Well, the day we planned is delayed as Carrie is on the phone trying to deal with complications using a hotel voucher. She and the hotel clerk are each on their phones calling headquarters in Ireland and the US trying to work out the problem. It's a frustrating reminder of the car rental incident at the beginning of our holiday.
On our schedule today is some time touring Derry, and then on to the Antrim Coast.
Later the same day...
We were able to drive into Derry and park on the outside of the city wall and walk the freedom bridge into the city. It was a beautiful morning and we were once again blessed with blue skies with puffy white clouds. We walked the wall (the only fully walled city left in Ireland) and went to see the memorial to the victims of Bloody Sunday. The memorial is in the same neighborhood as the Bog City murals, political murals memorializing the victims of Bloody Sunday (the day British troops fired upon and killed innocent civilians, including a 14 year old girl. The events of that day were blamed on the supposed rebels despite the onlookers cries of the dead victims innocence. The court decision was overturned after many years and the responsibility for the events that day were properly placed on the troops).
After Derry we drove to the beautiful Antrim coast which is the northern coastline of Northern Ireland. The coastal road winds its way along some gorgeous beachy areas and we stopped in Portrush, a small beach town with an amusement park alongside the waterfront.
After a walk on the beach we headed for the Giants Causeway (37,000+ hexagonal pillars of stone create when molten lava flowed in to the sea). Due to the late hour and transportation issues we decided to leave the Causeway for the following day. We instead moved on to Carrick a Reide, a rope bridge originally used by fisherman during the summer months to reach a nearby island.
Carrick a Reide suspension rope bridge was a challenge for Carrie who is not a fan of the potential of falling from high places. It was quite a hike out to the bridge and then a short wait as others crossed back to the mainland side of the bridge from the island. The span of the bridge is 60 feet and it is 80 feet above the crashing waves below. I crossed first so that I could Katie pictus of Carrie as she attained her brave goal of crossing the bridge. I was alone on the bridge and took the opportunity to bounce around a bit. As Carrie took her turn she stopped fork the picture and as she moved forward a family of five jumped on behind her and proceeded to jump around and shriek at their adventure. Unhappy Carrie. Across the bridge is an island that was like entering another world. It is small and peaceful in a way that is hard to describe. Almost everyone who arrived on the island immediately sought a little solitude in their own little corner, lying down in the grass and closing their eyes and breathing in the peace. I was certainly no exception to that group.
After my zen moments in the grass I began to take some pictures. I was approached by a young woman who was alone and wanted someone to take her picture for her. She volunteered to take our picture and following that we went back to tackle the bridge once again.
Carrie was able to cross alone this time and we hiked back up the stairs and path to our car. It was one of those paths that is mysteriously uphill both directions...
We headed out in search of our hostel with the view of the sea from our room. The hostel owner had spent the day in Belfast and needed to make up the beds in our room so we hit the kitchen and jumped into making our dinner. She was pretty surprised when she appeared in the kitchen a little while later and we were in full on dinner prep mode. She had intended to point us in the direction of the nearest store but we were fully stocked with everything we needed and were enjoying our dinner 30 minutes later.
After dinner we decided on a sunset walk on the beach. As we left the hostel we ran into the young woman we had taken a photo for at the bridge earlier. She greeted us and we began to chat and ended up inviting her on our walk. Hr name is Edith and she is Hungarian. We discussed my recent trip to Hungary, and all manner of other "getting to know you" topics. She was as curious about us and our lives as we were about hers and passed an enjoyable hour walking together. We parted with an exchange of email addresses and promises to contact each other.
After our walk it was a cup of tea in the parlor, showers and falling into bed.
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