Journal - Vacation Trip I

Well, the lack of internet access at hostels somehow combined with muddy shoes and lots of tea to defeat my efforts at posting to my blog during my three weeks of vacation. I'm glad that you weren't staying up late at night worrying about when the next installment of Hiway99er would be posted (I was doing enough of that for all of us). But now that I have effectively recovered from my 23 days of adventure (four weekends plus three work-weeks), I guess I'll let you know a little about all the fun.

The first week and a half I spend traveling around the northern part of Ireland and Northern Ireland in a rental car with two German friends. Luckily, I didn't have to drive at all (learning to drive a manual AND driving on the left was a bit too much to do at once), but I did help navigate at times by saying "that was the turn back there" and "left, Left, LEFT!" We had no real troubles, and this is one version of our story.

Day 1: St. Patrick is Everywhere
Our first day was spent in Armagh, where we hoped to find a lively St. Patrick's Day celebration, seeing that Armagh is the religious capital of Ireland (for both the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church) and there are two enormous St. Patrick's Cathedrals facing each other on adjacent hills. Luckily our hostel was centered between the two. Unfortunately, celebrations were a bit less than we expected on this rainy day. We did watch the 15-minute-long parade, composed mostly of schoolchildren and the crows of spectators following behind, which we joined in as well. Then at night we caught the correspondingly-brief (and damp) fireworks display, but that was it for the night; as the guy at the record store told us, there's no music scene in Armagh. Oh well.

Day 2: Stones, Stone Circles, and Circles
I'd say that the subtitle for this day provides a good description of what we saw as we took a circular route from Armagh, north to Lough Neagh, west through part of the Sperrin Mountains, and down to Enniskillen. We saw an old stone cross at Ardboe, a sweat hut (stones and dirt) near Maghera, a dolmen also near the sweat hut, a standing stone near Greencastle, the almost-alien Beaghmore Stone Circles (which we drove in a circle getting to), and a stone tomb (we circled a lake to get there). The day ended by watching the sun set over Lough Erne and a roundhouse (made of stones and in the shape of a circle). Okay, so some of those "stone" and "circle" places were stretched, but I challenge you to come up with a more thematically-oriented day than ours.

Day 3: Are We in Ireland?
We spent most of our day around Enniskillen hiking, with a few breaks to explore old houses. We caught great views over the lake from the top of the Cliffs of Magho, and it was unsettling to get a message on my cell phone welcoming me to Ireland (and charging me two arms and half a leg more to use it) while walking through a moss-covered forest, especially since we were still geographically in the UK! We relaxed our legs at a castle (burg) and then a manor house (schloss) before continuing on. Our last hike took us up a nice forested river, almost into the Marble Arch Caves from which it sprung (they didn't want us going in without paying), and then into an open hilly landscape (that reminded me a bit of Central California) with lots of cattle. We made it to Sligo just in time to watch the sun set, minus the green flash.

Day 4: Sheep and Bog (aka Achill Island)
The title for this day doesn't do it justice, because it was probably the best or at least second best day on our trip, in my opinion. On our way to Achill Island we stopped to investigate a castle and found an amazing view over the hundreds of islands and tidal flats, greatly improved by a bright sun. We spent three hours on a supposed two-hour hike on the western tip of the island, greeting sheep (and their digested waste products) and marveling at them in inaccessible places on the cliffs below. I wonder how often sheep fall down? Next we irrationally attempted to do another long hike before sunset, but we had to cross a turf-cut field of boggy peat, and the view wasn't so good. Luckily the evening made up for it: we stayed up late eating dinner with a Chinese-Irish and a French family, and group singing an eclectic mix of songs from our respective nations and cultures (German, American, Irish, Breton, and Chinese)!

Day 5: On The Road
I'll try not to say much about this day, because it sandwiches the two best days, and has some places we would rather forget spending so much time and effort getting to. We did a quick walk around an abandoned village and a small tomb before leaving Achill Island and heading back towards Sligo. Due to some incorrect road signage we took the VERY long way to the place not-to-be-mentioned (I won't give the name because of its bad connotations and because I can't pronounce it). It wouldn't have been worth going to see even if we had gotten there in the most direct way possible, because it was simply an ugly pyramidal visitor centre, with a very lame interpretive video, followed by a repetitive guided tour of white poles that mark where, hidden under blanket bog, exist really old stone fences. Yay. At least we found a neat tomb shortly afterwards. We spent the night in Donegal town.

