overstuffed stomachs, Irish rocks and firsties.

sorry its been while since i've updated my blog...
but last weekend I went on another adventure with mark...operation...
Northern Ireland.
it was a lot of fun with many surprises!
what it entailed:
!) running around the airport to catch our flight at 6:30 am.
@) walking the streets of Belfast with a handy tourist map, waiting for our hostel room to be ready (first time in a hostel...interesting)
#) claiming the first startbucks we'd both been in over here to have the most genuine barista ever. then also claiming the best scones to be occupying cafe renoir.
$) stuffing our faces the night of mark's birthday with an amazing meal cooked by his Irish friend Andrew's mom in Crossgar.
%) experiencing the first of "warming rooms" where tea and biscuits are offered. (fires were feed with coal...neat)
^) the most touristy thing we probably did: went to Northern Ireland's must see Giant's Causeway. Huge rocks that apparently giants used as stepping stones across the ocean...who knew. best memory made there: it was freezing/windy and we had to walk super far down this hill to get to the place. So to get our minds semi-off the cold and the drudgery of a mountain climb we skipped/ran up it! of course laughing.
&) we wanted to see an opera or a play or something but most of the places had no showings or mysteriously were being renovated and opening later in the spring...our cure for that: lion king in London! (at some point)
even though the weather has been hiding the sun there were moments where it would peek through the clouds and i just knew that new days are always here and the past (such as aged rocks) can be stepped on to be written in a new light.