Writing, fatshion, me: Trip to Northern Ireland

On the Sunday of our trip we went to the Giant's Causeway in the morning! We had tickets to arrive between 11 and 11.30, so we set off about forty minutes before that. There's a National Trust visitors centre at the top, which wasn't there when I went to the causeway before in 2000. You can bypass it, but you'd have to park elsewhere. Instead, we parked and went through the centre to pick up our audio guides.

It's a 1.2km walk down, but there is a bus you can catch now, it's a pound or one euro twenty. I knew I couldn't walk that far and I definitely couldn't have walked back, so we caught the bus down. It was quite busy, there were people from all over the world down at the causeway. The audio guide was pretty fun to listen to - it told the myths about the causeway (the legend of Finn McCool) and the science behind how the rocks were formed. I was very careful walking around but I managed to climb up the rocks quite far which I was pleased about.

A lady took our photo on what is known as the Wishing Chair, although I didn't know that's what it was! I had just sat down! We walked through to the other bit where you can see more of the mythical parts like the amphitheatre. It is such a beautiful sight and I love the legend about the giants, and I liked learning the science bits too.

We caught the bus back up the top and then had a sandwich in the cafe. We bought a few bits in the shop, including a lovely bracelet for me made of Connemara marble and with a charm shaped like the causeway rocks. I bought my mum a fridge magnet in the same shape, made of ceramic, it's so nice!

Then we drove to Portrush. We walked through the amusements but didn't play on anything. It was nice to see it was such a bustling place, though. Then we went to Portstewart. I definitely went there with my parents and our family friend in 2000, as we went to the ice cream parlour Morelli's. I really wanted to go back, so we parked really close to it and went in. We both had a hot fudge sundae and it was completely gorgeous! So lovely. The parlour is really good and I would recommend it!

We headed back to the Airbnb after the ice cream parlour and relaxed for a bit. I think I had a nap, even! We then headed out to The Grouse Inn in Ballymena for tea. They only had one veggie choice on the Sunday menu and it was stuffed peppers, so I decided to have fish and chips. The fish was delicious and fresh and I really enjoyed it! No more fish for me for a while though! I had deep fried Brie to start with; we didn't have a pudding as we had had the ice cream.

It was a lovely day, again it had started off cool but soon got really hot!

This map of the area is in the visitor centre

And here's showing you the trails you can take around the area too

On the bus on the way down

The beach is really beautiful anyway, even without the stunning bit that is the causeway!

I probably could have walked down but decided to save my energy

Where the bus stops

There are thought to be around forty thousand rocks on the causeway

Look how beautiful they are

I managed to walk nearly up to the top of this, I was very careful with where I was putting my feet and I had my stick

Lee and me!

Look how the rocks have formed, it is so weird and yet so pleasing

The photos that the lady took of us

And closer in

The sea was very beautiful here too

I liked the little plants that grow between the rocks. It had been raining too, so there were little puddles around

Lee went the opposite way to me to get back off this bit, so I took this photo of him

And he took this photo of me

You go through an arch to where there are columns of rocks, showing how they have vertical cracks as well as horizontal

This is known as the Organ, I think

Not sure which part this is, but it's pretty

This is the hotel up at the top, which has a long history. The audio guide also had a lot of stuff about the history of the area and about the people who lived there