Day 6: Wet and Windy Is Wonderful
This was a wonderful day, even if it was wet and windy. Somehow we ended up spending most of the day on the peninsula between Killybegs and Ardara, and we could have stayed longer if we wanted. Our first stop was Slieve League, the disputed highest sea cliffs in Europe. They were certainly impressive, but more for the facts that they were so high we couldn't see the bottom through all the clouds and that I experienced probably the fastest winds in my life! Next we found large sand dunes and sea caves and rocks near the town of Maghera (not really a town but more a collection of ten-or-so buildings). In the drenching rain, as we were searching in "town" for the trailhead to hike up a supposedly famous and beautiful pass (Glen Gesh Pass), a fellow ushered us into his house. He entertained us for a good time with tea and talk, long enough to dry our pants. Obviously, he was bored, had a lot of time on his hands, and would rather spend the afternoon talking with us than help his neighbors with lamb birthings. That was fine with us! After what seemed like a long time we headed out to hike the pass behind his house (which turned out to be just as beautiful as the famous one); when we returned an hour or two later he invited us in for more tea! Finally it was getting late and we had to depart, but I won't soon forget the fun and beauty and hospitality of that wee village of Maghera. We spent the night in a funky hostel that looked exactly like your grandmother's cottage and was located ten minutes up an isolated road from anything. Neat! I can understand how stories start about strange things happening up in County Donegal.

Day 7: Donegal Transitions
We got to see the contrasts within Donegal on this day. The morning was spent in an ascent and descent of Mount Errigal, a large and beautiful pile of pink and grey rocks surrounded by squishy boglands. We jumped from tuft to tuft and safely made it through with few muddy incidents. Next we drove north for a short hike to Horn Head and its cliffs. Then we headed further east and made it to the Inishowen Peninsula, where we spent the night. It being Good Friday, and one of us being a non-fish-eating vegetarian, we instead ate vegetables on rice in the shape of fishes. So delicious.

Day 8: Our Lazy Day
This was our so-called lazy day, because we did a lot of quick stops from the car and a really easy hike (more like a walk). We started the morning at Malin Head, the northern-most part of Ireland (although I saw some islands further north...), which was okay, but not much to see. Next we walked around the Inishowen Head, which was pleasant but not strenuous at all. Taking the quick ferry across to Northern Ireland, we were greeted by a maximum-security prison. Thence we traveled east along the Causeway coast, stopping briefly for lunch on the beach and views of Dunluce Castle. Eventually we made our way to the only hostel we could find room: a converted barn run by professional storytellers. They didn't lull us to sleep with any good stories though; the snores from the other guests accomplished that task.

Day 9: Another Lazy Day
I guess this day was sort of less lazy than the past one, but I couldn't think of a better title. We had eggs for breakfast (it being Easter morning), and then went for a hike at a nearby bay. The weather alternated between five minutes of fierce hail and fifteen minutes of partly-cloudy-ness. At least it was more strenuous than the previous day. Continuing on down the coast, we passed the seven glens of Antrim and then went for a quick lighthouse walk near Whitehall. We made it back to Belfast easily that evening, and still had plenty of time to make and enjoy a delicious homemade smashed-potato pizza as a reward for returning home.

Day 10: From the Mountains to the Shore
We still had the rental car for another day, so we headed south from Belfast to hike Slieve Guillion, the centre of an ancient volcano. From the huge rock cairn and tomb on the summit, it was impressive to see the smaller hills surrounding the mountain in a perfect circle, a great example of a ring dyke. Having more time after the long hike, we headed to the shore and eventually found some sand dunes near Dundrum after being stuck in Easter Monday shopping traffic. The impressive Mourne Mountains formed a picturesque scene from the long beach, and provided a nice ending scene for our trip. (If our trip were made into a movie, not only would it be pretty boring for most people, but that view would be the background for the ending credits).

Although this concluded the trip with my German friends (they then went on for a week in Scotland), I soon took off for another trip around Ireland with my parents, which will be chronicled in the next journal entry!