MOUNTAIN CLIMBING!!

Last Saturday, fourteen of us took a bus for about an hour and got dropped off at the bottom of a mountain. Five hours later, we got picked up, having successfully climbed THIS mountain:

With THESE people:

In particular, you should note our 74-year-old program director, three from the right. He made it up the mountain, no problem. Some more pics:

We had to climb/slide down that... much harder than climbing UP it, for sure.

The Northern Expedition

A few weekends ago, we took our second excursion of the trip. Remember, the first one was to Southern Ireland, where we saw Cork, Tralee, Kilarney, the Dingle Peninsula, the Ring of Derry, and the Cliffs of Moher. This time around, it was off to Northern Ireland!

Before I describe what we were doing, I'm going to give you a bit of background on Northern Ireland. I'm sure some of you don't realize this, but technically Northern Ireland is NOT part of the Republic of Ireland. It's part of the U.K. Go figure. There's lots of history behind this whole situation, going back to the 1600s and beyond, but I'm pretty positive you'd just stop reading if I started writing about that. Better to just say that there were some very strong tensions for quite some time, and these tensions still haven't been relieved yet. It's not just tension between two countries, but also tension between the Catholics and Protestants. Before we left, we were warned to avoid wearing any school apparel or anything else that might say SAINT John's or Ben's. That's how extreme it is still.

We started our trip from the Park Lodge Wednesday afternoon. After a short jaunt (or maybe just a two hour bus ride), we stopped just outside of Sligo at William Yeat's grave. If nothing else, this was a great chance for us to stretch our legs. Sligo is towards the Northwestern coast of Ireland, just before we get into Northern Ireland. Sure enough, just about 45 minutes later, we cross a river and all of the sudden, all the speed limit signs were in MPH (not KPH)! Also, in the matter of ten feet, we stopped going to Derry and started going to Londonderry. Odd. The most noticeable difference was the quality of the roads. As soon as we crossed into Northern Ireland, everything was much more organized and much smoother. I guess the British ARE good for something!

Upon arriving in Derry, we found the town completely shut down. This is strange, since it was only 6:00, but apparently there is hardly anything left open past 5:00. First thing on the agenda: Supper. We went as a group to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed some delicious beefy Guinness Stew, mashed potatoes, veggies, and cheesecake. Afterwards, we did a bit of relaxing, then hit some pubs, but not for long. After all, we had to cheer on our Minnesota Twins in game 1 against the Yankees! Too bad staying awake 'til 5:00 am didn't pay off...

Derry from the old city walls.

Waking up 3 hours later, we left again for a Ring Fort just outside of Derry. I'll let the pictures describe it:

Coming back from the ring fort, we had a few hours of free time: LUNCH. A bunch of the guys went to this all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet: CLUTCH. That was the best lunch I've had in a looooooong time! Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the group at the Museum of Free Derry. This commemorated the victims of Bloody Sunday, the massacre of 16 peaceful protesters by the British army. The museum was run by volunteers, but it may have been one of the best museums I've seen. It was outstanding.

We finished up the day with a walking tour of Derry, where we looked at the murals painted by the IRA and other citizens of Derry. Every mural had a story, and our guide told them all phenomenally. We walked the city walls and got some great insight of the city. If you're ever in Derry, I'd definitely recommend this tour.

This building is actually a historical monument now. People are allowed to paint on it for festivals and other events, but they are REQUIRED to leave the words on it.

After watching the Twins lose again, we took off the next morning for Belfast. Along the way we stopped in the city of Bushmill (home of Bushmill's Distillery!!) and took a tour of the distillery. AWESOME. It smelled great, too! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to use electronic devices because the air was so saturated in alcohol...

After a quick lunch and several samples, we bounced on over to the Giant's Causeway. This is quite possibly the strangest geological phenomena I've seen in my life... Again, the pictures will do it better justice.

Arriving in Belfast, the first move was again dinner. This time, four of us went to a Kebab shop right across from our hostel. Hands down, this is the best kebab I've had. We hung around the hostel for a while, then went to explore the nightlife. Belfast is substantially larger than Derry was, but since we really didn't know anything about the city yet, we mainly hung out near to the hostel.

Yum...

Saturday morning, we took a city bus tour and then were given the rest of the day to ourselves to explore the town. Of the bus tour, I think the peace wall was the coolest thing. It's amazing to think that the wall was so necessary to preserve a way of life... Later, I ended up taking a free tour of the city hall, learning a bit about local politics (strange, to say the least). After some church, I ended up at that same kebab place for some more dinner. Twins played again, but no one really had the heart to pay 10 pounds to watch them play at 1 am again...

Peace wall in Belfast.

Our hostel was about four or five blocks away from Queens.

Sunday, we left Belfast for Strokestown, about halfway between Belfast and Galway. We toured the famine museum (heart-lifting, eh?) and learned about the potato blight. It was an okay museum; I don't think I'd go again, but it was worth seeing, I guess. I think I was more interested in just getting back to the Park Lodge by that point. Sure enough, a few hours later, we see the familiar sight of home!