Month: May 2018

May 26-29

A short flight landed us in The Netherlands. With just a few days before we have to meet a few friends in Paris, we were taking the opportunity to explore Amsterdam. It was our first visit to the city, and the country, and we weren’t really sure what to expect.

Amsterdam is a strange city. On one hand you have beautiful architecture and a city made up of canals that give the entire place a very romantic feel.

But on the other hand you have stag and hen parties crowding the streets, the seediness of the red light district, and wafts of pot everywhere you go.

They do have Heineken bottle openers in your hotel room, so there’s that.

We spent our three days walking almost nonstop through the streets and parks.

We ate at a few cool places. The first night we went to Foodhallen. I don’t speak the language but I would assume that Foodhallen translates to food hall and that perfectly describes the space. It was a huge building filled with different food stalls.

There was a great variety, but we found some incredible tacos and basically just sat there for a few rounds of food. These were probably the first good tacos since we’ve left the US.

We went to Anne Frank’s house and were hoping to go on a tour, but apparently you have to buy tickets pretty far in advance (they were sold out at least through the next week). So we just saw the outside. I’m not saying this is the only attraction of substance in Amsterdam, but it’s the only one I know about, so I was pretty bummed we didn’t get in.

One of the things that Amsterdam is famous for is the bicycles. There are people riding bicycles everywhere. Just crossing the street is basically an Olympic sport. What I don’t understand is why no one is wearing a helmet. Seriously. No one. Kids on bikes – no helmet. Kids in carts being pushed by their parents on bikes – no helmets. What is this, 1975? Everyone looked picture perfect riding their bikes with their dresses and their heels, but I’m more of a safety first kind of person in this arena.

We did walk through the red light district. It was seedy. I understand the thought that by legalizing prostitution you empower the women to do what they want with their bodies. However, I just can’t get behind it. It’s a lesser evil than what we saw in Medellin, but I don’t like it. We were talking with someone about it in a bar and he said that the women want to be doing it. I just can’t believe that they would be doing it if they had other options.

This is not a picture of the red light district. It’s more something to get our minds off of it:

So that’s really it. Amsterdam was a beautiful city with very nice people, but I think we maybe aren’t the city’s target audience.

Or maybe we should have gone to visit some of the museums. Or just sat and ate tacos for three days.

May 21-25

It is now finally time to move on to a new day. After grabbing a late breakfast in Belfast, we hit the road for the drive to Galway. Since we had seen the beautiful northern coast during our trip to Giant’s Causeway, we cut straight through the island in a significantly less scenic but also significantly faster four hour drive.

We were looking for a town to just sit and relax for a few days and Galway was perfect. As soon as we entered town, I could almost feel the change in pace. This coastal town has a large number of tourists and a large number of university students, but once you get only about half a mile out of town you’ll find locals walking along the Galway Bay and the football fields where men’s leagues play at night and elementary school kids play during their lunches. Let me assure you, the men’s leagues here are insane. They guys were probably late 20’s/early 30’s and they were significant better than anything you’d see in Chicago.

Our first two days in Galway were spent getting into a relaxed mood. We wandered along the bay:

We ate delicious pizza at Dough Bros:

We walked through the picturesque town:

And were sad that we were had missed Ed Fest and wouldn’t be able to Paint the Town Ed:

We had mixed reviews of meat pie at The Pie Maker. I thought the food was great (thanks for the rec, Stacy Lynn)! Michael is a bit weirded out by the idea of meat pie. What’s not to love? Meat and pie together!

Interesting fact: the Claddagh ring was created/designed here in Galway. It is the traditional ring depicting love, loyalty and friendship.

Mostly we just enjoyed the beautiful weather, went for runs and walked all over town. On Wednesday, we took a day trip out to the Cliffs of Moher.

These sea cliffs are in County Clare, about a two hour drive from Galway, and are about 14 kilometers long. At their height, they rise roughly 700 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.

The below is O’Brien’s Tower, near the midpoint of the cliffs, built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O’Brien. Apparently this tower was built as an observation tower for Victorian tourists that visited the cliffs at the time. However, since we are in Ireland, there is also a legend that says O’Brien built the tower in order to impress women that he was courting. No word on how that worked out for him.

