I woke up around 8:30 this morning to go on a hike up to Belfast Castle. That was kind of rough considering I only went to sleep around 3am. But I am in Ireland and want to experience everything so I dragged my tired self out of bed to go hiking! And I am so glad I did…
Maggie, Savannah, Megan and I were the 4 true champions who managed to get up and go hiking this morning. A lot of others said they were going to go, but we were the only ones that really did it this morning. We took the bus out to the base of the hill that Belfast Castle sits on. We hiked up to the castle and then went inside. The castle was beautiful! Apparently the owners felt that cats brought luck, so there are cats everywhere at the castle. They are in mosaics, statues…all over! We went up to the education/visitors center and to get up there you get to take a really long spiral staircase. It is the longest spiral staircase that is still functional in Ireland. It was a workout in itself.
After we walked around the visitor’s center, we went and figured out our hiking path and started on our way. We started hiking around 10am. It wound up the mountain and there were some spots that kicked my butt a little bit. It was so much fun though! We sang songs along the way. We found a tree and climbed up in it. We found a cave and we climbed up in that. All along the way were gorgeous views of Belfast and the Irish Sea. It was incredible! I have absolutely loved all the hiking I have gotten to do! Definitely my favorite parts of this trip have involved nature and hiking…I need to do more of that back home…
I reached the top of the mountain where there were cliffs that looked out onto the Irish Sea. I had 360 degree views of the city, mountains, and ocean. Quite a spectacular scene…we decided to stop and sit on the edge of the cliffs in some of the grass and just take in the moment. It was amazing! I just lay down and closed my eyes…I am still struck with amazement that I am in Ireland getting to do and see all these things. It never gets old and the views only get better!
After a little break we headed back down the mountain. Our timing couldn’t have been better, because about halfway down it started to rain on us. We definitely took a path less traveled. We were among cows and lots of foliage. It was more fun that way. Also when some of the group had to answer nature’s call…we were out in the middle of nowhere- haha…
At the end of our 4 hour hike, we ended up getting dropped off the trail in a random neighborhood so we just walked toward a main road. Thank goodness we found a bus stop when we did because it started to pour. By this point I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now almost 3pm. Food was in my future. We stopped at Wetherspoons on the walk home to get food. I had a delicious hamburger. It was so good! I hadn’t had one this whole time I’d been here.
We made it back to Queen’s around 5 and then after cleaning up from our hike, a group of us went down the street to Eglantine’s pub for a drink. We ended up meeting some guys and went across the street to The Botanic Inn (The Bot) for their Saturday night dancing upstairs. It was so much fun! It was really crowded and really hot upstairs, but the music was great and I loved getting to dance! We were adopted into a group of guys there for a “Stag Party” aka Bachelor Party and it was a lot of fun. I met some guys from Scotland too. I just keep adding to the list of continents I have now met people from…
I had a Skype date with Will at midnight but I had forgotten to put my watch on, so when I learned that it was 12:20…I ran home in the rain to talk to him. I was a little late, but I still got to talk to him. It was the perfect end to a perfect day!
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