Ireland: The Land of Whisky and Rainbows

Ireland is known for one thing above all else: Booze.  So imagine finding yourself there during Easter weekend where the sale of alcohol is prohibited on Good Friday in Dublin and on Easter Sunday in Belfast. Doh!!!!  Damn you Irish friends, where were you on that one?!?!  You're lucky I forgive you, but only because I like you significantly more than English people.  Ireland has been high on my travel list, so I'm surprised it took me almost a year to get over that after moving to the UK.  My backpacking is slacking!

Sarah and I braved a 7 AM flight so we could get to Dublin early on Holy Thursday, whilst our flat mates, Matt and Anshul, chose to take a later flight and meet us there in the afternoon.  We spent most of day one exploring the city and Sarah and I ended up going to the Viking Museum and Christ Church Cathedral.  We may have even had the best pub food of my life; Twas an Irish seafood chowder and it only cost 6 quid!!!  I really don't know where the English went wrong and lost the ability to cook or appropriately price things, because Ireland has it sorted.  And of course, no meal is complete without a Guinness.  I was always a bit skeptical when people told me Guinness tastes "that much" better in Ireland, but it's true.  It's so gooood.

Outside of beer and whisky, Ireland also has some amazing traditions, including storytelling, so that evening the four of us hopped on the Irish Story Tellers bus to hear stories about Mermen, Ghosts, Giants and Banshees.  Plus we got a free beer, what more can you really ask for?  We made a final pit stop at the all famous Temple Bar for last call before heading back to the hotel to catch some z's.  The next day happened to be Good Friday, so we had to get creative to get some booze in our systems.  Thus we discovered we could take a tour of the Irish Whisky Museum, which ended with a whisky tasting.  A man can't go all the way to Ireland and not get some whisky... It'd practically be a sin.

There's always a castle... 

I've got my ticket for the long way round, this bottle of whiskey for the way. And I sure would like some sweet company and I'm leaving tomorrow, what do you say?  When I'm gone, when I'm gone.  You're gonna miss me when I'm gone.  You're gonna miss by my hair, you're gonna miss me everywhere, oh you're gonna miss me when I'm gone...

Why would anyone choose straight whisky when they could order a Flirtini?  

We mostly chilled out for the remainder of the day since most pubs and things were closed.  Ergo, we checked out the local campus, had a picnic in the park, found Sarah some new kicks, and otherwise kept ourselves occupied whilst waiting for Saturday to come around so we could visit the most important landmark in Dublin: The Guinness Storehouse.  I love the black stuff, so I was pretty excited to finally get there after having to wait two days!

The tour itself is pretty much what you would expect, you just follow a path around the building with a bunch of TV screens giving you snippets of information with the occasional random bits and bobs mixed in.  The thing that was unexpected to me was the sheer amount of strollers in that place.  I feel like if you're going to take a baby to a building full of booze and people wanting to drink said booze, you should probably Baby Bjorn that thing.  Otherwise you're gonna get drunk and push the wrong stroller home.  That's probably how I ended up getting raised by an English woman.  The best part of the tour is definitely pouring your own pint of Guinness.  Well that and drinking it.  Mostly the drinking it.

Me llamo Seantonio!

Getting fancy with the pours

Now that I work full time again, vacation is limited, so we decided to head to Belfast after the Guinness tour, so we could have a day and a half in Northern Ireland as well.  We didn't end up getting there until the early evening, so we just grabbed dinner and went bowling the first night.  We also played a single game of pool for an hour whilst waiting for a bowling lane to open up.  Yup, literally an hour to finish a game.  You'd think that as a GigaLowe I'd be able to handle a stick and some balls better...And that I'd be able to score.  But alas.... (The saddest of sad faces)

The main reason I wanted to go to Belfast was to do a coastal tour to a place called the Giant's Causeway, which was made even cooler by the fact we got to hear the story of how it was created on our Story Telling bus tour!  Legend has it that a Scottish Giant, Benandonner, was going to challenge the Irish Giant, Fionn, to a battle.  Fionn knew the Scottish Giant was much larger, so when Benandonner came accross the sea, Fionn's wife had her husband disguise himself as a baby and lay down in a giant basket.  When Benandonner saw how huge the baby was, he thought that his father must be the most massive giant to have ever lived, so he fled across the Irish Sea, destroying the causeway behind him.  Not a bad trick, eh?!?!  And for once I'm not the giant baby in the story!

