All day bus tour of Ireland (Northern Ireland)

Another Tuesday, another day of required blog posts. Do not fret, I will entertain you with my words yet again.

Woke up at the buttcrack of 5:50AM to catch the 6:45 PaddyWagon to both ends of Ireland. After having a less than familiar Burger King breakfast, we made our way to the bus pickup area around 6:25 and waited until 6:47 (late! ... jeeze) to be picked up by the big green bus that we would learn to love for the rest of the day.

The trip up felt the longest and was mostly a nap time for us tired adults. When arriving in Belfast we all got out for a 5 minute toilet break and regrouped with our new tour guide to take us on our journey. His name was Tory.

Our first stop was the Carrick-a-rede bridge. The 15 minute walk to the bridge was quite the journey, but well worth it for the views we were able to witness. I was excited to cross this bridge and was not nervous at all, but that was not true for the entire group. I was able to look down and even bounce a little on the bridge as I walked across. The members of our group that were nervous made it across no problem and the sights were not limited to just the brave-hearts. Here are some of the views I captured:

Our next stop on the tour was Londonderry/Derry, to see the the culture of an area still separated from a recent war within itself. There are two sides to the fight, Protestants and Catholics and the communities that define both sides are separated by a giant stone wall. This stone wall has many writings and art drawn onto it that expresses the people of the towns feelings and struggles throughout the fight and during the recovery. The paintings were stunning and very well detailed.

The final stop was at a location known for its unusual rock formations that stick out from the ground in a mess of hexagonal pillars. Said to have been created by giants, these rock formations were a good spot to sit back and take in the views while we waited for our lunch to finish cooking.

Overall, the tour was long and full of beautiful sights. Returning back at almost 10PM from a trip that started around 7AM leaves you tired and ready to rest for another great day in Ireland.