Hello Everyone! I hope this past week has been good for everyone. Just a warning, this is a really long post with a lot of pictures. As usual, all the links to my Picasa albums with all of my photos can be found under the Pictures tab above.
This has been a pretty fun week. I started on Monday going into the city center to the Stag's Head pub with my Italian friends for a comedy show. The four comedians were pretty good, but after a while, sex and race jokes get old for me, mainly cause they're all pretty much the same. There was one guy who had some good material though. Overall, it was good craic. Tuesday to Friday was filled mainly with football, and not the American variety. Tuesday and Thursday I played soccer with some friends, and then Friday I went to the student bar to watch Ireland vs. Latvia, and Portugal vs. Sweden.
And now, the main event...
Yesterday (Saturday), I left around 6:30 for the city center to catch a bus up to Northern Ireland. Despite waking up early, I missed the bus into the city center, so I had to shell out 10 euro for a cab. Then when I got to the pick up point in the city center, two more buses passed before the coach picked us up, so I wasted the money on the cab. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, I met a friend in the city center, and we got on the bus to Northern Ireland. The first stop was in Belfast, where we could either visit the Titanic Museum or take a Black Taxi tour. My friend and I decided on the taxi tour, which was very cool. The drivers took us around Belfast, explaining about the political unrest and violence the city has seen. They focused a lot on street murals, which were very interesting:
The main highlight is that Belfast's past is full of violent conflict between Catholic Nationalists, who want a free Irish island, and Protestant Unionists, who want to associate with the United Kingdom. After some of these bigger murals, we were taken to a small garden commemorating those who have passed as a result of the conflict. It was there that we got our first view of the wall separating the Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist sides. We then stopped and had the opportunity to leave a message on the peace wall. I tried to find the spot where my brother had signed it...thought it would be cool if our messages were next to each other, but I couldn't find it. I remembered the picture, but as the wall is really long, and has thousands of messages, it's no surprise that I couldn't find it. Now, I tried to recreate Abraham Lincoln's famous quote "a house divided against itself cannot stand". Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the exact words, but I got pretty close, and it gets the message across.
The tour guide mentioned something about the peace wall that I thought was pretty profound. Apparently, there's talk of taking the wall down in about 10 years. While the guide was skeptical about that happening, he did mention that the day this wall comes down will be a tremendous event for the Irish and British Isles, similar to the taking down of the Berlin Wall. I'm not sure if it's on that scale, but it made me think that if and when this wall comes down, it will be one of those defining moments in history where you'll talk about where you were. I think it would be one of those things the entire world watches together, like the first landing on the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and September 11. And to think, by signing the wall, we become a part of that history...just something to think about.
After the peace wall, we had one final stop at another small mural site. It was on the Protestant/Unionist side, and I can't remember the exact significance of the place, but one of the murals was really cool. They call it Belfast's Mona Lisa because from any angle, it looks like the gun is pointing right at you.
It's almost kind of scary how the gun follows you as you walk around the mural. After the black taxi tour, we regrouped with everyone who went into the Titanic Museum and continued north to the northern coast. We stopped along the way at a very beautiful spot for some pictures:
After this stop, we got up to Giant's Causeway, where we had a quick bite at a small restaurant that really ripped me off with overpriced food, and a terrible Pounds to Euro conversion rate (12 euro for a single plate of lasagna, fries, and salad?!?!). On the bright side, just outside the restaurant we saw these two adorable ones:
Seeing these two reminded me of this scene from Despicable Me:
So we finally got to the causeway area, and had to hike a bit to get there, but the views were just magnificent, despite some fog and Irish mist that rolled in. The causeway itself is really cool, with the hexagonal columns, and the waves crashing into them. With the backdrop of hills and cliffs, it was just a really cool place. The story of the place is interesting too. The legend is that two giants lived in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The one from Ireland (Finn MacCool) was building the causeway to fight the giant from Scotland (Benandonner) in order to have supremacy. When Benandonner heard of this, he came across the causeway to MacCool's house, where Finn's wife had disguised him as a baby, so as to make Benandonner think that if MacCool's baby was such a giant, then MacCool himself must be enormous. Benandonner then flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway as he goes so Finn MacCool can't follow him.
