Andrew & Sarah

This morning we picked Kat up from the Belfast Railway station. Kat caught the train up from Dublin and is spending the weekend touring the northern part of Ireland with us. We took the M2 motorway out of Belfast and proceeded north until we reached the town of Ballymena.

We decided we would stop in Ballymena for a bite to eat and a coffee. However we we sadly disappointed at the lack of quality cafes. We settled on one which seemed to be the best there was however it was not that stunning. We wandered back through the town then continued driving north.

We reached the northern coast at a town called Ballycastle. From here we followed the coast line to the west. At Carrick-A-Rede there are some impressive cliffs and islands just off the coast. One of these cliffs is connected to the mainland by rope bridge. Unfortunately however they take the bridge down in the winter. We still got a good look at the islands, beach and cliffs. Despite the ‘Authentic Irish Weather’ as Kat put it.

From Carrick-A-Rede we continued along the coast a little bit further to the Gaints Causeway which is an area of about 40,000 interlocking Basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal.

We then decided to visit the Old Bushmills Distillery where they make Old Bushmills Whiskey. We had a late lunch here before starting a tour of the distillery. The tour its self was interesting as we got to see how them make the whiskey in a real working distillery.

From here we continued on to Portrush where we are staying for the night. We checked into the guest house where we are staying then went out to find somewhere for dinner. We picked a restaurant called Coast which served pizzas and pastas mainly. This restaurant got extremely busy while we were them with people coming in and being told there was over an hour wait for a table. The food wasn’t bad and was quite well priced so we couldn’t complain.

Today we left Sligo and headed north east toward Belfast. The weather was once again dull, very windy and rainy. After finding our way out of Sligo we stopped at Glencar Waterfall which is a nice little waterfall which feeds an equally nice lake.

After driving a bit longer it soon became clear we were coming into Northern Ireland, as all the road signs once again changed this time to British road signs. We passed through some very nice although small villages and stopped to take some photos of some old style church’s and castles.

We passed through Enniskillen, Omagh, Cookstown before coming to Ardboe, where we visited an old Abby and the Ardboe High Cross. From here we continued on to the M1 motorway which brought us into Belfast. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Belfast and viewing some of the murals painted on the walls here.

I’m currently writing this blog post while sitting in the restaurant where we had dinner borrowing someones free wifi. The restaurant is the Gourmet Burger Bank. The waiter here proudly told us that gourmet burgers originated in NZ!

Today started at 8am when Matt and I caught the bus out to the airport to pick up a rental car we are using to tour around Ireland.
Today we headed west toward the coast, heading for the Cliffs of Moher. We stopped for a bite of lunch along the way in the small village of Gort. After lunch I took over driving from Matt. The roads however slowly or not so slowly got narrower and winder than the motorways Matt had been driving on. This was made driving a little more interesting especially when meeting cars, trucks and buses coming the opposite direction. But with my skillful driving we made it to the Cliff of Moher.
The Cliffs are absolutely stunning; they are just huge sheer cliffs that rise up out of the ocean. You really do need to see them in real life to appreciate the sheer size and beauty of them.

After leaving the cliffs we drove up the coast through the Burren, which is basically a huge area just covered in rocks. It’s just amazing the size and volume of rocks in the area which just goes on for miles and miles.
We arrived in Galway and found the guesthouse where we were staying. After settling in we walked down into town to for a look around and to find somewhere for dinner. Galway is quite a nice mid sized Irish town with many narrow streets and old buildings which I’m beginning to realise is normal for towns in Ireland. We had dinner at a small pub, the meal was good and fairly well priced.

Today I walked into central Dublin from Matt & Kat’s apartment. I then visited Trinity Collage looked around the grounds then looked at the book of Kells and the Long Library. I found this quite amazing and the Long Library was stunning with the rows and rows of huge shelves of old books.

I then hopped onto an open top bus tour. This took me around various sites in the city with a commentary the whole way which gave me quite a bit of history about Dublin. The Georgian section of Dublin and the old buildings, church’s etc… give Dublin real character.

I got off the bus at the Guinness Storehouse and did a tour here. This explained the process that goes into making Ireland’s No. 1 beer. As part of this process I got to start a batch of Guinness, my batch is batch number 7302 (I think).

After admiring the 360 degree views of Dublin from the bar at the top of the Guinness factory I continued on the bus tour of Dublin and learned more about the history of Dublin and got to see some of the more popular sites around Dublin.

I hoped of the bus and caught the DART (Rail system) to the Google offices where I met up with Matt for lunch. Then Matt showed me around the offices and where he works. This is quite interesting. Although from all the toys and the laid back atmosphere in the office I’m not sure how much work gets done. Matt however assures me work is done.

The rest of the afternoon I spent wandering around the city admiring parks and taking in the scenery.