Giant's Causeway Tour

This will be a very long blog post, but I couldn't help myself. Northern Ireland is very picturesque, and we were on a bus all day with the express purpose of taking us to the most photo-friendly sites within a day's drive of Belfast. Cindy and I were happy to discover that Wendy, whom we'd met in the hostel the night before, had actually signed up for the same tour on Sunday, so the three of us had a pleasant day together, in spite of the weather. It rained absolutely all day. Every second or third photo I had to wipe the water off of my camera lens. My scarf eventually got soaked and I had to keep looking for dry pieces of clothing to wipe off the lens. As you can see from a couple of the photos, I wasn't always successful, and so some of my photos have visible water droplets in them.
Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle. Even though it was early in the tour, I had already given up on listening to the tour guide, so I'm not sure why this castle is significant, but it sure is cool looking!

Our next stop was Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This rope bridge was originally used by fisherman to get over to the island to fish, but today it has been reinforced and used as a tourist attraction. I chose not to cross the bridge, but that left me perfectly placed to take pictures of everyone else:

See the rain on the lens?

 Finally we arrived at the day's main attraction, the Giant's Causeway.
"Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. [...W]hen Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn."
This makes some sort of sense, as there are similar stones on an island on the coast of Scotland. Plus, there's something about the natural beauty and wildness of Ireland and Scotland that makes you feel like the stories could be true, like this is a land where giants could have existed. Everything seems possible. 
Or you could believe the slightly more scientific explanation: 
"Some 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled rapidly, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today."

We stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of this ruined castle. 

After the tour, we went to a hot pot restaurant. Chinese hot pot involves taking bits of meat and vegetables and putting them into a soup or on the grill. Then you either wait until the soup boils or the meat on the grill is finished, and you take the cooked things and put them in some sauce. I really enjoyed the food, but my chopstick skills are rudimentary, so I counted on Cindy to keep turning the meat on the tabletop grill. At one point I managed to take a piece of meat off the grill and put it in my mouth, only to remember as I seared my tongue that I was supposed to dip the meat in the sauce first to cool it off. After that I couldn't taste as well, but it was still fun. Cindy says the food is really authentic, and you just can't get hot pot in Columbus. I was just jealous of Cindy's chopstick skills, and the fact that she can speak fluent Chinese. Granted, she's half Chinese, but still. I wish I were really bilingual, instead of just a French major who's beginning to forget her French.