giant's causeway

Another day in Northern Ireland, with the Union Jack and the Red Hand of Ulster flying from the flagpoles. The towns here feel different. Less candy-colored, more somber and worn down. "IRA" and "End internment" scrawled on walls.

Today we went to the Giant's Causeway, an incredibly cool formation of hexagonal basalt columns at the water's edge. It's been on the tour guide since the beginning, and I knew it looked/sounded familiar, but it didn't click until last night: it's a WD background. (I even located the wolf it's on: Veyron Vitesse, chaser. 177 wolves in dynasty and a year-and-a-half hiatus and I still found it quickly. I still got it.) Never knew it was a real location, so it was neat to see it in person.

Then we were off to Dunluce Castle, once a majestic fortress protecting a town, now a ruined shell on a promontory by the sea. All these castles are starting to run together in my head, and I could never keep the lore straight in the first place. This Scottish chieftain held the castle, Irish chieftains were causing trouble, the British were probably doing something nefarious...

Overheard: a guy telling his SO "I'm DONE with castles. I DON'T need to walk around."

(R: "Yeah!!! This is why guys need rights.")

After a coastal drive (really coastal; the sea was yards away on our left) we arrived at our hotel for the night, the Ballygally Castle Hotel. There IS a castle hotel! Sort of. The hotel consists of a modern building grafted onto a 17th century castle tower. There's a timeline in the hotel lobby with a timeline of important events in the history of the castle, including the discovery of the Higgs boson, which is just that important as a general event. We stayed in the regular hotel rooms, but there are rooms in the tower with chuu2 names like "Glenariff, Glen of the Plough" and "Glenarm, Glen of the Arm." There's also a ghost room at the top oooOOOOooo. As the story goes, the lord of the castle was angry with his wife for not producing him a male heir and sealed her in the top room. She "escaped" by leaping from the window to her death. Supposedly she haunts the room still.

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Pictured: Giant's Causeway