In the seaside town
Tonight’s the last night of my spring break (sob!) and so it’s as good a time as any to share some pictures from the trip. I had a little slip and fall at the Giant’s Causeway and hurt my knees, ankle, and hand. Everything’s healed except my hand which is still bandaged in such a way to make it hard to type. Thus, the delay in posting. I was patched up by a nice guy from the National Trust who kept trying to make me look at the cliffs while he was cleaning the wound. More on him later.
Here’s the teaser: I liked Northern Ireland much better than I liked the Republic of Ireland. More on that later, too.
The Giant’s Causeway is apparently the #1 tourist destination in Northern Ireland. It’s a kind of basalt landscape that looks like thin columns and tessellated disks. But I really just loved the coastline. That’s why I go to the British Isles, for this particular landscape. I adore it.
Besides the landscape, the other big tourist attraction in NI, especially this year, is Titanic, which was built in Belfast. It’s a huge thing there. Everywhere. I could never figure out whether people actually cared or if it was all for the hordes of tourists who are expected when the big exhibit opens (coincidentally, today). But I did get treated to things like this throughout the country.
I had the song that the lyric in the title comes from in my head a lot of the time I was in Portrush. It’s about the classic British seaside holiday spot which has seen better days. And Portrush has. But I found it charming, especially on Saturday when all the families came. And just like TripAdvisor said, my B&B lady was the sweetest, most welcoming person you could want. And really, everybody was. Everyone talked to me. I had a conversation everywhere I went. It was kind of amazing. I talked to lots and lots of people. But not about everything. That’ll be later, too.
Answer to the last post’s teaser: the cake is called Fifteen because it includes 15 of several ingredients. It’s a traditional traybake (bar cookie) in Northern Ireland.
(These houses face the sea but they’re mostly empty… I wanted to buy one and eat fish and chips the rest of my life).
More to come…
Hmmm. I’m wsiting to hear why you like N. Ireland “much better”. The only thing I liked even a little better was the stronger accemts.
I did love the accents, as hard as they were to understand! But I’ll try to write that post tonight and explain.
So sorry, I’ve just been tired and unable to give the post the justice it deserves. I think I’m also still processing it a bit. I really want to get it in before Passover.
I am desperate to visit Ireland. It looks beautiful, and like I imagine in my head, and I also have never stayed in a B&B and desperately want to do that, too. Although I could probably do that here in Ohio if I really wanted to.
B&B’s are just better in the UK. I don’t know why; I think it’s magic or something.