So I went to Ireland...

I went to Ireland a couple days ago, to go crayfishing with a student at Queen's university in Belfast. One of my labmates went too. Here is a photo-synopsis of the trip.

Like all good trips to Ireland, this one started with an exciting discovery of the most disgusting toilet facilities, possibly on the planet, which existed in a previously unknown state on my labmate's rental property. Here they are. Unfortunately you can't see the truly horrid, ancient, moist, off-color toilet paper over in the box to the right. Yeah, I took the x-files figures on the trip. It was kindof an accident, they were in Carl's glovebox when we left.


Off we went and drove the 5 hours from Leeds to Stranraer in Scotland. There we got a 1.5 hour ferry to Belfast. On the ferry, I had to drive up a crazy ramp that made it look like a rollercoaster lift slope. There were yobs on the stairs. I drew a picture of a crayfish catching humans for my host student. No photo, sorry. We checked into the youth hostel, where we saw this:


What is wrong with the above picture? What ISN'T wrong with it? There is a human cage in the disabled parking spot. Let's not think about that too much... instead look at this, the best car paint job EVER. And its for sale? So, why don't I now own this car? I couldn't say.


We spent one whole day crayfish sampling with our unnamed host student and unnamed technician. Actually, they both had names. But let's not get into that. No photos of the actual fieldwork, at least none I can post here. That's classified!

The next day we had most of the day free, so labmate (also unnamed, how mysterious!) and I drove up to the Giant's Causeway, which was reportedly AMAZING. So we went, it took about 2 hours to drive.

and here it is! These fantastically-hexagonal stones exist in clumps around this point on the coast. They are also on the cliff faces. Very interesting. Not interesting enough to actually read the literature and find out how they formed, though, it would seem.


We looked in the tidal pools for awhile. There were lots of little crabs, and shed crab exoskeletons. Some of us had more fun at the tide pools than others:


Another view of the causeway, covered in humans:

Can you see the shrimp in this picture of a tide pool?


Neither can I! But there WAS one there when I snapped the photo...
And here we have a small tide pool that was mysteriously PINK. It was almost opaque. There was a bit of an odor as well. I let Mulder and Scully investigate THAT one.

Mulder: "Aliens. Obviously."
Scully: *walks away*

Here's an interesting bit of rock on the cliff over the causeway.
More aliens, right, Mulder?


Here's me, proof that I am, in fact, still alive. Notice the interesting curved rock columns up to the right of the photo. That's what I'm *supposed* to be pointing at.
There were cows. Labmate fed them and petted them and had words with them. I was busy with a snail that I had picked up. Cows = inferior, snail = superior. They were lovely cows though, some of them were quite pretty. They were yearlings heifers, I believe.

This next photo is really a testament to how bored one can become when sitting in construction traffic. That is the airhose for the crayfish, not alien guts. Really.


Mulder: "You, uh, want some help there?"
Scully: "If you must."

Well, that evening we picked up the crayfish and caught an overnight ferry from Belfast to Liverpool. No one threw up. Here's an interesting building we encountered when leaving the ferry port the next day. Notice on the left side of the building the bricks are a different color - it appears that it collapsed on that side at one time and was later rebuilt.


Overall the trip was a great success: no one died, everyone had a good time, the crayfish sampling was accomplished, and we ate alot. Also Carl behaved perfectly.