Blogs from Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe

This morning, we got up super early (4am) and caught a 7:30am flight to Derry (1 hour flight), Northern Ireland where we were going to spend St. Patrick's Day, Irish-style. We had heard that the weather over the weekend was going to be rainy, so we were happy with the little bit of cloud cover that we saw when we arrived. We tried to check in our hotel, but the door was locked and the bar attached to it was still closed, so we were happy that we packed our backpacks lightly, because we carried them around with us for the day. We quickly realized that Derry is a small town that likely doesn't warrant the three days we planned to stay there, so we decided to head out of town for the day, to the ... read more

Geo: 55.2025, -6.52583Northern IrelandWe got off the ship in Larne, Northern Ireland (still part of theUK) just a bit after noon, and headed for the Giant's Causeway. We passed through the towns of Glenarm (missed taking a picture of their police building. It looked like a prison with a steel wire security fence as tall as the building and steel doors. Due to IRA bombings and attacks in earlier years, these small local police stations became fortresses) , Carnlough, Waterfoot (pretty seaside village), Cushendall (passed the curfew tower which was used to announce curfew times 300 years ago and also passed a bride and father having their picture taken in front of a church that we were in front of during a traffic stop. We waved through the windows while her photographer quickly snapped our picture), ... read more

Sunday August 24th Rushport, Northern Ireland So I crossed the border to Northern Ireland. Nothing changed really except for the accent, but that changes every two miles here. Yes I crossed the border, not we. Stephan left yesterday, as planned, for Germany. But first things first. I left you at that house in Glendalough, south of Dublin deep in the Wicklow Mountains and far away from any civilization. As I told you, be came to Glendalough and found it ridiculously expensive. We started asking people if we could camp on their grounds. One guy finally told us about a spot up on the mountain right next to a little pond. It’ll be quiet there, nobody would bother us. So we went up the mountain. After an hour or more walking through the night there was a ... read more

Geo: 55.2025, -6.52583Today we drove north. We took the Causeway Coastal Route. It follows the coast from Belfast to Londonderry. The views were great. It rained most of the way but it was still really pretty.Along the way we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle. Very cool. This is the first castle we have been in where they actually had life size mannequins set up. Including the king sitting on the throne (toilet).... seriously! They also had a cartoon that you could watch telling the story of the castle. We drove through to our B&B on Causeway Road. This B&B is actually closer to the Giant's Causeway than the visitors center. Maureen, the owner was very nice and hospitable. She served us the all day breakfast every morning (cuz it lasts all day!). Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, potatoes, ... read more

Now, I know what it is like to be Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, but this time it happens to be a whiskey distillery. In fact, the worlds oldest distillery. This Sunday, I went with Ronald and Minda to Bushmills, a very small town outside the surf town of Portrush. We arrived at the distillery and took a tour of the Old Bushmills Distillery. Founded in 1608 with permission of King James the I after the infamous Flight of the Earls in 1607, the Old Bushmills Distillery has been providing high quality Irish whiskey (Just a reminder: evidently, you do not want to get Scotch or Scottish Malt Whisky and Irish whiskey mixed up because Scottish Malt Whisky has a smoky flavor and is distilled twice while Bushmills Malt Whiskey is distilled three times and lacks ... read more