Arriving in Belfast, being disappointed by trees & visiting the Derry Girls mural

Woo how fun a double whammy! Yesterday wasn’t that riveting so thought I would combine it with today.

Yesterday’s drive from Galway to Derry was quite long and honestly not that exciting. We didn’t have any things to do between the cities, so we just took the motorway for boring views but speedier times. Our halfway stop was in Sligo, about an hour from the Northern Ireland border, where we had some lunch. Honestly not that inspiring of a spot just from what we saw, although Ireland’s bronze medal winner swimmer Mona McSharry grew up there, so it was cool to be able to make that link.

We made it to Derry in the late afternoon and we were so exhausted after the long day. We popped quickly to the shops to get some more food for breakfasts and lunches, then ducked around the corner to see the Derry Girls mural! Not that Dad knows this, but that mural is 100% the entire reason we stayed in Derry (and also because we needed somewhere to stay before Belfast but that’s all that he knows). It’s one of my favourite shows of all time, and if I can convince you of one thing from this whole post is to go watch Derry Girls! And although I would very much like to say I’m similar to Michelle, but realistically I’m Erin and Erin alone. If you get it, you get it. What I didn’t expect was how big the mural actually was, I thought it would be on the side of a building obviously, but I was in this big square, their faces being so big jump scared me so bad. I was in front of it for a little while just observing how well the artist did capturing their character, I turn around and Dad’s gone, like the other side of the street gone and I was like hello? I would like a photo in front of the mural we left our Airbnb for a 7:30pm? I was not leaving that town without a photo in front of that mural. Absolutely no way.

The M&S we ducked into for food was hilarious as well. I keep forgetting that the Derry accent in the show is actually how people talk. I mean of course they talk like that, I just hadn’t really processed that that’s the accent we would hear. Initially I didn’t think it would sound much different to the other Irish accents we’ve been used to hearing, but genuinely every time I heard someone speaking I thought Mary was there to tell me off about something. That also made me appreciate how spot on their accents were on the show, I thought everyone in the shops were characters!

That night in Derry was uneventful after. We watched the Olympics for a bit then went to bed relatively early, as though the drive to Belfast today wasn’t that long, we did have a couple of stops planned, and decided to get up around 7am to beat the rain at our first stop of the day, Giants Causeway!

It was about an hour’s drive from Derry to Giant’s Causeway, and we arrived just after 9am. It was a great time to arrive, not too may tourist buses, and we got a solid 40 minutes with no rain. It was a 20-minute walk from the carpark down many, many stairs and a trail to the first viewpoint. I didn’t realise you could actually walk on the rocks; I thought you wouldn’t be allowed to, but we could! The trail goes right over it. Continuing on from the Causeway itself, the trail gives you amazing views of the coastline and cliffs, and not many tourists decided to do this part so we got it pretty much to ourselves. Though the Causeway was cool to see, and I know it’s an iconic sight within the UK, I do think having been to Iceland before gave me unfairly high expectations. That kind of hexagonal structure in geology is common and very prominent throughout Iceland, and I did see more impressive structures there, so the Causeway didn’t really compare. I was a bit annoyed I had been to Iceland, everyone else there was completely in awe and I was irritated I wasn’t with them in that experience. I did really enjoy getting to hike more around the coastline itself, the views from the trail were insane.

From Giants Causeway the next stop was Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which, along with the quarry next door, was also a filming location in Game of Thrones. There’s a good to high possibility that most of the places we’ve been to were locations in GoT to be honest, the whole country looks like the North it’s so cool. I recognised the rope bridge before we were told that it was a filming location, which I was very proud of! For my GoT fans reading, it’s the rope bridge in the Iron Islands where that Greyjoy dude gets murdered in the big storm? You know the one. Anyway it looked so cool in the show, and even cooler to cross and explore the area. The bridge was originally used by fisherman to get off the nearby island and back onto the mainland, but now it’s a major tourist attraction. And I can most definitely see why! It’s such a dramatic backdrop between the 2 peninsulas, and I loved that it means you can explore the mainland coastline, but also the little island the bridge takes you to. It’s definitely a unique experience that combines great elements of lots of different attractions. At this point in the day the rain had set in, and not just a bit of rain. It rained heavily and consistently for the next couple of hours. Although Dad was irritated by this, I didn’t mind at all. Photos would’ve been easier to take, sure, but I am a firm believer that any coastline in Ireland looks better with either rain, cloud of both. It just makes it so much more atmospheric and magical. Plus, we haven’t used our rain jackets since landing in Dublin so our luck has been pretty incredible with the weather.

Our last stop before Belfast were the Dark Hedges, another 20-minute drive from the bridge. Yet another GoT location, I believe this one was the Kings Road, so we’ve seen it many times throughout the show. This spot just straight up confused me. All the photos we’d seen made it look it was an actual hedge of trees, all bent together at the top so that it blocked a lot of light, hence ‘dark’. We parked at one end of the road, then walked in from there. It was just some bent trees down a road? We were very confused, mostly wondering if we’d gotten the wrong road, or if we weren’t down far enough yet. We walked the whole thing (in torrential rain) and confirmed many times with many other people who were just as confused as we were that yes, we were on the right road. It was still cool, but yeah we’re just really confused. Those photos don’t look anything alike I promise you. If you end up being in Northern Ireland definitely go check it out, the road looks really cool, just don’t look at any professional photos of it beforehand, you will be disappointed.

The last hour and a half of the day we drove from there to Belfast, our last major city of this leg of the trip! We’ve still got a couple days left in Ireland don’t worry, they’re just not cities the same way Dublin, or Galway, or Belfast is. So this destination feels a bit extra special. We found our Airbnb no problem at all, and now we’re watching the Olympics for a while to chill out a bit. We’re planning on walking somewhere for dinner a bit later, then we spend a day in Belfast tomorrow. Should be fun!

Although I feel like we’ve started winding up our trip to Ireland, we’ve still got lots of fun things planned, so I’m looking forward to seeing what these last couple of days hold. Ireland, we love you!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x