The past weekend we had the great pleasure of going up the coast with one of my teammates, Seana, to visit her granny and grandad and do some sightseeing. We left Friday night after practice and were greeted an hour later by hugs, kisses, food and drink. Seaa’s Granny Celine had prepared cocktail sausages, fried cheese, fruit, chips and dip and other delicious snacks for us to eat upon arrival. They were the absolute sweetest hosts ever and we all felt so cozy and at home. We sat by the fireplace and chatted until late in to the night and then snuggled up for bedtime. We awoke to the smell of good food whiffing up from the kitchen and a hot-tub ready for us dive in. We sat for a while in the hot-tub chatting away while the jets massaged our backs, watching as day began to get brighter. We had a full day of outdoor excursions planned so we were quite excited that the clouds seemed to be staying away.
After a big breakfast, prepared for us by Seana’s granny, we headed out for the Giant’s Causeway. The Causeway is an area of interlocking basalt columns that were created by the cooling of the rock after an ancient volcanic eruption. The legend has it that the Causeway was built by giants, hence its name, but I guess we will never truly know. Anyways, we were greeted at the Causeway by a beautiful rainbow and sunny skies and it was really cool to walk along the rocks and see how meticulously the hexagonal shaped rocks fit like a puzzle next to and stacked on top of each other. Many of the rocks seemed like mini pools as they played host to the rain that we luckily missed. The serenity of the coast line was breathtaking. Check out the pictures, although even those don’t do it justice.
After our trip to the Causeway we made our way to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, which links the mainland to the small island of Carrickarede. The bridge used to take salmon fishers across to the island where they had a small boathouse and fished for salmon. Nowadays it is a tourist attraction but you can still see some of the remains from where the salmon fishers used to anchor. The views leading up to and on the bridge were pretty spectacular but the bridge itself was a little scary and a lot wobbly, I must admit. We finished our day’s festivities at a cute wee coffee shop as we sat by the fire and drank hot chocolate. What’s more, the shop had Belgium chocolate buttons so y’all already know I had to buy a bag! They were delicious.
We concluded our visit to Port Stewart back where it all began, at Granny’s house, where we came home to a lovely meal and even lovelier company. When it was time to leave we slowly meandered out to the car, wishing we could stay another night and sure to return again soon.
