Newcastle, ect

On the Saturday--aparently not sick of the road--we head off to Newcastle and points between...

After refilling the air in the van tires, it's on the road again... this time, it's more visiting and less driving, though. Our first real stop is some random castle's ruins... where Meru and Kristian played football in the tower:

Nice Kick!

We hung out there a bit before heading to Murlough park, which is a nature reserve of some sort. We drove in as far as we could (well past the point where we were supposed to) and then hiked along the giant sand dunes until we found the beach... where we also, randomly, found Kristian's mom. How's that for coincidence. After saying hi to Mom, we had a beach picnic with our Tesco-bought food supplies, and then hung out on the beach.

Tony, wading

It was Tony's first time in the ocean... It wasn't really the ocean, but close enough. Some sort of a bay. Anyways, we waded in the water and played some frisbee--I got soaked--and just enjoyed the pretty view.

On the way out, we climbed under some barbed wire to get into the protected area, because Kristian said there were wild ponies. Alas, much to my disapointment, I saw no ponies.

After that, on the way to Kristian's hometown, Newcastle, we stopped off at a Doleman. Basically, Dolemans are a big rock balanced on three slightly smaller rocks. They apparently mark burial spots of old Irish kings. We saw one, so we climbed on it. Also got great video of Tony getting off of it...

After our doleman experience, we headed Newcastle, the town Kristian grew up close to. It was cute, but the beach area was a bit smelly. We stopped for ice cream and beer before heading on to his parent's house...

Kristian's dad, Mel, Me, Tony, Meru and Kris

His parent's (his dad is on the left) are super nice and live in a cute house in a very pretty area. And, there's this dog running around everywhere--not their's--that just randomly walks into their house.

After hanging out and having tea, we went to visit something called a sous terrain--apparently the irish speak french--which is basically an underground tunnel that ancient irishers used to hide in when people came to kill them. Pretty cool, and the best part was that it was just on some guys farmland, next to his grazing sheep. No entrance fees, no intreptive center, just a hole in the ground. Nice.

Me, underground

After leaving the sous terrain, we encountered something so cliche I can hardly believe it... The road was blocked by a herd of sheep. So postcardy. I didn't get a good pic, but hopefully Tony did, as he climbed on the roof of the van to take one...

By the time we got back to Belfast, we were all pretty tired. Rather than go out and experience the Belfast nightlife, we stayed in, drank cider, ate pizza and watched episodes of Spaced... But we did go out and see the city the next day... a bit.

More pictures are up here: http://njkobie.dotphoto.com/CPViewAlbum.asp?AID=2789026