Out and About

Greetings from Berlin! I'm a bit behind on this blog - it's more time consuming than I'd imagined, mostly because it takes so long to upload photos. I flew into Eindoven last week and took a train to Amsterdam and stayed in an adorable apartment he rented from airbnb.com (http://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/153087). The buildings have poles jutting out at the top - they hold rope and a large hook - it's used to transport furniture and appliances through the windows as the staircases are extraordinarily small.

I wasn't too keen on some of the more touristy areas, but I learned I'd rather be around pot heads than alcoholics - they are much nicer, more laid back, and less threatening than drunk people.

Amsterdam was the most scenic city I've seen yet, though I hear Copenhagen is even more so. There are canals, cute shops, and cafes everywhere.

I ate in every night instead of eating out because we had a good grocery store less than a block away.

There are more bicycles on the street than cars - a lot more - and most of the streets have dedicated bike lanes between the sidewalk and the road. I rented a bike for the week for about 6 euros a day. Here many people don't lock their bike to an object, but loop a large chain around the frame and front wheel, and lock the back wheel with a built in wheel lock. The bikes are mostly old and very heavy and would be impossible to use for commuting in DC up hills such as that on 15th Street NW, but Amsterdam is a very flat city, so they aren't a problem.

A bike parking garage next to the train station - it was packed.

Amsterdam has an electric car share program:

And beautiful flowers:

The following photos are from the flower market. It's open daily and everything is very inexpensive as compared to prices at home.

Ginormous bulbs:

Bonsais for less than 10 euros - I want all of them.

More bulbs - so many to choose from!

A beautiful library, fully equipped with a restaurant, cafe, and piano that anyone can play in the entrance. I tried to print some documents there but wasn't able to understand their program as it was in Dutch and I didn't feel comfortable asking for help translating. Not being able to speak the local language can make the most mundane tasks - printing documents, buying groceries, asking for directions, filling out forms, ordering food, etc - nerve wracking when you are alone. I have a lot more sympathy for immigrants and foreign tourists as a result.

The next two images are from Vondelpark - a very large park where many people gather after work. There was a string quartet playing next to a bridge and people commuting home stopped to listen to the free music - it was a great atmosphere. If you click on the picture, you can see two adults to the right with children on their bikes - this is a common way of transporting kids to/from school/daycare.

I read a Terry Pratchett book in the grass and polished off a good amount of hummus and fresh bread from a restaurant in the park - I really liked this place:

Dessert waffles from the flea market - mmmm.

A good idea for a table:

A large bicycle for transporting goods - in this case it's a cheese store advertising their products.

On the left is a large church. On the right are buildings with prostitutes sitting behind windows, beckoning pedestrians inside. It turns out our apartment was right next to the red light district. The women work during the day and evening, but it didn't feel particularly sleezy during the day. I didn't like the evening because it was packed with men on the hunt - always an uncomfortable feeling. I wouldn't have walked through alone.

I also toured a couple of museums while I was there, to include a Van Gogh museum with hundreds of his works. I've never been particularly impressed by his sunflower paintings, but seeing it in person is an entirely different experience - the prints do not capture the texture of the brushstrokes or the way the paint reflects the light. They are much, much better in person. Only one painting in the permanent exhibition was on loan at the time - my favorite one, the almond blossoms. Perhaps next time...

I took a 2.5 hour bus from Dublin to Belfast and met up with my host, Phil, whom I met through couchsurfing.org.

We went grocery shopping at Tesco (like Walmart, but with a much better selection of food), made dinner together, and went to a local pub. It was really nice - the conversations were interesting and easy, and I felt very comfortable.

The next day I took a bus tour up the coast of Northern Ireland. First stop, Carrickfergus Castle:

Next, we drove to the rope bridge - it was very scenic.

A charging station for electronic cars:

We stopped off at Bushmill's, an old whiskey distillery, for a few minutes and then finally arrived at the Giant's Causeway, which is notable for the hexagonal columns resulting from a volcanic eruption. Looking at 5 sided rocks lost my interest rather quickly, but the place was gorgeous:

If you wanted, you could climb 140+ steep stairs to get higher - I did not.

