We arrived in Ireland at long last after some long layovers in both Calgary and Amsterdam. Finally at the Dublin we took a bus into Belfast, and awaited Sophie's uncle James. As luck would have it her friend/aunt or something Roberta recognized Sophie as we waited and drove us instead. After some awkward moments with foreign family members Judith arrived. Finally a familiar face - to Sophie at least. She drove us home right away and settled us into her cute wee home. The next morning we had a nice sleep in after almost 30 hours awake. Still a little unadjusted to the time our day went on. We had some guests visit Sharon+Dave and Judith (another one!) and Roberta. They brought their cute toddler over and Sophie played momma. We drove into some southern towns saw some pretty stuff. Drove on some very scary roads - very narrow and very fast and all on the opposite sides. We saw silent valley, bloody bridge, and Newcastle. We went out for dinner at a place called Eight South. Very brill. Chorizo and chicken pasta. We also had our first pints of Guinness. Not my favorite but embrace the Irish traditions while here. The next day (Sunday) we went off to church which was a lovely Easter service. After that we made our way over to James' and Sandra house where we had a lovely Easter dinner (as they call it - though it was lunch) We then headed out and about and saw the baby cows and full grown cows. They live on a dairy farm so we saw part of that process as well. It was very fun. We also had a visit with granny the night before. We headed over to James brothers farm and saw the robot milker. It was super neat.  We then drove into Belfast and saw the titanic shipyard, the legislature and the Stormont government building. Very simple on lovely large grounds. Today we had a long trip! All the way up the North coast. Firstly, giants causeway and then the famous rope bridge.  We saw Portstewart, Bushmills, Londonderry, and, Coleraine. We took a nice little ferry around and had a BBQ on the beach. And it rained. And it poured. And the food was good. Very cold and a weird dog. Some Irish phrases ...
Crisps = chips
Chips = fries
Are you taking the piss outta me? = are you making fun of me?
Wee = little
Yous hungry?
Yous cold?

written by  joelcarter on April 9, 2012 from Waringstown, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2012
tagged Ireland and Waringstown
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