Last weekend, I went on a team trip to Belfast. There were about 50 of us, so we were traveling in a huge group, which meant that we split into smaller groups throughout the trip. We arrived on Friday evening, and headed out to a club called Limelight soon after. It was a cool club with good music - a fun night. The next day we (my little group and I) got up early to catch a bus tour to Giant's Causeway, which is an area of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns right by the sea caused by a volcanic eruption during the Ice Age. This is apparently the only one of these formations to exist out of the ocean (there are more but all deep undersea) and was very cool. The rocks are so smooth and regularly shaped that it's hard to believe they were naturally formed. There's a myth that Giant's Causeway was formed when an Irish giant tried to build a bridge to Scotland, which is just barely visible 50km across the water. The Irish Giant finally finished the bridge, but when he crossed it, he saw that the Scottish giant on the other side was far taller and ran home. The Scottish giant followed him and met with his wife, who entertained him while the Irish giant disguised as a baby. When the Scottish giant saw the baby, he fled, imagining that the father (whom he presumed to be the Irish giant) must be massive. As he fled, he smashed the bridge, resulting in the rocks forming Giant's Causeway.
The tour also stopped at a few other places, many of which, it turned out, were Game of Thrones related. We realized we were actually on a Game of Thrones themed bus tour, which is funny because none of us watch Game of Thrones, but it was still fun to see everything. The first stop was the Dark Hedges, a pathway formed by trees planted in the 18th century. As all the trees are between 180-200 years old, ours will be the last generation to see them. They will all be dead after our lifetimes. This was both very cool and rather depressing to think about, but it did make the trees seem pretty special.
We also stopped at the Carrick-a-Rede swinging rope bridge, near Ballintoy, which, according to our bus driver, was built by fishermen trying to reach the fish farther out to sea. The bridge links the mainland to an island called Carrickarede.
Our last stop was Dunluce Castle, a medieval ruin which is also a Game of Thrones sight. In fact, tourists used to be able to walk around in and near the castle, but, since it was in Game of Thrones, there is now a three year waiting list to go inside. So, we had to park the bus on the roadside near the castle and take pictures from there. It was just sunset when we stopped, and the light was enchanting.
After the bus tour, we headed out again for another fun night. The next day, we had a delicious breakfast at a cafe called Maggie Mae's, which I would highly recommend. They have an astounding variety of milkshakes, and their pancakes are so good! We walked off our breakfast in the Botanical Gardens, then went to the Titanic Museum, which is apparently a very popular tourist destination. and another place I would recommend seeing in Belfast. There are many floors explaining the history of the shipping industry in Belfast, the building of the Titanic, the maiden trip, and, of course, the crash. After that, it was time to head back to Edinburgh.