Viking ships, high tides and rain, oh my!

Our last day in Northern Ireland was in no way short of activity. Actually, I'm amazed I still had time to pack.

The big outing for the day was going out on a viking ship (yes, viking -- dragon head decoration and all) with a local viking club. Ireland was actually influenced quite significantly by the vikings, so this isn't as out of place as it sounds. Most of the major cities on the island were viking settlements, not Celtic.

So we went out to Strangford Lough to set sail -- er ... row -- our way around for a while. When we arrived, the tide wasn't completely in and it was sunny. We were able to easily hop onto the boat from the dock (this detail will be important later).

Turns out rowing a viking ship is harder than it looks. There were spots for 10 people to row, and several of those were manned by already established viking ship rowing experts. We Young Ambassadors were another story. A few didn't make the cut and were banned from rowing. I'm proud to say that except one minor mishap where I lost control of my oar and was knocked backwards into Honor, I was never asked to stop rowing. I suppose four years of swimming in high school and 14 years of sweeping curling stones paid off in that respect.

Anyway, we had a fun time on the boat, and it was definitely a unique experience. Especially when we got back to the dock. You see, while we were out having fun on the lough, the tide had come in all the way and there was about six feet of water between the dock and the shore. We had more places to go later, so jumping in fully clothed to get to shore was not our favorite option. I also despise going barefoot so I was seriously considering jumping in Chuck Taylors and all. But then one of our hosts, Philip, put on his waders and started a piggyback ferry service from the dock to the shore. This was nothing short of hilarious, especially when Tim was the last one to be carried across.

From there half of the group went oceaneering, which involves jumping off of cliffs into the sea, and the other half of us stayed with the vikings for a barbecue. We made it to their little trailer clubhouse just as it started to pour.