So this last week, my mom came to visit Ireland! It was great getting to show her around the city and show her my life over here. It made me realize just how much I'm getting to know this city... Despite getting desparately lost many times over the past month and a half, I've definitely started to get a lay of the land, and let me tell you, this is a VERY exciting thing.
On Thursday, I took her to do the glorious Howth cliff walk... despite the numerous weather warnings advising me not to. We took the DART (as I see it, the Dublin version of the "L") in, got some of the best fish and chips ever, and after marveling at a gorgeous rainbow, embarked upon our journey to a blustery, but not impossible sort of weather. About halfway up the cliff, however, we looked out and realized a huge rain cloud was coming for us, and us being up on a cliff, had no way to get around it nor hide from it. So my mom's advice was just to walk quicker. So we did, but definitely could not dodge these raindrops. Within seconds we were soaked. To the bone. But laughing. And squelching in our shoes. We eventually got through the onslaught, to be greeted by the most incredible rainbow I have ever seen. Yep, two in one day. Perhaps the same one, on either side of a rain cloud. Either way, amazing.
Friday, we left for Wales! We took the ferry from Dublin, then a train down to where we were staying, with a pitstop along the way at a castle we had spotted from the train window. Like I was taking a little nap, then oh, no big deal, but FREAKING AWESOME CASTLE outside the window!! I don't know how anyone could even get used to living in a place like here where you just pass castles all the time. So, given, we walked to explore it. Then we had lunch in a tea shop built in 1512. Again, SO COOL! I had welsh rarebit... quite the experience.
We eventually landed in the adorable town of Betws-y-Coed. (oh minor insert about the Welsh language... they need to buy some vowels. I saw multiple words that had none like their word for bus, which was bws, and words that were ten or more letters long and only had the y. I don't know if the Welsh have heard the song, but it goes "and sometimes y"... not ALL THE TIME y. But still, when we heard it, a gorgeous, lyrical language). This town was made up of, I kid you not, Bed and Breakfasts and outdoor stores. and a train station. That was it. But it was AWESOME. We took some beautiful fall walks around rivers and through sheep pastures and over barbed wire fences, all surrounded by the beauty that is Autumn. Wales does have a lot of similar foliage to Oregon, but also a ton of leafy trees, which meant GORGEOUS colors. It was a treat!
We visited another place called Port Marion, and along the way, saw mountains of slate where the slate mines are, and met some very friendly people who were very enthusiastic about helping us to find our way. Definitely the most friendly strangers I have ever met. The bus driver even took us past the bus stop so we wouldn't have to walk as far, and almost the entire bus was telling us directions. It was AWESOME.
Port Marion was a phenomenon all in itself, a place a man built in the 1920s to show what architecture in other parts of the world was like. A very interesting place that many Welsh are truly proud of, from my experience.
The week was incredible, and we got to experience so many wonderful things. It was so great having my mom here! We got to see a rainbow every day! How phenomenal is that? Now it's back nose to the grindstone, since I've got multiple papers and applications due in the next week, and next weekend being Halloween, which, I'll have you know, originated in Ireland. Fact.
Love you all!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Belfast and Northern (the North of) Ireland
So the weekend before last we went on a program trip to Belfast and Northern Ireland. It was quite the experience.
We got the chance to go to the Northern Irish Parliament building, which has housed the only Parliament which has voted to close itself. It was really interesting. We were able to go into their equivalent of Senate chambers and sit on the floor--it was really quite incredible. The Parliament is fully functioning again after being out of use for years. It was very interesting to see how a government who is under another government was run and functioned, since they are officially under the power of Westminster. They didn't have control over budget or media and some other aspects. It was interesting to me how they just kind of skimmed over the fact they didn't have control over media, since so much of public opinion is regularly formed over media and how events are portrayed. I would have assumed that they would have wanted more of control over that, but then again, I don't know a whole lot about all that.
Another very interesting thing is how they vote... which is to say, loudly. When they hold a vote, the caller says something along the lines of "All those in favor say aye" and everyone who is will just shout "AYE!" and then he does the same for the no's. Then he decides what the vote is, based on which side was louder.
We also got to go to Giant's Causeway, which was in one word, beautiful. I didn't really know what it was before we went, but apparently it's one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It's quite a phenomenon. It basically is off the northern coast of the Island of Ireland and is an area just covered by rocks that are formed into hexagons. It looks like some sort of giant checkerboard or something! Or rather, looking down onto the top of a box of matches. And we could see Scotland too, from the point. No one really knows how it happens--apparently there's some sort of story about the air pushing up the vents underneath or something, but I'm no science major. But there's a story of the giant of Northern Ireland who was trying to build a bridge to Scotland to fight with the giant of Scotland, but he didn't get all the way there.
After that, we went into Belfast and took a tour of the murals with a guy who had very much lived through the Troubles. It was an incredible and very moving experience for me. The murals are painted on the sides of houses and are of people who died during the Troubles. It was a very humbling experience for me just to re-realize how powerful emotions are and how important relationships are. And to see how people were not necessarily willing to forgive quite yet, but they were willing to try to move forward, while still not forgetting those who they loved and lost during those times.
Overall, it was an incredible and inspiring experience for me as a peace studies major, and as a person. I really really enjoyed it and it shifted my perspective on a lot of things!
MISS YOU ALL!
We got the chance to go to the Northern Irish Parliament building, which has housed the only Parliament which has voted to close itself. It was really interesting. We were able to go into their equivalent of Senate chambers and sit on the floor--it was really quite incredible. The Parliament is fully functioning again after being out of use for years. It was very interesting to see how a government who is under another government was run and functioned, since they are officially under the power of Westminster. They didn't have control over budget or media and some other aspects. It was interesting to me how they just kind of skimmed over the fact they didn't have control over media, since so much of public opinion is regularly formed over media and how events are portrayed. I would have assumed that they would have wanted more of control over that, but then again, I don't know a whole lot about all that.
Another very interesting thing is how they vote... which is to say, loudly. When they hold a vote, the caller says something along the lines of "All those in favor say aye" and everyone who is will just shout "AYE!" and then he does the same for the no's. Then he decides what the vote is, based on which side was louder.
We also got to go to Giant's Causeway, which was in one word, beautiful. I didn't really know what it was before we went, but apparently it's one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It's quite a phenomenon. It basically is off the northern coast of the Island of Ireland and is an area just covered by rocks that are formed into hexagons. It looks like some sort of giant checkerboard or something! Or rather, looking down onto the top of a box of matches. And we could see Scotland too, from the point. No one really knows how it happens--apparently there's some sort of story about the air pushing up the vents underneath or something, but I'm no science major. But there's a story of the giant of Northern Ireland who was trying to build a bridge to Scotland to fight with the giant of Scotland, but he didn't get all the way there.
After that, we went into Belfast and took a tour of the murals with a guy who had very much lived through the Troubles. It was an incredible and very moving experience for me. The murals are painted on the sides of houses and are of people who died during the Troubles. It was a very humbling experience for me just to re-realize how powerful emotions are and how important relationships are. And to see how people were not necessarily willing to forgive quite yet, but they were willing to try to move forward, while still not forgetting those who they loved and lost during those times.
Overall, it was an incredible and inspiring experience for me as a peace studies major, and as a person. I really really enjoyed it and it shifted my perspective on a lot of things!
MISS YOU ALL!
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