Early in the morning, woke up to a delightful breakfast with Kevin and headed out on the road equipped with a new book about perfect cycling routes through Europe. The ride up through Ballynahinch and Carryduff was not the greatest. Unfortunately, I was trying for speed, so the route wasn't too exciting. Ended up in the south west part of Belfast. Only about 50km, or 30 miles, mostly on unexciting roads, save for the trucks.
Met up with Robert, my host in Belfast. I spent the night near the stadium...which was somewhat exciting due to a football match between Northern Ireland and Italy. The dress was the perfect stereotype of all green. After checking in at Robert's place, I went for a few hours wandering around the city. The city is much like other cities of the same size. Lots of bars and cool architecture. Toasted with Harp Lager, brewed in Belfast, over a fantastic vegan dinner. Went out for the night for a little while, but I had to be the asocial type and return home to go to sleep early enough to get up by 6.
Initial plan was to cycle westward to Coalisland, but I decided last minute to scrap my schedule and head north on the train to Derry. About a week ago, there was a second recent bombing in the city, actually about a few blocks from where I stayed with my host Elisabeth. Here, my social graces did not serve me well. I accidentally spilled a small amount of tea on her computer. The result, discovered next morning, was a watermark on the screen covering the entire lower right of the screen. I felt very cruddy from that.
But...the day was wonderful. I took a light day of cycling around the northeast coast of Northern Ireland. I met some really nice ladies on the train back to Coleraine who gave me a bag of dried cranberries. From there, I cycled out to the Giant's Causeway, a world heritage site, stopping en route at the Dunluce Castle
The Giant's Causeway is quite cool. Take a look at some pictures, it is crazy. Basically, image hundreds of hexagonal prisms packed together like a honey comb, each one about the a foot wide. These rock formations spread out across the sea. The working idea is that they are what is left of an extinct volcano. It really looks quite strange how geometric the shapes are and how perfectly uniformed. Today, I only managed about 14 miles.
Made it back to Derry and went out for a Guinness half-pint with Elisabeth. The bar we were at had a live performance of a band doing southern rock...quite humorous to hear the thick Derry accent while speaking transition into an attempt at southern rock. Went home around midnight and headed out early(ish) in the morning.
