August in Northern Ireland

When I was younger, I felt like I'd been dosed with wanderlust, my feet itching to explore far and wide. I had grand plans at the age of 12 to visit Hawaii, Peru, New Zealand, Vienna, Istanbul... the list was endless! Partly fuelled by intrigue, partly by the culture, history and amazing landmarks.

As I got older, that list grew closer, and I was lucky enough to visit friends in Seville, Madrid, Porto and Dublin while at Uni, then over to Amsterdam with my partner a couple of years later. But to be honest, that spark got stifled quite a bit after the last couple of years, and a trip from Cornwall to Somerset, or up to Yorkshire if being adventurous, felt far enough.

Well, fast forward a bit, and my colleague, K, got the chance to visit Northern Ireland for a working weekend at the beginning of August, with me able to join her for company. Suddenly, the travel bug reemerged, and the perfect opportunity to work on the World Traveller badge appeared.

Day One - Friday

After going almost five years without stepping foot on a plane, our 7am flight from Bristol wasn't exactly the highlight of my year (although another scary thing has officially been ticked off for Carpe Diem!).

The best thing about landing in Belfast at 8:30am? Having the ENTIRE day literally to explore. K picked up the hire car, and we went straight to Giant's Causeway. It's an area that's always fascinated me, and I was so excited to see it in person. K isn't a Rebel, but she does have a 100 Things to do in the UK scratch-off bucket list, which features Northern Ireland heavily (and which I've since bought). So after crossing off the Giant's Causeway, we went down to the White Rock beach at Portrush before heading into the town centre to get some much-needed lunch.

We were pretty shattered after all that, so we picked up some supplies and headed to our accommodation for a chilled evening and an early night.

Day Two - Saturday

To make sure I could faithfully tick off clause two of the World Traveller badge, I wanted to plan the next three days since the logistics of accommodation and travel had all been done on my behalf. I knew I had to visit Derry - I enjoyed watching Derry Girls and knew a bit about the city's history. So that became Saturday's plan.

But before jumping on the train, I went with K to Antrim Castle Gardens, where I left her to do the working part of her working holiday. I enjoyed looking around the courtyard and attempted to walk down to Lough Neagh, but there was a Park Run on, and I didn't want to get in the way or miss my train - I'll have to go back later to make the most of that view.

Derry was relatively quiet when I arrived just after 11. I grabbed a coffee and began the loop around the walls, meeting some very intriguing tour guides in fancy dress along the way! The next planned stop was the Tower Museum to learn more about Derry's history and see their cool exhibition on the Armada Shipwreck.

I'd also planned to visit the Free Derry museum, but one thing I hadn't expected when leaving the Tower Museum just after 1pm was to walk straight into a carnival - it was so quiet when I arrived! It turns out my research had been a little lacking, and the very fantastic Carnival of Colour was on all weekend but didn't kick off until the afternoon. So I went with the flow and explored all the different stalls - including a cute craft fair inside the Guildhall - then watched some live music and soaked up the scenery before reverting to my original plan of eating my packed lunch on the Peace Bridge and heading back to Antrim.

In the evening, we took the scenic route back to our accommodation, including a drive along the north coast, where I was surprised to spot Scotland across the water! Then we ventured into Cushendell to stop for a pint in an Irish pub - another one to scratch off K's bucket list - before grabbing supplies for dinner and heading back to the B&B.

Day Three - Sunday

I couldn't resist an open-top bus tour on Sunday. It's one of my favourite things to do when visiting a new place and is always worth the money - especially when you have a live, hilarious tour guide. So I got the train into Belfast (you can travel anywhere in NI for just £8 on Sundays!) and took the City Sightseeing bus, completing the entire loop. Unfortunately, I didn't get a space in the open-top part, so I couldn't get many pictures.

Given the history of Belfast, I'd expected the tour to be a bit heavy, but knowing the past doesn't prepare you for the reality of passing murals, memorials and the peace wall. But I have to give big props to the bus driver/tour guide, who always found the right moment to add a dash of comedic relief after telling us some particularly harrowing facts.

I didn't have time to do much else in Belfast except popping my head in the shopping centre, but that was okay since we were spending our last day in the city too. So I went back to meet up with K, and we swapped the city for nature with a trip to see the waterfall in Glengariff Forest Park. I love how quickly you can get from civilisation to solitude over in NI, especially when there are so many stunning sights to see.

Day Four - Monday

And just like that, we made it to the last day of our trip. This was inevitable - a trip to Belfast to complete the Belfast City Centre and Belfast Botanic Treasure Trails. There was no way we'd go home without at least doing one of them! I had the Trails, though, giving K the chance to get some pics for her photo album.

Both Trails start at the City Hall in the centre of Belfast. We started with the City Centre route and explored the river and several landmarks before looping back around and picking up picnic supplies. After that was the walk to the Botanic Gardens, passing the imposing Queens College along the way.

A picnic in the gardens was a must-do before pausing to take a peek inside the Palm House and Tropical Ravine. It was the hottest day of our holiday (albeit around 8 degrees cooler than back home in the heatwave), so we didn't stay too long as it was a little unbearable inside!

Once we explored the gardens, we hopped back on the Trail and wandered back towards the city centre. Exploration complete and feet a bit sore, we headed back to the airport a tad early to grab some food and a drink.

It was a bit of a shock to the system landing in Bristol in 28-degree heat at 8pm! But we enjoyed the drive back to Cornwall with the sun setting behind us.

Where next?

It's pretty refreshing getting the travel bug back after so long! It also makes completing clauses one and seven of the World Traveller badge much easier. Here are ten places abroad I'd like to travel to in the next five years and their requirements for visiting.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam has to be at the top of my list. It's my boyfriend's favourite place to visit, but it's been nearly five years since we last had the chance. We like to stay in January to see the light festival - worth the cold! It's also the one place on this list I can be certain I'll visit in the next five years.

To visit Amsterdam, my passport must be issued less than ten years before the date I enter the country and valid for at least three months after the day I plan to leave. I can visit the Netherlands for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. As I'm fully vaccinated against covid, there are currently no health restrictions for me.

Vienna, Austria

Carcassonne, France

Denmark

Iceland

Canada

Marrakech, Morocco

New Zealand

South Korea

Japan