Belfast/Dublin

I got up early on a Tuesday morning to catch a bus, then a train, to Belfast. I missed the first bus, but managed to make it on the second bus to Dublin, then hopped on the train to Belfast. I arrived in Belfast at 1:30ish and checked in to the hostel; I then walked to Lagan Meadows, which is a nature preserve that I wanted to check out. It was also a good way to spend the time waiting for Kelly to meet me; she had a later exam then got on the train. When we met up, we went right to the Christmas, which was right by the City Hall. It was both of our first Christmas markets, so we were fully impressed. Lots of different types of foods, sweets, trinkets, and lighting throughout. We hopped from stand to stand eating and browsing. We went to the hostel to drop of Kel's stuff and then headed out to a bar. We couldn't find the suggested bar, but we found a cozy one with live music. It was great to have the live irish music experience, probably for the last time. We chatted about how rare it is to find a place like it in the States, while in Ireland you can usually find a couple pubs like this every night. It was a great night and we ended it by getting chicken goujons and chips before heading to bed; we had an early morning to head to Giant's Causeway.
We woke up and ate amazing porridge before getting on a bus to Giant's Causeway. It was perfect because they stopped at a couple other places on the way, so we got to see a lot of Northern Ireland in one day. We saw a couple castle's (I don't remember all the names), Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Bushmill's Distillery (oldest one in world according to bus driver: licensed to distill since 1608), Giant's Causeway, and the beautiful views on the way up there. We took the coastal road for amazing views. The people on the bus were hilarious; typical asian tourists (based on my own experiences, not stereotypes) that were always late at the stops, and one time had to flag down the bus after it had already started driving away from the rope bridge parking lot. One of them decided to puke in a bag (with a small hole in the bottom) due to motion sickness, even though the driver told everyone to inform him if they started to feel ill, instead of telling him after they got sick on the bus. It was quite a scene.
We got back to Belfast at 6 that night and headed back for the Christmas market for more food. We loved the mulled wine and the Bailey's hot chocolate. We got a meal and Guiness at a restaurant close-by, before realizing we had no more pounds, so we headed back to the hostel. We agreed to meet up at 6:15 in order ot get the train at 6:50, but Kelly decided to sleep through it (on accident apparently ;)), so we got on the later train and met up with Moira and Grace in Dublin for Breakfast.
This was the first time I had gone to Dublin so I decided to just follow the other's around to what they wanted to see. We saw Trinity College, the Book of Kels (it wasn't on display the day we were there so we just saw the museum and the old library, which was still cool), Saint Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, O'Connell Street, and the famous Temple Bar. It was a great city, but I have seen much more exciting cities (no offense Ireland). Kelly and Moira headed back for Limerick, while Grace and I headed to our hostel to get ready for our adventure to Copenhagen early the next morning. We dropped our stuff off and went to dinner at a nice burger place (I know, not a typical Irish meal, but we were feeling burgers). We grabbed a quick drink at a bar, then went back to the hostel for an early night; another early morning and day full of traveling coming up.

See the next entry for the Copenhagen trip details!