I finally had a bed last night, that was my own, wasn't at a backpackers, was so very comfortable, and was well away from any dreaded church bells! This translated into an absolutely awesome sleep - finally - that just had to coincide with a morning where we had to be up at the crack of dawn, so despite all this it was still all too short! But I wasn't really lacking any motivation because today we were off on another tour, this time north and into yet another country - Northern Ireland. I was particularly excited to view the massive new Titanic Experience (I told you I was slightly obsessed when I was younger) in Belfast, so I practically bounded out of bed (maybe I still am a little obsessed). That, and the bus had wifi, which was important as we'd heard on the grapevine that Grandma might be keen to party again tonight and therefore we could connect with Pam to arrange plans later. Grandma's a party animal! After getting ready, we walked down to the tour pick-up point, which luckily was closer than the last one, as the pick-up time was 6:50am. Yuck. Luckily the bus wasn't crowded, so we could spread out a little bit and possibly have a snooze. For about five minutes. By our third stop the bus was full, so no more comfort snoozing! Luckily we did spread out though, because it worked out better having shorter strangers sitting next to us as opposed to two of us goliaths sitting together! There wasn't actually much point in telling that part of the story above, as it doesn't really add anything to the narrative, but it does add length, and I think that's needed for today's entry. Being so early, the bus got out of Dublin relatively easy and headed north. Apart from a brief rest stop at a service station, we were going directly to Belfast. And in great news, we had nobody like the ODWs on this bus so weren't delayed one bit by people! We had a separate guide and driver on today's tour, which meant our guide could talk a lot and explain a lot of the troubled history between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which was really fascinating. Not that it's related, he also said there are over 7000 ruined castles in Ireland. I wrote that fact down in my notes to include in this entry. I'm not sure why. I think the best thing about the guide was his accent though! Every time he pronounced 'northern', it sounded more like 'norschen', and 'potatoes' sounded more like 'budaidas'. It was humorous. Another good thing was the celebration we saw when crossing an international border - finally!! There was a sign on the road welcoming us, but even better, our guide announced it like the big deal I know it is, even with a little 'yay' in there! Where had that been everywhere else?! It was perhaps a little poignant though given the history of violence, and that not so long ago, only about a decade really, this border was a full military checkpoint. It was sort've odd too; for all intents and purposes it still seemed very much the Ireland we'd come to expect over the last few days, but all of a sudden distances were calculated in miles and not kilometres, and things were paid for in pounds and not euros. It all seemed a bit weird and pointlessly complicated really. It was even confusing to identify a country really. When we crossed the border, officially we were identified as being in the United Kingdom (my phone told me so), and I don't really know if that means the United Kingdom is recognised as the country (and if so does that mean Northern Ireland is not a country as such), or if Northern Ireland is the country (and if so then what on earth is the United Kingdom?!). It's all a bit confusing. No wonder Scotland wants out (granted I wrote this after the referendum has been run and won, but at the time it seemed that way!) After about two and a half hours we reached Belfast, which while is relatively peaceful now, still bears the scars from its violent and very political history. The mountain overlooking the city is still used to display politically driven messages, with a giant 'YES SCOTLAND' written on its rocky face. Even that showed there was still a lot of division here - there was a sign promoting a country become independent of the United Kingdom, yet this very country remains very much apart of the United Kingdom. The bus made its first stop to drop off those people who wanted to do the Belfast Black Taxi Political Tour, which included Dad and Daniel. That tour explored the political history of Northern Ireland and Belfast, and I would find out later on from Dad and Daniel that it is even clearer there is still division - there's still a wall that needs to be closed every night to prevent clashes between the two sides. While I'd have loved to have done that tour, my interest today was going to see the Titanic Experience, which was the next stop. The Experience was in this massive modern building built as high as the Titanic's hull, situated at the head of the slipway where the ship was built. For the next two hours I tracked around the six levels of the building, which tracked Belfast's history and the story of the Titanic. It was an all high-tech, all lights and sounds experience, that I sort've found really just trying to take advantage of Titanic's name to make a tourist dollar, as opposed to really paying tribute to the tragedy that happened. I think this was more confirmed once I'd gotten outside too - Belfast is developing this whole 'Titanic Quarter', a precinct filled with hotels, restaurants, and entertainment without any link whatsoever to Titanic, but for being situated in the vicinity of where it was built. Even the Experience was set up with conference rooms so businesses could hold their meetings or conferences there. The final straw was seeing the exact site of the old slipway (which is the main