June 12- Giant's Causeway

Our day had a very lovely start- we went to the breakfast buffet in the hotel. There was so much good food! To be honest, that was probably my favorite thing about our hotel.

We spent the whole day on a bus tour around the coast of Ireland. Our tour guide had this awesome Irish accent which made it fun to listen as well as difficult to understand sometimes. We made occasional stops so we could step outside and take pictures.

For one, we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle, which belonged to William of Orange. We also stopped by Carrick-a-Rede, which is this rope bridge that connects two platformed islands. Who knew that crossing a rope bridge could be so awesome?? It was pretty high up, but the only thing that made me nervous was the strong wind- it made it hard for me to see what with my eyes watering and my hair all over my face, plus it rocked the bridge. But we all got across just fine and the view of the ocean was incredible!

Our final destination on our bus tour was Giants’ Causeway. I don’t completely understand how Giants’ Causeway was formed, except the rocks are Basalt, which comes from volcanoes. But by some natural phenomena, this huge cluster of rocks are all in the shape of hexagonal prisms. The local myth is that there were two giants- one in Scotland, and one in Ireland. Each giant argued that he was bigger and stronger than the other. They would throw giant rocks at each other which are now scattered along the shore line. Finally it looked like it was going to be a fist fight. Once the Irish giant saw the Scottish Giant heading over, he realized that the Scottish giant was much bigger and stronger than him and was sure to win. So he went to his wife who dressed him up like a baby. When the Scottish Giant arrived and saw the Irish Giant dressed like a baby, he turned around and went straight back to Scotland. He said, with a baby that big, I would hate to run into its Daddy!

It started raining just as we got back into the bus to head back. The luck o’ the Irish must have rubbed off on us! We got back to the hotel around 6. After eating a simple dinner, Jesse, Leslie and I had a small scripture study/ devotional. And (shock!) I got to bed at about 10:30. Inconcievable.