first destination, Carrick-A-Rede bridge. 
(The rolling green hills that Irish is famous for. This is in Northern Ireland, past Belfast)
(Charlie and Lynee on the bridge)
I had torn a ligament
in my hip about six weeks prior to leaving for Ireland, so the walk to the
bridge was rough. Once you arrive (about a $5 fee per person), it takes twenty
minutes up a mixture of uphill and downhill walking to get to the bridge. We
stopped to take a lot of pictures, and it was incredibly beautiful. If you look to your right during the walk,
there are steep green ridges full of grazing sheep and tiny streams. To the
right is the vast ocean, dotted with rocky outcroppings and various shades of
blue, green, and turquoise. Ahead is a series of tiny rocky islands connected
by the famous Carrick-A-Rede bridge. It’s an old-school rope and wood-plank
bridge, so it sways with every step. Matt got a mild case of vertigo, but we
all made it across fine, and were rewarded with spectacular views of the ocean.
We could have stayed
all day, but we were crunched for time. With less than a week in Ireland, we
had a list of things we wanted to accomplish, and the next place on our list
was very close by. Less than half an hour drive brought us to the famous Giant’s
Causeway. You have to pay (again, around $8/person) to get to the Causeway, and
after walking through a visitor’s center, you have a ten minute walk (or you
can pay $1 for a bus: we walked). As soon as I arrived at the Causeway, I could
see why it’s famous. It looks like a giant has stacked thousands of long, hexagonal
lengths of stone on beside each other. It was so much fun to hike around these.
The area is not huge, but it is unlike any other area on earth. We stayed there
until the sun started to slip: we weren’t confident enough yet to drive on the
left side of the road in the dark.
(Feeling devilish because of the funny looks we were getting from our picture-taking)
After the Giant’s
Causeway, we knew it was time to eat and sleep. We’d taken the advice of some
other travelers, and didn’t book hotels ahead of time. This was a little
nerve-wracking for a group of people who are list-makers and detail-oriented,
but it turned out to be a good thing. We didn’t make it as far as we’d hoped
that day because we spent so much time at the bridge, but we didn’t have to
stress about arriving at a predetermined hotel. We found a hotel/restaurant to
eat at, and discovered that in Ireland, no one is in a hurry to bring you your
check. Dinner is social, and they expect you to linger. Courses are not served
at the same time (even if requested), so dinner can be a two-hour event. It was
delicious, nonetheless. We finally paid and found a room at a bed and breakfast
called Lismar B & B. The man was wonderfully nice, had a completely updated
house with a comfortable atmosphere, and he introduced us the following morning
to the meaning of a “full Irish breakfast” (eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, coffee,
tea, cereal, yogurt, some round thing we never identified, mushrooms, tomatoes,
soda bread, toast, and a potato-wedge-thingy). We would never have found that
place had we booked ahead, and it was a much needed, quit change from the
previous night’s hostel.
The next day would see us through Dunluce Castle and much of Western Ireland - but I'll write about that in Ireland - Part 2.
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