UK Road-trip Extravaganza 2010—Coastal Highway Edition

When we stepped off the ferry, we told Kate (our GPS) to take us up the coast on the tiny road that wound up and down and around the cliffs and beaches. The day couldn’t have been more perfect… this gives you a good idea of what it looked like basically around every corner:

The road was narrow, and the Happy Honda struggled with the steep inclines, but in the end, I think this is definitely the only way to really see Northern Ireland.

At the end of our day, we showed up at our hostel, which was in a perfect location.

The only problem was that we had booked a six person room for the four of us, and there happened to be one other guy in the room. Normally, this wouldn’t bother us, except that the room smelled like feet, and no offense to the guy’s feet… but his feet were offensive.

The next day was another day of driving; we saw castles…

… we walked across a rope bridge…

… to a small island where we contemplated the important things in life…

… and just in case you’re wondering, I’m pretty sure I was looking at this…

… which doesn’t really do it justice, because it was more like this…

And at the end of the day, we drove inland a little while to the hostel where we were staying the night. In the middle of nowhere in Northern Ireland, we stayed in a hostel owned and operated by a genuine, bona-fide, Irish Storyteller. Apparently, running the hostel is just something she does on the side… storytelling is her profession. Like an ancient bard she told us the love story of Fenvola and Angus Macallan; she told us a modern love story about a soldier’s honor toward his true love; and best of all, she recited the poem that told the tale of St. Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland, complete with St. Patrick’s bite on the nose from a ‘wee Presbyterian adder’. It was awesome… a perfect experience to top off an already awesome couple of days in Northern Ireland.