thing I wanted to see), which had a temporary stage set up for a boxing match the night before. It just seemed that instead of being a tribute to the events, it was really just using the name as an attractor, so while I'm glad I saw it, I was a little disappointed. They did have free wifi though, which is more than I can say for the bus because its wifi had broken down (dare I say sunk like Titanic) In the final half hour there, I lent a hand to some school kids who were looking for tourists to fill in surveys to find where they'd come from, and how much they spent. Even though I'd done one for a group, I did it again for another group and changed my answers so they could finish the task quicker and get back to doing nothing! King of the kids! Once our time there was up, the black taxis carrying the rest of the tour, including Dad and Daniel, met us there, and we got underway again. But not for long! With a traffic jam as we left, it took almost an hour to travel 500 metres getting out of Belfast. Finally once we had broken the shackles of that snarl, we were off and heading further north to the Giant's Causeway, which we arrived at after a couple of hours. As we'd been caught up in the traffic, we only had about an hour and a half to explore the area, and that included fitting lunch in too. Lucky we're all legs, so Dad, Daniel and I stepped it out and raced down the walkway to the Giant's Causeway, which is an absolutely spectacular rock formation that look like stone columns. They look so purposefully built that that's where the name comes from - in ancient times they thought it was giants that built the formation. But it is all natural, and really quite impressive! After we'd seen it, we legged it back the same way we came, this time motivated by something different but no less anticipated - lunch (and beer)! It was here I also saw my first red telephone box in the United Kingdom, yay! After a delicious burger and a refreshing beer, it was back on the bus and along the spectacular Causeway Coast to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It was a little bit of a walk to the bridge, but it was along beautiful cliff tops overlooking the North Atlantic. Once there we were rewarded with crossing a swaying rope bridge, 30 metres above the pounding waves below, and onto a little island with nothing on it but wind battered grasses and a sheer drop down to the ocean in every direction. Somebody forgot to tell the couple full on making out laying down on the island that there weren't actually any rooms, walls, or privacy at all in fact, on the island. On the way back, we saw the most ridiculous sight of the day, with what had to be a mail-order bride walking with her old husband along the steep gravel path in ginormous high heels. Yes I got a photo. Yes I've attached it to this blog. Thank me later. He was also wearing junners. Dick. Once everyone was back on the bus, we were off on our long trip back to Dublin. Unfortunately the wifi still wasn't working so we didn't know what Pam and Grandma were up to or what their plans were, but when we briefly stopped at the same rest stop as this morning, I took advantage of the wifi on offer there and found out they were keen to have some beers! So keen in fact that they even left a note at our accommodation for us to find when we got back! That'a girl Grandma! I let them know we were in, but wouldn't get out there till after 9pm when our bus got back! We were excited! With that excitement, the last part of the bus ride seemed to take ages! When we were finally back in Dublin, Daniel and I were finally able to get some noodles before the noodle bar closed (we'd been trying all week), before we legged it back to the hotel, wolfed it down and got ourselves ready for a night with Grandma and Pam! The three of us legged it just as quickly down to the Temple Bar district, which is even more densely packed with bars than the rest of Dublin (and that's saying something!), and found them both on a table, right next to the stage with live music, with a couple of Irish blokes. Not unexpected really! We quickly grabbed a beer and joined the table, and I practically attacked Grandma with hugs in the process (I know she loved it). The pub was packed, and absolutely pumping thanks to the live Irish music blaring right next to us! We quickly caught up to Pam, and in no time at all I had Grandma dancing like she was a teenager again. I know she was secretly fanning over me! The night was going off, and after a few more beers some really nice Americans joined us, which was the best move of the night (other than my moves on Grandma), as they were very generous. Never did we have an empty glass in front of us again thanks to them! The time came and the pub closed, but that wasn't the end of us! We moved on to another packed bar with even more live music and continued on! All the while our new American friends continued to keep our drinks filled; heroes! I think I finally won Grandma over as she wanted to buy me a drink (raunchy)! We were all smashed, and singing and dancing and loving it! All too soon the lights came on and they started booting us out, which suited me perfectly because I know I was more than ready to go home! We said our goodbyes, knowing we wouldn't get a chance to catch up again, but we knew it wouldn't be the last time; in such a short time we'd become too good a friends for that! Not wanting to waste any time getting home, we grabbed a taxi for the short ride back to our hotel! I think I may have passed out in the toilet for a bit, but regardless, it was a thoroughly satisfying end to a great week in Ireland, I'm sure all would agree! I eventually crawled into bed, a great time enjoyed by all and finished with a boom tonight, and our time in Ireland, pretty much complete!