Mein Semester in Maynooth: Giant's Causeway Tour (6.12.) ...

Annotation: yup, I'm back with this blog to finish what I've begun a long, long time ago...

Yeah, so what is the best thing you can do during the time when you should be sitting in the library doing your assignments? - Exactly, going on another trip! :-D
Actually, it wasn't really my plan to go on this trip. It was organised by the International Society, and the tickets were sold at the same time as the tickets for the Peter Pan Panto. But I didn't buy one because I thought I wouldn't have time for that and I was planning on being a good girl, going to the library, writing my essays, ...
Totally successful, obviously. :-P No, seriously, by coincidence I checked my where-to-go list I had made before coming to Ireland at some point and realised that the Giants Causeway was on it. That was the moment when I thought, "never mind about essays", because I really wanted to go there, and this was my chance to do it before going home, so I just had to do it! (Fortunately, there were still ~10 tickets left to buy in the SU Headquarters, because the official ticket sale was already over when I had finally made up my mind.)
I was really lucky that I could go on this trip. Twice. First, when I was able to buy one of the last tickets, and second, when I was actually able to join the trip although I was f...ing late. This was because on this day - of all days of the whole semester! - my alarm decided not to go off. I have absolutely no explanation for this, seriously... But yeah, that's kind of... bad timing, if you're told at the orga meeting that the bus leaves at the university at 7 a.m. sharp... Anyway, thanks to Sirkka, Laetitia and a really nice bus driver who so didn't leave at seven sharp, I was able to join the trip somehow. The way to the university was terrible and I was almost dying, btw...
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I can't even remember when I wrote the above part of this blog post. Anyway, I'll just write a few sentences and then add (maybe a few more) pictures.
The weather wasn't exactly the best at this day, but well, it was December in Ireland, so we didn't really have a right to complain about the rain. And the landscape was still astonishingly beautiful. So it wasn't even a problem that we went to a few places that the Game of Thrones Tour had already covered.
Anyone remember these, for example?

Correct, these are the Dark Hedges. :-)
We also went to Ballintoy, Carrick-a-Rede and Dunluce Castle (no responsibilities taken regarding the spelling...). And this time, we actually went on the rope bridge instead of just (maybe) spotting it in the distance. The picture to prove it:

And since I don't really have a clue about which place was named now, I'll just post the rest of the GoT pics now, calling them "Beautiful landscape in Northern Ireland" ...

The colour of the water. <3

The rope bridge from another perspective.

Dunluce Castle...?

And a close-up of the obligatory "oh, sheep!"

I'll skip the part about lunch - it was at the same "cafeteria" where we had stopped at the GoT Tour, not too spectactular... - and continue with the actual topic of this post. We finally went to the Giant's Causeway!
That means: now it's time for the always necessary map!

By the way, it was quite an issue to get the map the way I wanted it. I don't know why exactly but it kept showing the Giant's Causeway as the "Strasse der Riesen" (flawed German - that's disgusting!) although I used Irish Google and Irish Google Maps! -.- I first had to change the language settings of my internet browser to make it work...

First we went to the visitor centre and wasted a bit of time there:

Cute hedgehogs!

Cute foxes!

And now the pictures of the Giants Causeway. To be honest, I couldn't quite handle the audio guide, my camera and the rain at the same time, so I just took pictures without bothering too much about what the automatic voice wanted to tell me. Unfortunately, that means I can't tell you lot about the Giant's Causeway but that it's not man-made but formed by nature (volcanic activity) - and that it's a huge tourist attraction. Even in the December rain... For further information, just have a look at the (hopefully) official website. There you'll also find a lot of pictures taken under the perfect conditions. Unlike mine. :-P