After the Giant's Causeway, we made one final stop at Dunluce Castle for some quick photos. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in so the view wasn't all that good. But it still looked cool, since the ruins are right on the cliffs. What I thought was particularly interesting about the castle was that at one point, part of the kitchen collapsed over the cliffs and into the sea.
We then drove back to Dublin. Now, I have to say, the tour bus made a lot of stops. We stopped basically every 1 to 2 hours. It's as if none of the people had ever been on a road trip. But that was okay, I like breaks. Also, fun fact I learned on the way back to Dublin. The tour guide was recommending other places in Dublin for the tourists on the bus to visit. He recommended Trinity College and the Book of Kells/Old Library Long Room. What I learned is that the Jedi Archives, seen in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, is modeled after the Trinity College Long Room. Being a huge Star Wars fan, this completely blew my mind! Unfortunately, my friend hasn't seen any of the Star Wars movies (WHAT?!?!), so she couldn't join in my excitement. Now let's just take a look at the scene, and my long room picture and compare the two:
After returning back home, I ran into one of my Italian friends who informed me of another pasta party. Naturally, not wanting to cook drove me to go and indulge in delicious Italian cooking. It was a great time, saw some friends, made new ones (from France, Portugal, Italy, and the US of course). Despite the noise complaint and drunk people, it was grand. But, after a long, long day, I finally called it quits.
Now I'm just catching up on stuff, and preparing for the week ahead. Finals are coming up, and I have some end of the semester assignments due soon too. So naturally, it would be a good time for me to book a small weekend trip to Killarney. The national park there is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, so I plan to rent a bicycle and go around the park, then at night enjoy some traditional Irish music and good craic in town. Should be a great weekend.
This has been a pretty fun week. I started on Monday going into the city center to the Stag's Head pub with my Italian friends for a comedy show. The four comedians were pretty good, but after a while, sex and race jokes get old for me, mainly cause they're all pretty much the same. There was one guy who had some good material though. Overall, it was good craic. Tuesday to Friday was filled mainly with football, and not the American variety. Tuesday and Thursday I played soccer with some friends, and then Friday I went to the student bar to watch Ireland vs. Latvia, and Portugal vs. Sweden.
And now, the main event...
Yesterday (Saturday), I left around 6:30 for the city center to catch a bus up to Northern Ireland. Despite waking up early, I missed the bus into the city center, so I had to shell out 10 euro for a cab. Then when I got to the pick up point in the city center, two more buses passed before the coach picked us up, so I wasted the money on the cab. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, I met a friend in the city center, and we got on the bus to Northern Ireland. The first stop was in Belfast, where we could either visit the Titanic Museum or take a Black Taxi tour. My friend and I decided on the taxi tour, which was very cool. The drivers took us around Belfast, explaining about the political unrest and violence the city has seen. They focused a lot on street murals, which were very interesting:
Our taxi for the tour
Picasso's famous Guernica
The main highlight is that Belfast's past is full of violent conflict between Catholic Nationalists, who want a free Irish island, and Protestant Unionists, who want to associate with the United Kingdom. After some of these bigger murals, we were taken to a small garden commemorating those who have passed as a result of the conflict. It was there that we got our first view of the wall separating the Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist sides. We then stopped and had the opportunity to leave a message on the peace wall. I tried to find the spot where my brother had signed it...thought it would be cool if our messages were next to each other, but I couldn't find it. I remembered the picture, but as the wall is really long, and has thousands of messages, it's no surprise that I couldn't find it. Now, I tried to recreate Abraham Lincoln's famous quote "a house divided against itself cannot stand". Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the exact words, but I got pretty close, and it gets the message across.
The memorial garden with the wall behind it
Just a small portion of the peace wall
Signing the peace wall
Close enough...
