Just when I start talking about how much I enjoy small towns I am reminded of some of the limitations that they have.
I have found myself in the town of Portrush. This city serves as a weekend and holiday escape from the larger cities of Belfast and Derry. It is similar in a lot of ways to some of the boardwalk towns on the East Coast. There are beaches on both sides of the peninsula, a few casinos, and a small amusement park. It seems like a nice place to come and relax, so, that is exactly what I did. After my initial walk through town, I decided to take the afternoon off from moving all over the place and just went down to the beach and read for a few hours. It was nice to be out by the water without feeling like I was in a slow cooker. It was also nice to just kick back and do nothing. While I have really enjoyed my trip, I have been going and going since I got here. I have included a picture of the same beach 24 hours later to show just how much the weather can change here.
It wasn't until after my time on the beach, and dinner that I realized that I had a problem. On the beach I noticed that my camera battery was running low. This should not have been a problem. I had prepared for all of my electronic needs. So, I plugged in my adapter and currency convertor, and the battery charger. Within a few seconds, the convertor started to smoke. I unplugged it and made sure that nothing was still burning and then realizes that this was not good. When I packed everything for my trip, I made sure that the adapter was in the bag. All outlets in Ireland are three pronged and have a very different configuration than ours. There is no way to plug in any appliance without the adapter. The adapter I have, borrowed from my grandma, has one piece that plugs into the wall, and a variety of other pieces that vary based on where you are coming from. The problem is, I decided not to bring these other pieces with me. I knew that I would probably need a convertor, to adjust the voltage down from the higher European voltage, and that would take the place of the middle piece of the whole setup. So, here I found myself, with no way to charge my camera, and a full days worth visits to document. This would not be a big problem in Belfast or Dublin, but in Portrush everything closes at 5 or 6, and nothing opens until after I needed to be on my way for the day's adventure. I decided to go on and hope for the best.
My day started at the one site that I knew I wanted to see before I started reading anything about Ireland. The Giant's Causeway it is a very unique geological formation. In this spot, very geometrical columns of basalt jut straight up along the coast. They form little hills of steps that disappear out into the water. There is a corresponding site directly east on the coast of Scotland. According to myth, an Irish giant built the bridge to go and fight a Scottish giant. When he got there, he saw that the giant was much bigger than he was, and so he came back to Ireland. The Scottish giant came across the bridge, looking for a fight. The Irish giant was frightened, but his wife saved him. She dressed him like a baby and sent him to bed. When the Scottish giant showed up, she said her husband was out hunting, and it was just her and the baby. When he looked in and saw the disguised giant, he was afraid of how big the father must be and ran all the way back to Scotland, destroying the bridge as he went.
I visited another distillery as well. This was the Bushmills distillery. I decided to do this again because this is actually a functioning plant, not just a museum. Unfortunately, they were doing maintenance on some of the machines, so I didn't get to see the whole process. It was interesting to see what I did though. Their bottling is almost entirely automated. It amazes how advanced some of this machinery is. There were belts that would stack boxes on pallets in an alternating pattern, and then wrap the whole thing in shrink wrap. It might not sound too impressive, but it amazed me. My free whiskey sample was a little more tolerable this time.
My final two stops for the day were the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Dunluce Castle. The rope bridge was initially used by fisherman to get out to a little island where they could work. It was constructed out of planks lashed together and suspended over ropes. It had quite a bit of sway to it, especially on a windy day like today. The castle, or the remains of the castle, sit out on the edge of a cliff. Some of the castle was actually lost when part of the cliff fell away many years ago. I am still amazed at how accomplished these builders were. The manor house portion of this castle had bay windows with stone frames. I need to find a castle to live in, but not this one, too sunny.
When I made it back to Portrush, I set out to find a replacement for my missing adapter piece. In the sixth and final stop I found one remaining adapter. I literally found the only one in town. So everyone can breathe easy again.
I realized today that I only have four nights left on my trip. It seems like it has just flown by, but my first days here feel like a long time ago.
I am finding some of the lighter beers to be more palatable. I can't say that I like them yet, but I keep trying new ones. We'll see
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