Ah, buses. Especially the kind filled with tourists. But a necessity for a girl who isn’t interesting in driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time while trying to navigate and look at the scenery all by herself! So here I was, on yet another bus tour. This time a full day tour of Dark Hedges, Giant’s Causeway, and the Carrick-a-Rede death trap bridge. I chose to go with Finn McCools tours. Mainly because it was only 20 pounds out of Belfast and they were one of the few companies that didn’t have Game of Thrones splattered all over the description. I don’t watch it, and didn’t want to listen to someone blather on for hours about references to some TV show that I would never understand. Also, important to note: If you want to do this tour, do it out of Belfast like I did. If you do it out of Dublin you’ve added FOUR FREAKING HOURS to your bus ride and about 40 pounds.

I walked the little over a mile to the bus stop and boarded at 9:30. The Dublin passengers were already on board, but there was a free row! Yay!! Free row all to myself! No wifi or usb charging port, though. #firstworldproblems  We headed out into the Irish countryside, passing sheep and cows and rolling green hills. And then, we stopped. Right on the road, because there was no shoulder. And the driver turned the key, and the bus went “rrr, rrr, rrr” and nothing. He did that a few more times. Nothing. He and the guide got out, were gone for like 15 minutes. Came back and said there was an electrical problem and they were trying to work with headquarters to get us a replacement. We sat on the bus another 10 minutes or so. It was pretty hot outside (Ireland is in the middle of a massive heat wave- worst in decades), and the bus was soon getting really warm and stuffy. The guide came on and said we all needed to get off the bus in case someone hit us from behind. So we all pile off, and walk in the weeds down the side of the road (at least we didn’t have to worry about snakes! 😛 ) to a driveway. The bus driver knocks on the door, no one is home. So we all sat in this person’s driveway, in the heat and full sun (there was NO shade) for over an hour. Not fun. Our replacement buses arrived- two small buses instead of one big one. We piled in and headed off for our first planned stop….dark hedges.

Irish flares. 😉

Now that we were on 2 smaller buses, there weren’t as many seats. So I lost my comfy, cozy row for 1. I was now sharing my row with a fellow female solo traveler. I figured she was pretty cool, because she had two long braids down either side that were dyed mermaid greenish/blue! 😍 We got to talking a bit, discussed our past and present travels (she travels a lot, too). Her name is Leilani. I should win a prize or something, because I sat next to the one girl on the bus for FIVE days in Scotland and never even knew her name! Reached dark hedges, and went our separate ways. We had 20 minutes here, which wasn’t quite enough. Really needed 30 to get all the way to the end and back. So what is dark hedges? It’s these AMAZING beech trees that were planted in 1775 along the drive leading up to some rich guy’s brand new house. Game of Thrones (last time I mention it!), filmed something here, and the place became an instant tourist attraction. Of course, with tourists come idiots, and they’ve been carving shit on the trees and are destroying them. 150 of them were planted, a little less than 90 still remain. Traffic along the road has been banned to try to help preserve them, but these trees are already about 250 years old…they won’t be around forever. 🙁  They are gorgeous!! Not very dark today, as the sun was shining as bright as it possibly could, but still beautiful and very peaceful- even with the tourist hordes walking around.

ANOTHER bus met us at Dark Hedges. This time, we all piled on one big bus. I ended up toward the back (which I hate, especially on winding roads) with some guy sitting next to me. Soon we were pulling in to the Giant’s Causeway. And the story about how it got its name is a really fun one! So there were two giants, Fionn from Ireland (you may remember him from our story yesterday about the Salmon of Knowledge) and Benandonner from Scotland. There’s a few different versions of how this went down (it’s a popular story here, I’ve heard it a few times already, each with a different twist!). I’ll go with a simple one. So the giants see each other across the water, and decide that there isn’t enough room in the world for 2 giants. They each start building a bridge (causeway) so they can reach each other. As Fionn starts to get closer, he realizes that Benandonner is MUCH larger than he is!! He goes back home and tells his wife. She’s super smart and devises a plan. She dresses Fionn up like a baby and puts him in a huge crib. Benandonner finishes building his side of the causeway, reaches Ireland, and beats on the door of Fionn’s house, demanding to fight him. Fionn’s wife answers, and says that he isn’t home right now, but Benandonner can come inside. There, she introduces him to her and Fionn’s “baby”. Benandonner can’t believe the size of the baby!! If Fionn’s baby is this large, how huge must Fionn be?! Benandonner skeedaddles it back to Scotland, destroying the causeway as he went- to make sure that the monstrous Fionn couldn’t come across and get him! 🙂 And yes, this same type of formation is on the Scottish side! Super cool! So that’s the legend. Now for the science. These are columns of basalt that formed about 50 million years ago during a volcanic eruption. They are very similar to what I saw at Reynisfjara beach in Iceland. The weird thing about them, is that they all have basically the same shape- hexagonal. Why? Well, they are basically crystals of basalt that are formed with the lava cools. The molecular structure of crystals for certain substances is a set pattern. For basalt, it’s hexagonal. Pretty cool!

