Good afternoon! We're off to look at cats today, not to get one, just to look but I'm pretty excited about that. I've been working on making my blog look pretty this week rather than posting, but that means I haven't got around to sharing my Bank Holiday weekend in Northern Ireland with you. I'd love to know what you think of what I've made though...
Moon's dad rather secretly moved over there just before Easter, and we reckon it's something he's been planning for a while, which explains his more frequent than usual trips over there within the last year. Although my Dad's side of the family come from Belfast, Portrush, where Moon's Dad's side of the family is from, isn't somewhere I've ever been, despite the fact that we used to go to Ireland a lot when I was younger.
I do remember a vague mention of going to the Giant's Causeway once, but apparently I wouldn't have appreciated it back then, when going on walks and nature are one of my favourite things now. We didn't get to go this time either, but now there's a permanent base, there's plenty of time to get around to it. It was quite a quick visit, although because we were up at 5am on the Saturday, it did make it seem a little longer, but probably not quite as long as if we'd managed to get there on the Friday.
This was the weekend I managed to overcome my fear of heights - I hope for at least a little while - and crossed over the dizzy-making Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. An experience made all the more memorable by an over-friendly Irish man going on about 'how tame' it was now. It also meant lots of walking, which tired my poor little legs out but I really enjoyed it, as well as lots of looking out at the sea, which made me miss Portsmouth, if only briefly.
But here are a few of my snaps, I'm so happy we had a bit of sun, on the Sunday we were even lucky enough to be walking around without coats, it really is a totally different climate to the South of England, while we were still wrapped up everyone back home was baking in the sun - made evident by the amount of crispy people we encountered when we stopped at the services on the way home!
Time went weirdly slowly in the Airport, I think this was at around 7am; we were lucky enough to be seated with a runway view, about as fancy as you can get for a Café Rouge in a departure lounge.
Showing me the sights of the next town over from Portrush, Portstewart.
You can just about say that Moon's dad's new house has a sea-view.
Ballycastle.
We had dinner in a neat little restaurant called The Cellar which had pretty fancy but authentic food. The door slammed really loud.
Anywhere I can have deep-fried brie is a winner in my book - I think I might have had brie every day prior to this...
Dunluce Castle; somewhere else I'd love to go on my next visit.
Ballycastle again in the morning to check out their Bank Holiday craft fair.
We'd woken up to a drizzly morning so I just wanted to prove that the sun does really shine in Ireland, even if this happened to be the last time we saw it.
What a dork.
Nothing really opens before 12pm on Sundays in Ireland so wandering around Ballycastle before then meant a lot of peaking in windows.
Moon's favourite church.
Although I was pretty scared, my legs were wobbling and everything, I kind of felt pretty obligated to go over the bridge as it was a whole £5.60 each.
There's so much hawthorne everywhere it actually starts to look really beautiful.
Moon's dad didn't join us in walking over the bridge and instead sunbathed on top of a look-out bunker.
Once you get to the middle it feels like someone is jumping behind you, even though they're not. Sure, it's tame...
It was nice to be around so many tourists, plenty of people to volunteer themselves to take pictures for us ♥. One of my favourite pictures I took was actually on my phone and ended up on Instagram.
An old lady had slipped and fallen after crossing to the other side of the bridge so the coast guards had to be called in, pretty encouraging, but then at least she didn't fall off the bridge or something.
Moon's dad insisted on getting me a certificate, and they actually spelt my name right ♥.
We stopped at a little café called The Red Door Tea Rooms for a spot of afternoon tea
Portrush.
The infamous Barry's.
I won lots of tickets playing Temple Run and nearly everything I won broke in my hand.
The prettiest machines – it's a pity they only paid out 20% of the time.
We rounded up our visit with a walk along Portrush beach on Monday morning. It was cloudy but still not cold.
Either this little guy was hurt or really chill because he didn't move even when I (or one of the hundred of dogs running up and down the beach) got close to him.
I had to.
Back in Belfast ready to go home.
Bye bye, Ireland.
What Bank Holiday fun did you get up to, have you been over the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge?
omg seeing that food made me hungry
ReplyDeletereally liked this post xoxo great blog
www.london-wardrobe.blogspot.co.uk
Thank you, wish I could just go back and eat it all over again :)
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