Northern Ireland!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has taken me ages to do any blogging! Nothing very blog-worthy has happened until last weekend! So here goes!

Robert managed to get us free tickets to this big festival called BBC Big Weekend which is held in different places every year. This year it was in Derry in Northern Ireland so we decided to make an adventure of it and hire a car so we could drive around a little!

We had to catch the airport bus at 5am on Friday morning to catch our flight to Belfast at 8am. While waiting at the gate for our plane we experienced our first taste of what the people of Northern Ireland were going to be like! There was a woman sitting beside me at the gate who was just lovely and was telling us all about Ireland, then after a while decided she should probably get into the line. Instead of going to the end like a normal person (the line by this time was very long) she just slotted herself into the line near the front! 

We picked up our rental car at Belfast airport then drove up to Londonderry. We got to the park pretty early and had to weave our way through all of these crazy crowd control passages - it took ages!

 It was immediately time for a beer - this is Ireland after all.

 It was the most perfect day! So sunny and warm. We even got sunburnt, oh dear!

 In proper Irish style, it was unheard of to only buy one beer, you had to get at least 4 at a time! Nearly everyone was stumbling around with either 6 bottles of Bulmers cuddled to their chest, or 4 pints in a carrier  in one hand and one pint in the other hand already on the go. I, unfortunately, was designated driver. Sigh. 

 The views of the old buildings were all around!

 I didn't take many pictures of the show as my little camera was not really up for the job. It was cool though we saw lots of artists I didn't know like Chase and Status and Rudimental Live but then Calvin Harris was headlining and he was really fun!

All of those bits of paper were hearts!!

 The next day we drove to Belfast around all the little coastal towns - they were so beautiful! 

 This is our wee car, Peo the Peugeot. Isn't it adorable!

 For lunch I made Robert a nutella, oreo and dorito sandwich.

 On our way to Belfast we stopped at the Giant's Causeway. It was so beautiful there!

 We got these electronic thingies that you use like a phone and hold up to your ears to hear old Irish stories about Finn the Giant who lived in the Causeway told by Jimmy O'Somethingarather! 

 There were lots of different points along the track where you need to push a different button on the phone thing to hear the story about that particular view!

 At each point Jimmy would try to come up with a nickname for himself that had something to do with that story. Jimmy-the-boot O'Whateveritwas.

 Don't they look just like the organ pipes in Dunedin!! Actually the whole of Ireland is very similar to Otago it was like being back there!

 Robert looking unimpressed by Jimmy. I liked him!

 Gorse!

 We finally made it to Belfast. We slept in the car both the nights and on this morning I dropped Robert and Peo off at Belfast airport at 6.30am then went into the city to catch the bus to Dublin! In the 3 hours I had to wait I walked around Belfast a bit!

 It is quite an interesting city. You can tell that there is a lot of trouble there. I was warned lots of times to be very careful in Belfast but it was ok. One drunk girl at the concert was telling us about how strange the whole of Northern Ireland is.

 This is the Titanic museum. The Titanic was launched in Belfast you see so there is lots of Titanic stuff all over the place! Like, lots. They are very proud.