Northern Ireland

Making use of the double booked Isle Of Man, we scored free BMI flights on this trip and flew over on the 21st.

Flight in was - amusing I would say, and horrible is probably Andrew's memory of it. Was pretty bad weather and as we came in the land the plane was going from side to side, Andrew was already going green and sweaty so the pilot's sudden and unannounced decision to pull up and head straight upwards didn't go down too well. I think it might have bothered me more if I wasn't calming Andrew down. Landing on our next attempt we made our way to Paddy's Place the hostel we were staying in.

Found out a few others had booked a black taxi ride for about an hour or so after we had checked in and that there were a few spare seats so we jumped in and took a tour of Belfast. The taxi ride goes for about an hour and covers the murals, the gates, titanic dock and all the main areas of Belfast. We got dropped off back in town to have a look around - well a shop and a coffee really!

Next day we were booked on a Paddy Wagon tour - which meant an early start. This took us to the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede Bridge and Derry. A full day of it but definitely worth it. Was freezing (that lovely cold weather follows us again!).

Sunday we thought we'd take it easy in town and just have a look around, but once we got there we quickly found that very few places opened on Sunday and if they did wasn't till a lot later in the day. We managed to find a warm place for coffee and decided on a walk out of town to see the old courthouse and goal - yes, closed too - but a decent walk. Then just had a wander around town and ended up in the Crown Bar for food and beer before a walk back to the hostel, via, we found a cheap theatre that was also - you guessed it - warm.

Monday was our flight home, so after brekkie and walk round the botanical gardens we made our way back into town to the bus back to the airport.

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