Flying Belfast

We managed to spend a couple of nights out on the town and do some major sightseeing - all within about 30 hours. The Giant's Causeway was amazing, and there was some great scenery too.

Quick Tips:

Watch out for the unusual style of driving the Irish have - they don't often have roads with more than one lane each way but they do tend to have wide hard shoulders, which they move into to let others pass - quite scary the first time you see it, you don't know what they are up to.

Best Way To Get Around:

I drove, but it took far longer than I was expecting, the Irish have the same laidback attitude to getting places as they do for everything else.

Salsa may not be the first thing that comes tto mind when you think of Belfast, but Claire & I are old dancing buddies so it was the natural thing for us to do on a Friday night.

The Empire is on a street that has plenty of nightlife, in fact there's a seperate bar right underneath it, should you want to start gently.

The salsa club is held in what seems to be an old theatre, there's a raised gallery at one end & a stage at the other, with the dance floor in between. The bar is down one side as is one of those mahogany & etched mirror jobs, very 19thc!

The night starts with a salsa class, useful whether you are a complete beginner or just want a bit more practice. They really can teach you enough to get started, but like most of these places, you don't need to be able to dance the dance, any old dance steps will do as long as you're enjoying yourself. This goes on for about an hour, giving non-dancers or professionals plenty of time at the bar. Then the real fun starts, the instructors are replaced by a live band who are all set on helping you dance the night away. We had a great time there but did manage to tire ourselves out long before it actually shut, for a Brit that's quite a novelty in itself, as on the Mainland places shut an awful lot earlier...

One last thing, take a look upwards when you go in or out of the main building, the ceiling is a bit special too.

We drove up from Belfast one cloudy day, and parked in the car park at the top of the cliff. There are a few buildings there, a couple of shops, an Information Center, that sort of thing. We spent a bit of time there, mooching around before heading down to the Causeway.

It was quite a pleasant walk down, despite the mist, and it gave Claire & I chance to catch up on news. It could have been anywhere, and I must say that so far I wasn't overly impressed. Towards the bottom there was a rocky beach, and the waves were quite dramatic, breaking in a flurry of foam before crashing down, but again, all stuff I'd seen before. Then we went around the corner.

There isn't really a way to describe how much better the Causeway was than I'd been expecting, the hexagons were almost perfectly regular, and the Causeway extended a lot further than I'd anticipated, it would have taken a good few minutes to get to the end. Mind blowing. If that wasn't enough there's the added bonus of trying to get your head around why they're all different heights, and why some are concave and some are convex.

We spent some time there, along with quite a number of other people who had also vetured out despite the weather. Afterwards, we carried along the path to the very end, where subsidence has forced its closure. I'd recommend that you do that as there are some more amazing rock formations further on, for example at the Organ you get to see the same type of rocks as at the Causeway, but from the side as they disappear up the cliff.

It is quite a long walk to see everything, but it's not at all difficult, we passed quite a few families with pushchairs, so unless you've tired yourself out completely doing something else then skip the bus.

I decided I wouldn't bother telling you about the legends, as others already have. If you don't know, take a look at IWW639's Journal by clicking here.

I was over in Ireland because of work, and wanting to see Claire, I chose to go by car so that I was a bit more flexible & we could go off and explore as the mood took us.

I caught the ferry over to Ireland from Pembroke Dock to Rosslare, and then went off to Cork for the boring part of the trip. I drove to Belfast on the Friday, stopping off to stretch my legs at Jerpoint Abbey, which looked beautiful but was unfortunately closed so I had to content myself with peering through the fence as best I could.
Finding my way around Belfast was a bit daunting, as with all cities, but I was lucky enough to have Claire to talk me down otherwise I might still be there!

I had to leave quite early in the morning on Sunday to get my ferry back (Dublin to Holyhead), an adventure that turned into a bit of a disaster as all of the Sunday drivers were out & I missed the ferry by a matter of minutes. I planned to catch the next ferry which should have been a fast one leaving about 4 hours later, so I headed off to Dublin centre for some shopping.

Unfortunately, the weather started to close in & the fast ferry was cancelled.
After reviewing my options (& paying a bit more) I choose to drive back down to Rosslare & catch the ferry over to Fishguard, as it meant driving down Ireland in mostly daylight as opposed to driving down Wales in the middle of the night.
It turned out to be quite a revelation as, though the weather was worse than on my trip out, the crossing felt much more stable; the Fishguard ferries have 'stabilisers' to keep them more steady. However, being a Pembroke girl, it had been quite a novelty to see the Haven from the other side.

My advice? The roads to Pembroke are much better than the ones to Fishguard (maybe saving you an hour?), but if you have a sensitive tummy, take the Fishguard option!