From Ancient Stones to City Life

6:00 AM. Richard woke us so we could make our way to the Giant's Causway before the masses decended upon the site. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is indeed amazing and defies description. It is an experience one must have.

From the UNESCO website: The Giant's Causeway lies at the foot of the basalt cliffs along the sea coast on the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. It is made up of some 40,000 massive black basalt columns sticking out of the sea. The dramatic sight has inspired legends of giants striding over the sea to Scotland. Geological studies of these formations over the last 300 years have greatly contributed to the development of the earth sciences, and show that this striking landscape was caused by volcanic activity during the Tertiary, some 50–60 million years ago.

After spending an hour walking the ancient site, people slowly started to arrive, so we began to make our way back to the car. Our next stop, Ballintoy Harbour (another Game of Thrones filming site), provided a little bit more of this other world landscape and a nice little port.

Experience. Our word of the day. Our next experience was also amazing and great fun! Who has had a hawk land on their head? A hawk fly past your head so close you can feel the tips of the feathers on your face? WE DID! We spent an hour with an amazing team of Falconers - David and Jo and their boy "Cheeky Charlie", a Harris' Hawk. Did you know hawks bath in creeks, not ponds, because they can't swim? Harris Hawks are very social creatures and Charlie was free to fly anywhere he chose, but he always came back when called because of the bond he has with David and Jo.

Learning some American history made the list of things we did in Northern Ireland. We visited the home site of Andrew Jackson's parents in the village of Carrickfergus along with the Carrickfergus Castle. Jackson's parents left NI in 1765 for the Carolina's. Jackson was born in 1767 near what is now known as Waxhaw, which is just to the south of Charlotte, NC.

The Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle that was built in the prime location of being surrounded on 3 sides by water, including the Belfast Lough. It was used up through WWII when it served as an air raid shelter.

We were a bit shocked by the Belfast we saw at our arrival. It is an industrial city and graffatti is abundant. Our B&B was in an area we considered to look "sketchy" but he people were friendly, and we had no issues while there. The fact The Troubles are not really completly in the past has led to limited rebuilding and recovery.

Friday night in Belfast was full of loud crowds and music! Our dinner reservations were for a seafood restaurant next door to a very popular, extemely crowded pub next door. The food was wonderful, and Richard had Anna to share his oysters. Walking back to our place for the night, we skipped popping into the pubs as they all seemed to be overflowing with patrons, and the music was booming. With no AC, we had the windows open and could hear the music loudly until 11PM when it dropped to a lower level. At midnight, it stopped. Well done, Belfast! It had been a long day, and we were ready for some shut eye.Okumaya devam et