09/08/24 Entry: 1

Venture to the North!

This is my very first blog entry! WOW! Hopefully it will be one of many and not just a one off thing I forget about. Either way, I thank you for reading. This first entry will be about my trip to the north of Ireland. I myself am from Ireland, however I come from the republic which is in the south of the country. I had been to the north twice before this, once on holiday about two years ago in the lovely village of Moira, County Down. The other time was when I was 16, I went to Belfast to see my first live concert! I went to see Courtnet Barnett, someone I still actively listen to today. I highly recommend her music. She has such a unique sound and manages to tell such a vivid story in every song she releases.

In this trip I made my way all the way to the top of the country in county Antrim. It had some of the most beautiful views I had ever seen, with an amazing coastline view that was complimented by terrain with dense forrests and sprawling hills. There seemed to be great access to public transport to get around the place, though I mostly traveled by car as thats how we got there. The locals were incredibly friendly and welcoming, however the area I was staying in seemed to be mostly populated by tourists like myself, so we didn't get to meet too many.

When I first arrived at my accomodation it was already quite late in the day. My family and I decided to walk down to a nearby beach to stretch after the long drive. The views were amazing and the sun was setting by the time we made our way back. There was a massive cave on one end of the beach that didn't seem to be open to the public, but was still an amazing sight. It had been been raining all day prior and there were slugs everywhere, I had never seen so many in one place. The whole area had a magical aura to it.

The next day we all packed into our car again and made our way to Derry, specifically to see the Derry Girls mural that was there. It was about an hour drive, which wasn't so bad compared to the 4+ hours we spent in the car the day before. Derry city was gorgeous, filled with so much art as well as buildings and areas with dense histories. Eventually we found the mural and parked in the nearby car park that was in a shopping center located beside the mural, in there we made a new friend! A very friendly orange cat, who would not hold still for a photo but wanted everyones attention. The cat had a collar and seemed to know the place pretty well, so we assumed it belonged to a local and (after a few pets) we were on our way.

After we saw the mural we went to get some lunch and did a little bit of shopping and sightseeing around the city before heading home for the day.

The next day was a beach day! We slept in a little bit and went to a nearby park that my younger brother wanted to play in and then headed out to the beach! We found a lovely beach about a 5 minute drive from where we were staying. It was quite busy and the beach itself was beautiful, however, soon after we arrived it started to violently rain, causing us to get soaked from head to toe. The rain itself only lasted about 10 minutes and then the sun came out! So we dried off pretty quickly. We weren't able to swim in the water as the waves are far too violent, even standing in the water you would get knocked over by them. We still really enjoyed our time there though.

After the beach we went back to dry ourselves off before heading into a local village for dinner. We found a small pub that wasn't too busy and ordered some food. I ordered the fish and chips and got a sticky toffee pudding for dessert, it was delicious! We went and had a walk around the town before heading home and packing up our stuff as we unfortunately had to leave the next day. All good things must come to an end sadly.

Thank you for reading my first ever blog entry! All of them probably won't be as eventful as this, however my main goal with this is to just get better at talking about my life. I have a bad habit of keeping things to myself and never talking about what I've been up to, so I'm hoping this will help. It might even get me to go out and do things more! Who knows? Thanks again, keep an eye out for future entries!

B- B- B- BONUS SECTION!!!

I want to do a bonus section at the end of every blog post where I recommend a song and add it to a playlist that I link here for you all to listen to. By you all I mean the imaginary people in my head but the gesture still stands.

The first song I'm recommending is Over Everything by Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile. Seeing as I mentioned Courtney in the opening paragraph it only feels right.