Following the success of our earlier road trip to Cork and Kerry, Kristi and I set out alone on a 3-day road trip to Northern Ireland, with the primary goal if seeing the Giant's Causeway along with the beautiful coast.
Our first stop was Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland and a city that really surprised us with its charm and new modern development. We were only in Belfast for 5 hours (not nearly enough time), but we were able to walk around a lot of the downtown (Kristi is pictured above in front of city hall) and we also took a black cab tour of the Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods, to learn more about the political situation.
The neighbourhoods of Belfast are known for their murals, which were often painted in memory of various events or people. Our guide was very knowledgeable and helped walk us through The Troubles. He also gave us a modern day perspective and it does seem like the situation has improved significantly over the past decade, in large part due to the economic prosperity in the area; however, the current recession could incite additional unrest (which has started already - click here).
We left Belfast on Monday evening and made it to Portrush, a town on the Northern coast, very close to the Giants Causeway. The next morning, we paid a quick visit to the ruins of Dunluce Castle and then made our way to the Causeway, which is an incredible natural phenomenon which must be seen to believed. The Causeway also comes with a bit of folklore, the legend of Finn McCool. Although the weather was quite blustery, we hiked around the area before returning to our car to continue the beautiful drive around the coast of Country Antrim.
The drive was incredibly scenic and we really loved seeing the countryside. We spent the night just outside of Belfast and then had a relaxing day meandering around the countryside, eventually making our way back to Dublin on Wednesday evening.
For those interested, additional photos of our road trip are available here.
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