The tour guide mentioned something about the peace wall that I thought was pretty profound. Apparently, there's talk of taking the wall down in about 10 years. While the guide was skeptical about that happening, he did mention that the day this wall comes down will be a tremendous event for the Irish and British Isles, similar to the taking down of the Berlin Wall. I'm not sure if it's on that scale, but it made me think that if and when this wall comes down, it will be one of those defining moments in history where you'll talk about where you were. I think it would be one of those things the entire world watches together, like the first landing on the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and September 11. And to think, by signing the wall, we become a part of that history...just something to think about.
After the peace wall, we had one final stop at another small mural site. It was on the Protestant/Unionist side, and I can't remember the exact significance of the place, but one of the murals was really cool. They call it Belfast's Mona Lisa because from any angle, it looks like the gun is pointing right at you.
First angle from the left
Second angle from the center
Third angle from the right
Final angle from directly under
It's almost kind of scary how the gun follows you as you walk around the mural. After the black taxi tour, we regrouped with everyone who went into the Titanic Museum and continued north to the northern coast. We stopped along the way at a very beautiful spot for some pictures:
If you look really hard, you can see a faint outline of Scotland in the background
A map of our location at O'Kane's Layby compared to Giant's Causeway
After this stop, we got up to Giant's Causeway, where we had a quick bite at a small restaurant that really ripped me off with overpriced food, and a terrible Pounds to Euro conversion rate (12 euro for a single plate of lasagna, fries, and salad?!?!). On the bright side, just outside the restaurant we saw these two adorable ones:
Seeing these two reminded me of this scene from Despicable Me:
So we finally got to the causeway area, and had to hike a bit to get there, but the views were just magnificent, despite some fog and Irish mist that rolled in. The causeway itself is really cool, with the hexagonal columns, and the waves crashing into them. With the backdrop of hills and cliffs, it was just a really cool place. The story of the place is interesting too. The legend is that two giants lived in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The one from Ireland (Finn MacCool) was building the causeway to fight the giant from Scotland (Benandonner) in order to have supremacy. When Benandonner heard of this, he came across the causeway to MacCool's house, where Finn's wife had disguised him as a baby, so as to make Benandonner think that if MacCool's baby was such a giant, then MacCool himself must be enormous. Benandonner then flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway as he goes so Finn MacCool can't follow him.
Standing at the edge of the Causeway, ready to fight Scottish giants!
The waves were crashing pretty hard, which only made the experience cooler
After the Giant's Causeway, we made one final stop at Dunluce Castle for some quick photos. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in so the view wasn't all that good. But it still looked cool, since the ruins are right on the cliffs. What I thought was particularly interesting about the castle was that at one point, part of the kitchen collapsed over the cliffs and into the sea.
We then drove back to Dublin. Now, I have to say, the tour bus made a lot of stops. We stopped basically every 1 to 2 hours. It's as if none of the people had ever been on a road trip. But that was okay, I like breaks. Also, fun fact I learned on the way back to Dublin. The tour guide was recommending other places in Dublin for the tourists on the bus to visit. He recommended Trinity College and the Book of Kells/Old Library Long Room. What I learned is that the Jedi Archives, seen in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, is modeled after the Trinity College Long Room. Being a huge Star Wars fan, this completely blew my mind! Unfortunately, my friend hasn't seen any of the Star Wars movies (WHAT?!?!), so she couldn't join in my excitement. Now let's just take a look at the scene, and my long room picture and compare the two:
The resemblance is truly striking
After returning back home, I ran into one of my Italian friends who informed me of another pasta party. Naturally, not wanting to cook drove me to go and indulge in delicious Italian cooking. It was a great time, saw some friends, made new ones (from France, Portugal, Italy, and the US of course). Despite the noise complaint and drunk people, it was grand. But, after a long, long day, I finally called it quits.
Now I'm just catching up on stuff, and preparing for the week ahead. Finals are coming up, and I have some end of the semester assignments due soon too. So naturally, it would be a good time for me to book a small weekend trip to Killarney. The national park there is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, so I plan to rent a bicycle and go around the park, then at night enjoy some traditional Irish music and good craic in town. Should be a great weekend.
SHETLAND PONIES! :D
ReplyDeleteSo that's what they are! They were simply too cute! It's so fluffy!
ReplyDelete