We were going to change buses AGAIN when we were done here, so everyone who had luggage had to haul it with them! It seriously was ridiculous. You have the guide sit with people’s bags or something- not have passengers haul their stuff on a hike over uneven rocks! Christ. Anyway, I met up with Leilani again and she was struggling with her two bags. I offered to take one, and we took off down the hill together. We had a really nice talk, and it was cool to actually get pictures of myself in a place that weren’t some dopey ass selfie!!

Hey! It’s a sign of my travel itinerary for the past month!! 🙂

As you can see, it was stunningly gorgeous. There is talk about closing it so tourists can’t walk on the rocks and damage them. Seriously, it’s pretty dicey to walk in places. I was wondering how many people slipped and fell off these things every year. The rocks are worn smooth from all the walking, making them super slick- even in the hot, dry conditions we had. I can’t imagine trying to navigate them in the rain!! What comes down, must go up. And that meant we had a hill ahead of us with all the bags. There was a little tram picking up people, but we thought it was part of what you got when you paid money to go into the visitor center (which the guide said was a total waste of money- don’t do it). We walked a little closer to investigate, and for 1 pound or 1.20 euros, we could ride the tram up!! I would have paid 5… Now that we were back at the top, we looked for our new bus, with the goal being to get a front seat! Please- two savvy solo female travelers on a mission? The rest of the passengers didn’t have a chance! 😉 The bus wasn’t there. We had to wait 20 minutes for it, which really pissed me off because I definitely could have spent more time at Giant’s Causeway- we had an hour and a half and needed at least another hour. 🙁  Bus finally arrived, and true to form, we got the front seat. #girlpower We headed along the Antrim Coast to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The views from the bus window were spectacular!

I swear. It doesn’t matter where I go. There is ALWAYS a creepy, high, walking bridge!! Sigh. I am scared of heights, and have actually done a decent job overcoming some of that fear as long as the bridge is steady. I pushed myself a little too far in Borneo last summer and got out on a shaky ass rope bridge that had me in tears and no way to turn around. So I was pretty sure that when the guide handed me my ticket, it would be for souvenir purposes only! The hike down to the bridge was- and I know I keep using this word- spectacular! The ocean was calm and so blue and clear in places, that it reminded me of the Caribbean. The cliffs and islands were gorgeous. It seriously could not have been a more perfect day. I got down to the bridge, kind of cut in line a bit so I could peek over the edge and take a look. It was high, and swaying with every step someone took. Yeah, not my gig!! Especially since you had to wait in line for it. So I hiked up some more and made a circle.

Um, not no, but HELL no.

As I hiked, I passed an elderly woman who had to be in her very late 70’s or early 80’s. I couldn’t believe she had made this hike! She was kind of hobbling along, slowly, with someone there to hold her arm and help her. I had to stop. I said, “Ma’am, all of my respect goes to you. You are amazing! And today, you are my spirit animal.” She smiled. Another lady in her probably late 60’s was passing at the same time, and we ended up falling in step together and starting a conversation. She’s from Australia. We talked about the bridge, and she said she decided not to go across. I told her I was too scared to! She said she used to be afraid of high bridges, until she when trekking in Nepal and had to get over it! Wow! Trekking in Nepal! Nice!! As we walked, she explained that her husband had recently broken his leg motorbiking in Nepal, and she was too impatient to walk slow- so we might encounter him somewhere on the trail. Ok. This couple officially wins the “Awesome traveling couple of the millennium” award! We did meet up with him on the trail. Had a nice chat as we walked. Lovely people.

The day was so clear, you could see Rathlin Island in the distance. And behind it, those mountains…that’s SCOTLAND!!

I got back to the parking lot about 25 minutes early (because I didn’t waste time standing in line for that death trap!). On the other side of the parking lot, I saw some people on a blindingly white path. Hmmm. Could be interesting! It was down a pretty good hill, so I set my alarm for 10 minutes. I figured 10 minutes down the hill, turn around, 15 minutes back up. The trail actually ended up being shorter than I thought, and you could even get all the way down to the water from there! Unfortunately, my timer went off when I was about 100 feet from the shore, and not ever wanting to be THAT passenger, I headed back so I wouldn’t be late. Which was a bummer, because there was a cave in the cliff down there that I really wanted to explore!

Huffed and puffed back up the hill and found the guide. I told him where I had gone- he said that was the Larrybane Quarry. And apparently Game of Thrones has filmed down there as well. Piled back on the bus and headed out across the glens of Antrim. Just rolling green hills for as far as you could see! And what I really love about the farmland is that all of the fences are little hedges. So there are these dark green lines cutting through the lighter green fields. Just green, green, and more green!

We sang some songs (one of them I already kinda knew from my Fables and Folklore dinner the other night- something about “and it’s no, nay, never” and some clapping. 🙂  Leilana fell asleep, and I just stared out at the country. Soon, we were back in Belfast. And just to prove what a backwards, socially awkward, weirdo I am, I just got up, got off the bus and headed toward the house. I was around a few corners when I realized I didn’t even tell Leilana goodbye!! So if you’re reading this, Leilana, nice meeting you and safe travels! Stay outta the way of them bulls in Pamplona!! 🙂  As I walked back, I passed a store called Iceland. Figured I’d check and see if they had Dr. Pepper. BINGO!! And at a price I can live with!! Ah….

CONTINUE TO DAY 8

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