Northern Ireland/The Antrim Coast

Nate's company has provided him with a rental car to get to his client for our last few months here. It's made us appreciate again how much freedom a car gives you - we now have the ability to take quick road trips if we want, and we have access to better grocery stores! The sad irony is that Nate is now in his busy season - he barely has enough time to eat breakfast, let alone make it out for a countryside soujourn. So when he found a slight lull in his schedule over one weekend in mid-January, we leaped at the chance to make a quick get-away. Northern Ireland was our destination - Nate hadn't had the opportunity to get there, and I was happy to return.

On Friday night we stayed at Nate's co-worker Dermot's home about 90 minutes outside of Dublin - he lives in Carrickmacross, a small town near the border. It was pitch-black when we drove up there, but here is the view we had from the guestroom window when we woke the next morning:














What a retreat! You can't see in this picture, but there were horses grazing in the field across the road - it was quite the vision of pastoral bliss. I quickly understood how Dermot had been able to withstand the stress of a CPA's life for so long.

We spent Saturday wandering the area surrounding Carrickmacross with Dermot - we saw a lot of sights significant to Patrick Kavanagh, a famous Irish poet. We also drove across to a lot of the border towns, took a scenic walk around a lake-strewn forest park/golf resort, and had lunch in a well-preserved castle. Apparently David and Victoria Beckham were married in this castle - the place books up years in advance. There was a group still lingering from a wedding the night before, and they were having a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee - an informal traditional music session), which was a great atmosphere to have lunch to. By late afternoon we said our goodbyes to Dermot and took off for Portrush, a town on the Northern Irish coast.

After a classic Sunday breakfast in our seaside townhouse B&B, we headed off to explore the coast, meandering through Dunluce Castle's ruins and scrambling over the hexagon-shaped rocks of the Giant's Causeway (pictured at the top of the post). It rained just enough at the Causeway to chase the majority of the tourists away, but Nate and I stuck it out, and were rewarded with a few moments alone to admire the dramatic coastline and reflect on our lot in life. The tide was in, which made for turbulent waves - great for taking pictures. We tried to cross the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, but it was closed for the winter. Then we raced to Belfast, where we had enough daylight and energy to walk around a few blocks and say "nice!" before heading back to Dublin. So now Nate's had a glimpse of Northern Ireland, and a rare moment to escape the hustle and bustle at work. With so few opportunities to get out and see the countryside from here on out, we did not take this quick sojourn for granted.