Let's start with a quick geography lesson. Ireland is a country all on its own, definitely not part of Great Britain, the United Kingdom or England. Northern Ireland, which is the northern part of the island is however part of the United Kingdom. What this meant to us was that lots of things change. For one, the currency changes from the Euro to Pounds Sterling. We knew and expected that to happen, but what I somehow didn't realize was that the speeds and distances would change from metric to Imperial. There was no indication of this change anywhere, it just changed. I thankfully didn't spend too much time crawling along at low speeds. What I did do was keep wondering why it was taking so damned long to get anywhere. Obviously this is because distances were listed in miles and I kept thinking km in my head. Took 2 full days to finally figure that out...just in time to leave Northern Ireland and head back across the border.
Our first stop in Northern Ireland, and one of the best parts of the trip, was a visit to the Giant's Causeway. Google it if you're interested in the details, but basically it is a natural rock formation that was the source of some great stories about giants building a bridge between Ireland and Scotland. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site in a really scenic part of the country. I highly recommend it to anyone who might be traveling in the area.
Ryan
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