The tour took us from Belfast to the Causeway via the coastal road, which is absolutely amazing.  It's so scenic that Game of Thrones is actually filmed along that route, including Castle Black (The Wall).  There is also a stop at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, which is a popular tourist stop that connects the mainland to a tiny island that is maybe the size of a football pitch.  We also got lucky with the weather as it was supposed to rain all day, but luckily the sky cleared up for the majority of the time we were outside, which also led to lots of rainbows!

If only there wasn't a 20 minute queue to get across the bridge, I would have had time for a timelapse :(

Wouldn't be Ireland without a rainbow

There's so much more to life than we've been told, it's full of beauty that will unfold...

One last picture for scale, just so you can see how huge this thing was

Northern Ireland definitely has some of the best scenery I've seen anywhere in the world and the final stop did not disappoint.  The fact that the columns in Giant's Causeway formed naturally is mind boggling, because they look so perfect... I love it!  The weather was a little dodgy when we arrived, so some of the larger structures at the Causeway were off limits due to concerns of tourists slipping.  However, it's more something to look at then to climb around on, so I wasn't too bothered.  

After an hour or so, we had to head back to Belfast, but we took an alternative route back that passed through a place called The Dark Hedges, which is also featured in Game of Thrones.  With the misty fogs and dark skies, Northern Ireland really is the perfect location to film the grittier parts of GoT.  I really need to get a job as a production location scout.  Travel the world for free and find cool spots to film... That's the dream.

This world is too amazing

The quiet side of the Causeway

My pages have always been blank, like the trees in the wild.  And the wind, yes the wind keeps pushing you to me.

If only we had an extra day!  We could have made it to the Titanic Museum.  Next time....

Hopefully this was trip #1 to Ireland.  We need to go back and see more, because one weekend was definitely not enough.  Shannon, Cork, four leaf clovers... I have too many things left undone in that country.  Plus the people are amazing, who doesn't have an awesome Irish friend or two?  I love you pale bastards.  Well except the Ginger ones... You know who you are.  Our next journey was to Prague, but that's a story for another blog.... (Ooooo that rhymed!)


Random GoPros

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter.  Little darling, it feels like it's been years since it's been here.  Here comes the sun.  Here comes the sun, and I say.  It's alright.... Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!

Run with me when hope is high, run with me when the water's dry. Run with me when hope is high and never let me go.  We don't need to understand, just run with me and take my hand and never let me go.

Happiness is worth more than all the gold in the world :)

Looking attractive...

The giant's causeway has about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns as a result of a ancient volcanic eruption (Thanks Wikipedia!).  I don't even begin to understand how nature can make cylinders that look so perfect...I'm going with ancient aliens.

I got my ticket for the long way round.  The one with the prettiest of views.  It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers, but it sure would be prettier with you.  When I'm gone, when I'm gone.  You're gonna miss me when I'm gone.  You're gonna miss me by my walk, you're gonna miss me by my talk, oh you're gonna miss when I'm gone...

 Sarah and Sean's Sensational Stockpile of Snappy Snaps

How come she gets to wear a helmet and I have to wear a brown bag?

Never-mind, I think my face in this panorama explains it

We officially match.... Next thing you know we'll be having a nice little Saturday at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Without this hat, I'm just a great looking man. 

You don't ask for no diamond rings, no elegant string of pearls.  That's why I wrote this blog to read, my beautiful girl

Such a strange juxtaposition between our faces...

Talk about a face with a view...

I take the best photos of her

You're probably wondering why I'm wearing a winter coat when I look so hot...

I never seen nobody quite like you and I will give all of my best to you.  So if you ever need a fool, who will give you a love so true, you can always find me where the skies are blue...