The following day I made french toast for breakfast (a small and insufficient way of saying thank you to Phil) and took a black cab tour of Belfast with fellow couch surfers. Black cab tours in Belfast are somewhat famous - the guides are locals who lived through the Troubles and they drive you through the city, showing you the peace wall, the gates that shut nightly, and various murals throughout the city - while explaining the source of current tension by providing some insight to the Troubles.

The tour began at the city center - they are preparing for the Olympics:

I don't know the whole story and can't tell you exactly what happened or why, because the people who know (those who lived through it) have varying perspectives and beliefs. Our driver was a middle aged man who had grown up in Belfast and was Catholic, as evidenced by him remaining in the cab while we explored the Protestant murals, and escorting us through the Catholic memorial and providing detailed stories of the Catholics that lost their lives at the hands of Protestants. These pictures are from a Protestant neighborhood. The blue structure is for a bonfire:

Random things were strewn about, like this old bike:

And there were many murals dedicated to Protestant leaders during the Troubles. The murals were painted at the ends of rows of townhouses.

Then we drove to part of the peace wall. This was across the way:

Many people sign the wall asking for peace, etc - we were given black sharpies and encouraged to do so as well. I particularly liked this one:

Then we visited a Catholic memorial. To it's right was a row of homes that butted up against the peace wall. They had cages in the back for protection from projectiles.

Street art on the way back to city hall:

As someone who was brought up in a secular government and understands that there's but a theological sliver of difference between Protestants and Catholics, I found it confusing that they should dislike each other so much - but nothing is ever that simple, and the terms Protestant and Catholic do not just refer to two religious beliefs, but describe a unique political landscape associated with each. I've only heard the story told from one side, so I can't say what exactly the differences are, but our cab driver alluded to perceived economic inequalities between the two communities. What I do know is a peace wall was constructed in Belfast in the early 70s to divide the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. It was intended to be a temporary solution, but has persisted. There are gates along the wall, which close daily at 1900 and open at 0700. You can still cross from one side to another at night, you just have to trek around the wall, which goes on for several miles. Our tour guide told us that politicians frequently speak of taking the wall down, but he doesn't feel that will happen for a few more generations and thinks the politicians don't grasp the the hostility that exists amongst the communities that border the wall because they don't live there. Further, (my own observation) the murals and walls are a fresh, daily reminder of what adults in Belfast lived through and experienced - I imagine it'd be all but impossible to break out of a mindset that was impressed upon you through fear and pain at such a young age. I gather this is why our tour guide thought it'd take several decades to raise a generation sufficiently distanced from the Troubles to bring the wall down.

Our tour guide's wife works with Belfast's youth as a social worker to encourage peace between the two communities. The schools are now integrated and many hope that rearing the children together in schools will create shared experiences -> understanding-> peace, etc. However, there are still children who are brought up to dislike the other side and this is the focus of her work. The condition of the houses, vehicles, and streets on either side of the fence were similar, but our tour guide said you could identify Belfast locals as Protestant or Catholic by subtle differences in the clothing style.

I returned to Dublin and took a day tour to the south west coast. The tour is owned and operated by the MacCoole family and stops by the family farm. The farm sits at the base of a limestone plat in the Burren area (very, very rocky) - we hiked up a hillside and got soaking wet in true Irish fashion. Afterwards, we ate homemade apple pie (made with apples grown on the farm) and drank coffee by a fire.

Bottle feeding a baby sheep whose mother turned it away after birth:

A wall of rain heading our way:

Freshly baked apple pie. mmmmmmm.

Our tour guide was a ~30 year old male - I don't think there's many straight men that can pull off being a warm and kind farm hand, tour guide, and pie maker while singing old Irish songs in Gaelic with an apron on, but he certainly did.

If you are interested, there's a matchmaker in the nearby town; this is his advertisement:

And then… and then I went to the Cliifs of Moher. After seeing them I realized I sometimes use the word "beautiful" to describe things that are not deserving of the description. The cliffs are beautiful and I wished I knew more about taking pictures.