Back in town, we saw a large march in support of repealing the abortion ban. Although there were signs through out town against, it did seem that most people were in support of repealing. A lot of people wandering around with pins stating yes or tá, which is yes in Gaelic. This is in line with how the vote went on Friday, with nearly 2/3 voting to repeal.

On our last full day in Galway we took a boat out to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay. The roughly 1200 inhabitants of the three islands primarily speak Gaelic, but are also fluent in English. The islands are mainly limestone and although the guy who drove us to the ferry told us that there was farming on the island, it is hard to see how that is possible. Everything is rock. Even the “grassy” areas just have rock all throughout it. But it must be good for cows and it definitely makes for a beautiful bike ride.

So, we rented bikes and rode around the island for about five hours and loved it. It was a great way to see the island.

We stopped and walked up to Dún Aonghasa which has prehistoric forts built on the edge of a 100 meter high cliff. It’s not known when these forts were built although excavations indicate that the first construction goes back to 1100 BC.

That’s right… we looked down. But very carefully!

But more importantly, this is also the site of the last scene from the move Leap Year staring the darling but neurotic Amy Adams.

Here’s that scene in case you want to compare notes. It is, however, the final scene of the movie in case you still need to watch this gem, I don’t want to ruin the ending for you.

We also popped into the Aran Sweater Market were I finally bought a sweater. It was just too soft to turn down…

…especially with free shipping to the US. Someone reading this should get excited for a package from Ireland that will be showing up to their home in the next week or so!!

We ended our day on the island with some sandwiches and sangria at a restaurant near the docks. There were two awesome cats hanging out which is saying a lot because Michael and I don’t like too many cats.

They did get a bit bold by the time we had finished our meals.

And then it was time to take the shuttle back to Galway.

We loved our time spent in Galway. The weather was perfect, the people were delightful and Ireland is beautiful! We will definitely be back!

May 20

Yes – it is still May 20. This is one of the longest days we’ve had in the past few months. After going for runs and taking the black taxi tour and going to the market and going to Giant’s Causeway, we are back in Belfast and heading to Kelly’s Cellars for a pint of Guinness. Our tour guide, Peter, recommended it as his favorite and the best pub in Belfast. When he mentioned it, Michael immediately asked if it was “y” or “ey”, an obvious question coming from a member of the Kelley clan. Peter spent some time talking through the fact that he doesn’t think it matters. They all were originally from the same family. He noted that the small changes in surnames – adding an e or an o was simply the result of fights or rifts in families. When brothers fought, they would adjust their names slightly to show the difference.

So we headed to Kelly’s and grabbed two pints of Guinness.

The place was pretty packed, so we took some seats outside and enjoyed another day of great weather. After one pint and some great people watching, we had to make the decision: go get some dinner or one more pint. We chose to grab another pint to drink outside. After that pint, the same decision: dinner or another? The band had just started playing, so we grabbed another.

From outside, the band didn’t sound that good – all we could hear was the backup vocalist who was not the best. Plus they were playing James Taylor, who I’m a big fan of, but Michael wasn’t thrilled with. We popped back into the bar to see if being inside helped the quality of the band at all. It did. They turned out to be great and a huge highlight of the evening.

The band played the Beatles, Zeppelin, Stones, Van Morrison, Dylan, Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, and who knows what else they played. They were solid.

The crowd in the bar was energetic. It seemed to be mostly locals with a few small pockets of tourists.

We were awkwardly standing at the edge of a table that was shared by another 5 people. Originally we assumed they were all together. We later found out that was not the case.

When Michael and I entered Ireland, I told him that I really wanted a solid, legit Irish pub experience. I wanted a situation where we were surrounded by locals doing something that just felt “Irish”. We did get that in Dublin after the literary pub crawl, but I wanted more. We got it at Kelly’s. While it was definitely a legit Irish pub experience, it was more so a “Northern Irish” pub experience. Let me set the stage.

There are five people at the table we’re standing at. They are between us and the band, so for the most part we are looking at them while watching the band. The table and the band are to our left. The bar is to our right. See below picture. None one in this picture are involved in future events.

The five people are made up of three young people (two men and a woman) and two older guys. The two older guys seem a bit drunk, but also seem to be in good spirits. The younger crew is quiet and seemingly put together.

