Northern Ireland

Ok people. Let's do a little lesson here. Northern Ireland is part of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland). The Republic of Ireland is not. One uses Pounds as currency. One uses the Euro. We were lucky enough to book this quaint old Irish house in Bushmills on the northern coast of Ireland. Why Bushmills you might ask. First, it is home to the Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world. Second, because it is just a few minutes drive from the Giant's Causeway.

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when we first started our new adventure in Northern Ireland. We had just come from 2 weeks in England, Wales, and Scotland where everything looked so old with their stone houses and cobbled streets. Ireland seemed more modern with stucco homes and paved roads. But Northern Ireland won our hearts, nonetheless.

We arrived at our house just as people were coming out into the streets and sitting on the curb. When we asked what was going on, we were simply told a parade. What kind of parade? Who knows. The Irish tend to have parades all the time in the summer. Todays was a band parade (where bands from neighboring villages join in and march down the streets pounding on drums, accompanied by accordions and flutes) in honor of Northern Ireland's Independence Day. It was loud. It was awesome! While we watched the parade, we met several new friends. I have to admit that while talking with them, I could only understand every 3rd word or so. And this was with me intently listening and paying attention. Accents are strong here :)

We had so much fun exploring this small town and the surrounding towns. On Sunday we attended church at Star of the Sea in Portstewart. A wonderful church right on the coast with a beautiful children's choir to serenade us and friendly locals to visit with on the beach afterwards. It was a great way to connect with a sense of community and ground ourselves spiritually while still far away from home. And what does any good Catholic start doing on Sunday shortly after church? They start drinking! Clint and my Father went to Bushmills for their distillery tour, which was a great tour in an of itself and taught them many things about the history of Whiskey and Ireland in general, but was also vastly different from our previous Scotch distillery tour. Thankfully, we (the adults) had gone to the Tomatin distillery tour in Scotland before we left. It worked out for the best, my Mom and I got to attend the more hands-on distillery tour in Scotland and my Father and Clint also attended the Irish tour which rounded out the experience, but we would not have enjoyed as much.

Between church and our house was the Dunluce Castle and White Rock Beach. Dunluce castle and the beach below are now famous because this is where the very popular TV series 'Game of Thrones' has filmed scenes. We don't watch the show but have many friends who do. We spent the afternoon admiring the castle and walking the beautiful sand beaches outlined with massive white rock cliffs and caves. Though there were many people swimming in the water, us wimps from Texas didn't wade in further than our ankles because of the cold temperatures.

In the evening, we went to the Giant's Causeway. We did our research and read to go after 7pm to miss the crowds and to park at the visitor center for free. Wow! I have to say, this is probably one of the coolest volcanic formations we have ever seen. Legend says that the Giant's Causeway used to be a bridge connecting Ireland to Scotland. At some point in the past, the Gods got angry and broke the bridge, separating the 2 islands. The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. Each column is in the shape of a hexagon. We spent hours here climbing, walking and looking at the many levels, sizes and colors of the columns. The kids enjoyed watching the tide come in and seeing the waves violently crash upon the stone. We sat and looked and were amazed at this creation from God, as if we could see Him picking and choosing each column when he made the world.

This was a truly magical experience!