Northern Ireland

Last month I took a trip to Northern Ireland with my family to visit relatives. I’ve been often and we always stay in the same place – a little town called Newcastle at the foot of the Slieve Donard mountain. It’s a beautiful part of the world and we got to explore some new places this time which was fun! The first day we were there, we watched the ferry and admired the rainbow coloured houses in Strangford. I looked on in awe as there were some brave people attempting to swim in the sea. It was sunny but not that warm! My great grandfather and some of my great aunts and uncles used swim in the Irish sea every day, even on Christmas day! I guess that’s one way to wake up in the morning.

My favourite part of our holiday was visiting the Tollymore forest park. We walked around for a couple of hours and it was just so gorgeous. I took a module about forests last semester, and I’ve developed an increased fondness for trees as a result! I loved the little hermitage on the side of the river that had been carved out of the rocks. It was built for the ladies of the manor to sit in whilst the men were salmon fishing, but it’s the perfect place to sit and watch the river. We also spent an afternoon in Castle Ward walking around the country park. Apparently they filmed a lot of Games of Thrones there. I’m not a fan but if you are, I think it would be really fun to visit! The landscape’s very dramatic so you I can see why they chose it. This holiday was slightly hampered by the fact that I was trying to finish off some of my uni assignments at the same time – oops! The ability to finish off uni work before the deadline is definitely a skill I’ve yet to master.

Today James went home to London after a long weekend staying with me, and one of my best friends is going home to the US. It’s been a long day full of goodbyes for me. I hope you’ve had a good weekend!