One of the older guys, who we’ll call “drunk and annoying but harmless”, or “harmless” for short, is hitting on the younger woman and really any woman that walks by. He is living up to his name. The other guy, who we’ll call “drunk and a bit abrasive”, or “Big A”, for short is chatting up anyone who will talk to him. So we start chatting with Big A when he approaches Michael about his Detroit Tigers hat. He spends some time giving Michael a hard time about the Tigers. Apparently, Big A lived in New York for awhile and is a Yankees fan. He spends quite some time poking Michael, but everything is in good spirit.

At some point, Big A tells us that only Catholics hang out at Kelly’s. We should have thought this was a strange thing to say, but we’re Catholic and our tour guide Peter who recommended the bar is Catholic, and we are new to the city, so… ok.

We kept talking and at one point I responded to Big A by saying, “I can’t understand your English”. I really couldn’t understand him, but it was mostly a joke because we all speak the same language. He got a bit upset and said, “I’m not English!” I followed up a bit louder with, “No! I can’t understand your English!”, and laughed. This may have gone back and forth a time or two. I can’t really remember. But at this point, random guy at the bar starts staring us down. We’ll call him “Mean Mug McGee” or “McGee” for short. I didn’t see McGee glaring at us, but Michael did and basically started a small amount of damage control. He alerted me to the fact that McGee was annoyed about something, so we started being just a bit more careful.

Since we were talking with a local, I did take this opportunity to ask a question that I had forgotten to ask Peter earlier. I knew that during the Troubles all neighborhoods were segregated. But I wanted to know if that changed at all since the peace deal, if there is any mixing at this point.

Big A told us that it basically comes down to money. The poor and working class neighborhoods are still very segregated. But in the rich neighborhoods, your religious affiliation doesn’t matter as long as you have money.

The below outlines a portion of conversation between me, Michael, and Big A and is a summary to the best of my recollection:

Big A: what’s your favorite Bond?

Jane: Daniel Craig

Michael: I don’t know… Sean Connery?

Big A: (A bit annoyed with us) No!! Your favorite Bond!!!

Jane: I know most people might not pick Daniel Craig, but….

Michael: I don’t know, who’s your favorite?

Big A: Bond!!! Bond!!!! Like The Beatles!!!!

Jane and Michael: ahhhhhhhhh (language barrier)

Michael: I don’t know. The Rolling Stones. Or Led Zeppelin.

Big A: No way! Definitely not!

Michael: Oooh! Is it not edgy enough for you? Ok, how about the Doors?

Big A: No! U2! U2 is the best band!

We now realize there was only one right answer that we could have responded with. But this is an easy debate. U2 is a very good band and anyone is free to have U2 as their favorite band, but there can be a real debate about whether they are “the best” band. While both Michael and I like U2, neither of us would call them our favorite or the best.

So now Michael and Big A start debating the merits of both U2 and The Rolling Stones. Mostly, Big A is being critical of how old the Stones are and how they haven’t come out with any new music. They only play their old hits at concerts. I note that if U2 would commit to playing more of their hits and less new stuff at concerts that I would actually go see them play. We use google to inform Big A that the Stones had actually come out with a new album in 2016, which discredits his no new music theory. At this point, the younger woman gets involved in the conversation. We start asking him some basic questions about U2 and quickly realize that he doesn’t know all that much about his favorite “bond”. He isn’t familiar with any of their new music and I took this as an opportunity to inform him also of my annoyance that iTunes gave me their new album for free a few years ago and I still can’t figure out how to get it off my phone.

Another pint or dinner? Music is great and we’re talking with locals. Another pint it is.

OK – so the conversation goes on. Now, have you forgotten about McGee yet? He’s still sitting at the bar a few feet away, watching us. At some point, something happens and Michael takes the opportunity to speak to him. I thought that Big A knocked into him a bit and Michael said something to smooth it over. Michael’s not sure if this is how it went down. But either way, once Michael steps out of the U2 conversation that is getting a bit heated between Big A and the young woman, I step away as well and start talking with McGee. I was concerned that my joke from earlier was the cause of his mean mugging and I wanted to make sure we were all cool.

So the three of us were having decent conversation. The topic cannot be remembered by me or Michael at this point in time. But it was not at all what you would expect from a guy I’m nicknaming Mean Mug McGee.

At some point, harmless goes home. It was long over due and we were glad to see him leave.

Michael and I are standing with McGee at the bar, the three young people are at the table with Big Al yelling about U2 or whatever our Bond conversation had morphed into, and the cover band is still nailing it.

