those who wander are not always lost: northern ireland weekend..

hmm... so i think i'm just going to post that email i sent out to a few of ye, and just add pictures! ...well i guess some more captions, so yeah, read on. (yes, i'm just that lazy!)

i was in northern ireland this past weekend, it was a blast... we got there late on thrusday night, and were fed by the program, then set out to, er, explore the town. by explore the town i mean hit up the pub down the road, robinson's.. which was right next to the famous crown bar. it had live music and a relaxed crowd. the following day, we went to derry to take a tour around the town and around the walls which were heavily guarded during the troubles. if anything, this whole trip served to show how quickly we can get over something like that... the evidence of the troubled times is everywhere, murals, video cameras, barbed wire, but the people seem alright, and very welcoming to the tourism.

you know, i'm not sure how i feel about the revolution in northern ireland. a part of me is proud, you know, because (excluding all of the violence) it was a revolution that worked. did you know the average age of those in the IRA, men, and women, was 17? the revolution was staged by younger folks, and the difference was vast. now, i'm not saying that i agree with the methods. it's just nice to know that something CAN be done without the meddling of everything over here.
see, they're big into the American Way:

in any case... then we headed to a castlescape for some quick photos:
here's the only picture you'll ever get of me running. they told us we didn't have time to actually go down into the castle, only look from afar.... so naturally i sprinted down to go explore for 15 minutes or so.

here's the castle from afar... i guess the castle was in use for a long time, until the family who owned it was hosting a dinner party during the storm, and just before dinner was to be served the kitchen, chefs, meal, everything, slid into the ocean. the hostess then declared, that's it! we're moving! and they did.

and then off to the giant's causeway. here we are at the top of the cliffs... these are the girls i spend most of my time with, they're awesome.

check the way these rocks have formed....

that was particularly cool, a geological wonder. you know the story from which that was devised? finn mac coul builds it to go across the water to scotland where he drinks and then, naturally, gets into a fight with their local giant. seeing that he is to be on the losing end of this fight, he runs back across and home to his wife, where her quick thinking puts him into the baby's pram and dresses him up as such. when teh scottish giant comes to finn's door, she answers and tells him to be quiet, as the baby is sleeping. when the giant sees how large the baby is, he fears he's underestimated finn and runs back to scotland in a panic, and breaks up the causeway on his journey back. in any case, we climbed all over the cliffs and rocks while we were there.. very cool.

here's me and katie playing on the rocks.

on saturday then, me and a few of the girls took a hop-on hop-off tour of belfast city. i saw the place where the titanic was built... now i guess i've seen both where it's built and where it was set off! (cohb) we walked around Queens university and their botanic gardens. we walked around downtown belfast as well... i went into a linen store to see if it was decently priced but to no avail. it was a sad story. hm... we saw a blue ceramic salmon of knowledge with all the stories of belfast town within its scales...

then, er... we went to go see the Borat Movie. very nice. very nice.

saturday night we went out to more of a younger crowd bar and did it up in style for a while,

and the whole group

then from there we went to a pub that had three levels... one with live music, another dance floor, and the third pool tables. i would have gone back to that place had i been in belfast longer.

sunday was a looonnnnng drive back. but it went by quickly, what with good company and clear roads for most of the 8 hours.