Day 9: The North
From Dublin, it’s about 2 or so hours to Belfast. I’m terrible at explaining the history but all I can say is, prepare to make purchases in Pounds instead of Euro. It’s as if you’ve crossed a border into Britain, but you don’t need a passport or anything. I didn’t stay in Belfast much longer than an hour so I’ll just discuss the real reason I decided to travel this far.
Perhaps another 30 minutes north of Belfast, you can see get to a road with beech trees known as the dark hedges. These trees became famous from a scene in season 2 of Game of Thrones. It was raining when we were there and maybe it was a good thing as it added darkness to the dark hedges.
Further north toward the coastline of Ireland, you will start to notice the similarities between the scenery of the Cliffs of Moher. There is a scenic trail with a bridge called Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The bridge leads you to a very small island with great views. It’s quite a touristy spot so expect to wait around 30 minutes during the summer months just to cross the bridge. But the views are worth it.
And not too far away from the bridge, we finally arrive at the infamous Giants Causeway. This is a large area which takes 15-20 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the causeway. 10,000s of stone columns stacked like legos everywhere. There is nothing much here except for the fact that it’s a unique place and a bucket list item for many people.
jc path to the marathon 