August 16th. Nature's Playgrounds

This morning we had a great breakfast. The hostess had really outdone herself pampering us with freshly made Irish breakfast (that tasted much better than usual because of the very nice components), awesome coffee and warned up buns for Isabella and I. Her oldest son, the 8 year old (she has 4 children) lit up the fireplace in the living room for us. She also gave us some helpful tips for going to the Giant’s Causeway site: to park near the hotel on the property to avoid the unnecessary parking fee and to skip on visiting the visitor center and head over straight to the site. She also gave us the map. Staying at the hotel was great.

The Giant's Causeway site was incredible. In addition to having the usual beautiful coast line it also featured sections of the rock shaped like hexagonal columns pressed together. There are local legends explaining the phenomena and scientific explanation suggests that this was due to the unusual combination of factors during the volcanic activity. But the end result looks fantastic.

We were almost the first ones on the site and so enjoyed ourselves walking up and down those columns. It was like a giant playground. When people started to arrive brought over by a completely unnecessary bus from the visitor center 1km away we did a walk around the site encountering more of those fantastic rock formations along the way.

After that we moved over to Bushmills to grab another cup of coffee and visit the distillery.

The distillery looks like a big shop. And the selection is pretty much similar to what is in the store so it was not interesting. The town was interesting. Since it appears that most of the business was brought on by the distillery the town seems larger and more developed than others around it. However distilling business may be moving elsewhere because now and then they have abandoned shops in town that have very realistic looking photos of the shops that used to be there on the doors and windows.  This looks kind of creepy.

Here is the green grocer store, the shoe repairs shop, the court building. What are they going to do when the last shop tanks? However there is one shop I hope does not disappear. It is called Ground Expresso Bar and it is located in the old bank building that was redone in a modern way. In addition to having great coffee in appropriately sized containers, they also make nutritious confections by mixing molten chocolate with cereals. We had our coffees at the vault. I also had cornflakes with dark chocolate. So good! There is also a playroom for kids to enjoy themselves while parents are having a quiet moment. Only our kids were also enjoying healthy sweets :)

The next stop was White Rock beach nearby. It was drizzling a little but we are used to it. However we were not used to groups of families swimming in cold water or playing beach sports in full rain gear. I guess vacation is vacation and when you are on the beach you do what you are have to do. We picked some shells and kids and I ran up and down the giant sand dune. Some kids were sliding down it on the boogie board.

Then we headed North for Greencastle and stopped for lunch at Kealy’s Seafood Bar. It was recommended very highly in the guide and had signs around indicating how special it was. Other than the presentation we did not notice anything a typical restaurant in US won’t be able to beat.

So we headed down to the North most point on the Island: Malin Head. It is just a rocky outpost with abandoned cement viewing tower. There we saw the largest number of tourists we saw on any of the nature sites. The nature this far North seems less lush and more stern. However as we took the shortcut through the mountain bog we saw a wide selection of plants – just some really short ones. 

We took a walk down the path winding through the bogs to see the Hell Hole, a gap in the mountains where water hits the shore with particular violence. But the waves were quiet and there was nothing hellish about it. We walked back through the bog to save time. Interesting experience. Some places feel solid but have water underneath. Slate and quartz rocks mixed in in the middle as not very reliable as footholds.  

The next stop was at another playground. There is a beach nearby where one can find semiprecious stones like jasper. We headed there through some narrow gravel farm roads. The beach was filled with pebbles and those that were wet indeed resembled shiny richly veined green and red pieces one would see in the store. For the next 45 minutes we felt like we were inside the Alladin’s cave. Those beautiful pebbles were all around us. Could not stuff our pockets enough. Isabella helped us a bit, but then she got tired of it and picked some shells instead.

When we got to the car (for a while I actually doubted we would have it in us to part with this place) we had a fool’s gold moment. All the stones that dried up looked just like regular pebbles. Gray and uninteresting. I guess if we get a polishing machine we would be able to see which ones are indeed semiprecious but for now they are just a pile of rocks.

   

 Next was the most challenging time in our journey today. We did not book a hotel hoping to catch something on the way. The problem is that today is Friday and there is a music festival at the nearby Derry. Big enough festival to completely close the hotel and B&B market on the perimeter between Malin Head and Donegal. A pretty damn big perimeter. We were really starting to worry having checked everything and not having found anything on our route from 6pm through 9pm. Finally we got lucky – there was a cancellation in Steeple View B&B and we were able to get in. It is not as fine as the one yesterday and there is no Internet but it was so great to finally check in, put kids to sleep, and take a shower and get down to wring the blog!! The bad thing about B&Bs is that for security reasons they would not let one in after 9pm so we really got lucky with this one.    

Some logistical things. Should have brought the rain boots for everyone. It would be fitting for when we have to go through wet muddy places. Also I find myself doing laundry every day. I had been hoping to keep our luggage small by wearing some things twice but we are moving so much that clothing does get dirty very fast. Then, when I wash it it does not have the time to dry and we have to have it spread out in the car and in the trunk during the day to dry.

Speaking of the B&Bs.. even though they bring great benefits to the owners – they are able to rack in about 100 euros for every room they have available every night, but it is kind of weird to let absolute strangers stay in your house every day.