Giant's Causeway

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So today I headed out on a daytrip to the Giant's Causeway, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Derry. I made a new friend last night at the hostel, Jenni, and she saved me a seat on the bus. Nice to have a seat companion without having to ask that question "Can I sit with you?" I hate that! We headed out to the rope bridge, and our tour guide had told us it would be £2.70 if we went in together with 15+ people. When we reached the cashier to buy our tickets, she told us that the money was supposed to have been collected by the tour guide ahead of time, and that he knew that. We ended up paying £3.36 instead. We only had about an hour to do the 1 mile walk to the bridge, cross it, check out the island, cross back over and get back to the bus. Jenni and I were the first of our tour bus over and back across, and we didn't make it in the time he specified. A quick trip to the washroom, and the bus was already starting to pull out of the parking lot. We left 5 people behind. I realize that it was already 20 minutes past the meeting time, and that we were running on a schedule, but c'mon!!!! How devastating would that be to realize that the bus left without you, and with no warning????

Next we headed to the Giant's Causeway. We had about an hour and a half, and were supposed to fit in lunch in that time too. Knowing that he would leave without us, I felt pressured to make the trek from the parking lot and back quickly, as I wanted to grab a sandwich too. We had also met 2 others on the trip, cousins Jenny and Gary. The four of us did some climbing on the rocks, climbed up the steep hill to a beautiful vantage point, shot lots of photos, and then headed back in time to get some sandwiches. I even managed a 5 min. trip into the souvenir shops! Nothing particularly great selection, but I wanted to check it out anyway.

Then we did a quick stop at Dunluce Castle, took 2 minutes to photograph the castle from afar, and then we were off again! This time we went to Derry. I did the hour long walking tour of the walls, as Derry is "the walled city". I still don't really understand the religious war over here, who did what, who was which religion, but there were lots of political murals in this city too, and the walls were interesting.

We headed back to Belfast, and I nodded off in the bus. The tour guide basically refused to drop us off at the hostel, telling us it was a 5 min. walk (more like 15!) and that it wouldn't kill us. I really was NOT impressed by this guy's behaviour and attitude throughout our journey. I realize that he had been up since 5am, and that he was doing a lot of driving, but there's no need to be rude.

Anyway, the Giant's Causeway was neat, but not what I expected. Hopefully some of the scenic shots I took will turn out well.

I still don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I have a few options, but I think I may go to the Welcome Centre and ask about a quick bus daytrip out to Lough Neagh, if that's possible. And then I'm home on Sunday!

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