northern ireland takes the cake

When I first moved to Ireland I was quite surprised to find out that the tiny island has two different countries within it. The Republic of Ireland, where I live, and Northern Ireland. The republic of Ireland is part of the European Union and Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. The two countries don't seem to think highly of each other, so living in the Republic I've only heard poor things about Northern Ireland. For my birthday Mandi and Bryce said that we could travel somewhere in Ireland and I got to pick where! I debated between going to Dingle, in the Ring of Kerry, or to Giants Causeway, in Northern Ireland. Everyone says that you have to go to Dingle and I was sad we weren't able to go when we were in Kerry last time because of the crazy festival going on, but I also thought it might be time to see a different side of Ireland. One of my friends, friends from Ireland sent me a list of places to go in Ireland, and he suggested going to Belfast so I figured the North must be worth seeing. 

We stopped in Belfast on our way and went to the Titanic museum. The building alone was pretty incredible, just as it should be considering that it cost about 100 million pounds to build it. The museum was crazy and even had a ride in it. It was a slow, informative, ride but still a ride nonetheless. It blew the comical Titanic museum in Cork out of the water (more on that later) and we were feeling pretty guilty that we didn't take Brynne and Tanner here instead.

For some reason it looks like I put a party hat under my hair to give it a crazy cone shape look for crazy hair day. I didn't do that. Just in case you were wondering..

Wait are we back in the Republic?

This was the view from the museum.

I considered buying this for Brynne as a souvenir because she is a titanic (movie) fanatic and who doesn't love a good statement neckalce ;) It was only seven euros and it is obviously worth waaay more.

Belfast was a pretty cool town! It definitely felt a bit rougher than Dublin, and it's a smaller city but I was pleasantly surprised after hearing how scary the North can be :)

 After the museum we headed to Ballycastle, the dreamiest town we were staying in. Bryce and Mandi rented a great house with our friends, the Allemans. It was so fun to have another amazing family to hang out with and don't even get me started on the house. It was off the greatest! I had my own bedroom with the most comfortable bed and a killer view! Everything was so spacious which is a big change from the homes in Dublin. The Irish country side is where it's at!

On Saturday we  had a packed day and saw some amazing sights. We started out by going to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was fabulous. And by fabulous I mean dry. It was still rather cold! Props to the Winkelmans and Allemans for being brave enough to let their kids cross the rope bridge.

This was the second rainbow I spotted in two days. My cousin Josh had passed away the week before and I woke up feeling pretty emotional because it was the day of his funeral and I was so sad to miss it. I know it's a bit of a cliche but I couldn't help but think of Josh when I saw this rainbow. I feel like this was Gods way of sending me some comfort while being in the most beautiful place I've ever been. It's so strange for me to think that when I get home Josh wont be there. It's weird how one second someone is here, and then the out of the blue they are just gone. Thankfully there's not a doubt in my mind that life after death exists. I feel so blessed to know that Josh's spirit hasn't ceased to exist and that I'll get to see him again :)

Our next stop was Giants Causeway which is basically a bunch of basalt columns that were created from a volcanic eruption. Most of the columns are in the shape of  a hexagon and there are natural steps formed from these columns. It's pretty hard to imagine how on earth this happened from a volcano erupting. Mother nature is so cool! Before walking down to the Giants Causeway we ate at the potato festival that was going on in the parking lot because you can't pass up a potato festival in Ireland, am I right? We all pretty much froze our bums off, but as soon as we were done eating it magically warmed up for us which made the Giants Causeway so much more enjoyable!

We went into the gift shop for a little while on our way out and when we stepped outside we noticed we had just missed a huge rainstorm. Talk about timing and the weather being on our side that day. We missed the rain but we didn't miss the double rainbow. This is the third rainbow I saw that weekend :)

We made a quick stop at Dunluce Castle which is considered to be one of the most picturesque castles in Ireland.  Back in the day during some preparations for a Christmas banquet a chunk of the castle fell into the sea taking nine servants who were working in the kitchen with it.  It's a sad tale but I think it gives the castle a much more interesting history.

 We headed home and watched the first session of general conference. Because we are seven hours ahead of Utah we would have had to stay up pretty late to watch the second session so we decided to save that for Sunday. After conference everyone was just hanging out and I decided I wanted to walk down to the beach. When I mentioned this plan to Tiffany she and John quickly offered to grab their kids and drive me down instead. Watching the end of the sunset on the beach was a beautiful way to end the day. Later that night I finally learned how to play marbles. I usually don't play because it's only a four person game and the only time Bryce and Mandi play it is when there are visitors. Jon and Bryce both fell asleep so Mandi and Tiffany kind of forced me to play ;) I was soo not in the mood and I made that clear, but once we started playing it was a blast and I'm glad they convinced me to join in. That is typically how game playing goes for me :) 

  On Sunday I woke up this sunrise and it just kept getting better. We drove home early that morning and listened to general conference. I felt extremely lucky to be looking out at the rolling green hills while listening to the uplifting words from the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Life is pretty favorable sometimes.