The Black Lung is Melting! Melting! Part 4: I find out how the Emerald Isle became so green (hint-it's the rain).

Unless otherwise noted, all photo credits go to Niki Erickson, an awesome photographer, a fantastic friend, and a really top notch traveling companion. Thanks, Niki!


Previously, on The Black Lung: Scotland! Also, I forgot to mention something important. While we were in Skye, we say a sign for a place (?) called Totescore. We spent a while debating on the pronunciation, but eventually decided that no matter what it really was, now it was an awesome part of our vocabulary. For example, "Our vacation was totescore amazing." Or, "That guy had a totescore intense accent, and I couldn't tell what he was saying."

Moving on, as if we ever really could, the morning after we slept in a haunted, smoke-riddled castle, we took the car ferry  to Northern Ireland. I was really concerned about seasickness, but I took some Dramamine and was fine. Mostly I took naps, read a book, and ate some Kinder Bueno, my favorite candy of vacation. Mmm...Kinder Bueno. I have a few left that I've been hoarding since I got home, and now I want one.

The whole time we were crossing the Irish Sea and when we got to Northern Ireland, it was raining cats and dogs. It was really the only day of vacation that we had really awful, typically British weather. And it was the only day that my raincoat wasn't sufficient to keep me dry. I was wet up to the knees, and I think that water actually got under my raincoat through the sleeve's and neck hole. It was kinda miserable, even though we did awesome stuff that day.

The first place we went was called The Dark Hedges. It's this stretch of road where some twisty trees have grown up and made a tunnel over the road. Even though we got soaked, I think that the rain actually made it look cooler. We met a random Irish guy who was there taking lots of pictures. We didn't blame him at all. It's another place that's so beautiful it seems unreal.

 The Dark Hedges. They were legitimately dark, and not just because it was raining.

Next we went to Giant's Causeway. I love Giant's Causeway! It's a very cool geologic formation on the coast. There are about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. Obviously we now know that they were caused by a volcano, but back in the day, people were totally amazed/confused by them. So there are a lot of interesting legends about the giant Finn MacCool living there. I had heard many legends about Finn MacCool before, so I loved seeing the place that inspired those legends. I also really liked Giant's Causeway because there's a free audio tour that's included with admission! I learned some interesting history and legends from it. In spite how wet we were, this was still one of my favorite places of vacation.

 I'm not shiny. It was just that wet.

Niki was much braver than me. I was afraid to go out on the slippery rocks.

That's me in the red! I think the hill in the background might be one of the Giant's Haystacks.

 I took this one myself. Pretty impressive, no? You can see The Giant's Chimney and the Giant's Granny in the background. This is how the weather looked all day.

That night, we stayed at Troy Hall, a really beautiful B&B in Londonderry. I think it was the prettiest place that we stayed. Also, it's the place where we had a full Irish breakfast. We figured we should try it at least once. Never again. Grody to the max, you guys. Some of it is pretty normal-fried eggs, sausage, and weird bacon (none of the bacon there was crispy, so it was more like ham). And some tomatoes. And potato bread and Irish soda bread, which were by far the best part of breakfast. So amazingly delicious. But breakfast also came with baked beans (weird) and with Black Pudding and White Pudding. I won't tell you what those are. You can look it up if you want. But I will tell you that they are disgusting, and I have no idea why people eat them.

What happened after we left Troy Hall was the great failure of our vacation-we tried to go to church, but we never found it. The internet assures us that there is an LDS congregation that meets less than two miles from where we were staying, but we sure couldn't see it. We drove up and down that street for about 45 minutes before finally giving up in despair. No church for us. We had our own Sunday meeting later that night when I read an extra talk from General Conference to us. Sad stuff.

So instead of going to church, we went to Free Derry. It was very eerie. It's the sight of a lot on conflict with the British army in the late '60s, early '70s and where Bloody Sunday happened. There are monuments for the victims of Bloody Sunday as well as for people who died on hunger strike in prison. There's also graffiti everywhere, IRA tags, and demands to release political prisoners. The thing that was saddest to me was how young the hunger strikers and the Bloody Sunday victims all were. It's hard to believe how recently this happened.

Free Derry. There were murals depicting the violence all around this neighborhood.

 

After we left Londonderry, we headed south to the Belleek Pottery Factory. Unfortunately, since it was the weekend we couldn't do the tour, but I've heard it's awesome. We did get to see the museum and the showroom, which were both very cool. I didn't really know much about Belleek before, but their pottery is beautiful. They're especially well known for their pottery baskets, which are insanely detailed. It's hard to believe they're actually pottery.

We spent the rest of Sunday in Sligo, because Niki's pen pal lives there. It was pretty cool to get an insider's view of an Irish town. He took us to Sligo Abbey, to Lough Gill, and to the Beach. Apparently it's not safe to swim there (this according to the signs posted everywhere), but nobody thinks twice about surfing. The giant board makes it OK!

Lough Gill. Apparently it's something to do with Yeats, but I'm pretty ignorant of Irish poetry. Also, I thought one of those swans was dead, and it was creeping me out, but it turned out to just be sleeping. Whew!

 

Monday we went to the Cliffs of Moher, aka the Cliffs of Insanity!!!! from The Princess Bride. Also where the creepy cave is that Dumbledore and Harry go to in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We made many, many Princess Bride jokes while we were there. And we heard some young folks talking about Harry Potter. It was very whatever the movie version of literary is. I would have really liked to take a boat ride at the bottom of the Cliffs, because that would have felt even more authentic.

 You were supposed to be this great Colossus, and yet he gains! 

The big disappointment of the Cliffs of Moher (aside from not seeing the Dread Pirate Westley) was that we didn't see a single puffin. This is another reason a boat tour would have been great. Probably closer to the puffins. The best thing about the Cliffs of Moher (aside from the fact that they're cool) was that Niki and I ate really, really delicious peanut butter and banana sandwiches when we were there. Mmmm... Sandwiches...Also, there were a bunch of musicians randomly performing along the path to the Cliffs from the visitor center, which was really nifty.

School crossing sign. Is it just us, or are these children deformed? Taken in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland, on the way to the Cliffs of Moher.

 

After we left the Cliffs, we headed to my most favorite place in Ireland: Dingle!

To Be Continued...