Out of nowhere, one of the young guys grabs Big A by the shirt, throws him onto the booth side of our table and starts pounding on him.

Now here’s one of those decision moments in your life. Michael and I are a few steps away, holding beers. I grab Michael’s beer since he’s right next to them and I want him to have both hands in case he gets involved in any way. It’s that moment where you decide if you’re going to get involved.

The young guy landed two or three good punches to Big A’s face. Michael and I looked at each other and both decided to just step back. There was an opportunity for Michael to pull the young guy off of Big A and he didn’t take it. Looking back, it was definitely the best and right decision. We had been talking to him all night, but we didn’t know Big A at all. Not our friend. Not our problem.

After a few punches were landed, two bouncers came in, pulled the guy off of Big A. McGee got involved at this point and started yelling to the bouncer that Big A is a bigot and should be kicked out of the bar. Big A and all three young people got kicked out of the bar.

A bit wide eyed and excited, Michael and I turn back to McGee who starts telling us how glad he was that he beat the crap out of Big A and that Big A got kicked out. Apparently, Big A had been giving the three of them trouble all night. The three young people were English and Big A had an issue with the fact that they were in his bar. This probably explains why he made the point of telling us that Kelly’s is a Catholic pub. We made it clear to McGee that we didn’t know the guy at all and had nothing to do with any of it. He knew, but it was still worth communicating to him.

McGee told us a few things about the situation:

– He doesn’t have any patience for people in Belfast who are going to discriminate against anyone because of religion.

– He’s Catholic and will take issue with anyone, Protestant or Catholic, who has a problem with someone because of their religion.

– These types of fights happen in Belfast every night and people get thrown out of bars for this kind of thing every night. The bouncers are always quick to end it and to throw out troublemakers. Zero tolerance.

– He claimed to hate Belfast because of these types of stupid people who fight about stupid things, including politics, every night.

– He noted that everyone is the same until someone tells you that you’re not.

I thought that last point was really insightful. It was time for another beer or dinner decision and we decided to have another and buy McGee a pint as well.

After our pint with McGee, the cover band had finished and it was time for us to call it a night. At this point dinner was off the table and it was just time for bed.

So that was Belfast’s answer to my desire for a real Irish pub experience. I can’t imagine that it gets more legit than a pub fight in Belfast about religion. Is will state that in the Republic of Ireland locals typically are welcoming and friendly with any visitors. So Belfast provided an answer to my unknown desire to have an authentic Northern Ireland experience. I will note though that I think this falls in line with what Peter was telling us earlier in the day about the difference between young people and older people in Belfast. The English guy didn’t hit Big A because he was Catholic. He hit him because Big A was trying to start a fight. So the fight was less between a Catholic and a Protestant and more between a person who doesn’t want the fight to end and a person who is ready for the Belfast conflict to be over. For the record, the bouncers let all three of the young people back into the bar and they went back to their quiet night.

We had an incredible day, but were ready to leave the next morning. We headed back into the Republic of Ireland to Galway on the west coast for a few days of relaxation. Thank you, Belfast, for an amazing experience! Michael wants to know who your favorite bond is so leave a note in the comment section or shoot us a note!

May 20

HBD KB

I want to mention two things before moving on to the second of this three part series.

1. I got an email from my sister that informed me she was laughing at something I’d written in the last post and then felt bad about laughing at such a sad situation. I made a mistake in the last post by not mentioning that Peter, our taxi guide, was incredibly optimistic about his city and was an incredibly upbeat person. He inserted jokes and had us laughing the entire time. Nobody in the city seems to be moping about, depressed about their history. They all are living their lives and looking towards the future.

2. Although this is the second post about Belfast, it is actually not about Belfast.

After taking our tour and grabbing food at the market, we jumped in our car and drove out to Giant’s Causeway. Giant’s Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns which was caused by an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones and are mostly hexagonal in shape.

The tallest are about 40 feet high.

So now for the good stuff… the legend.

So there were two giants: Finn MacCool, the Irish giant, and Benandonner, the Scottish giant. Finn MacCool was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant and built a causeway between Ireland and Scotland so they could meet and fight. Finn MacCool somehow finds out that the Scottish giant is much bigger than he is. Finn’s wife disguises Finn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the ‘baby’, he assumes that his father must be huge. So Benandonner flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway behind him so that Finn would be unable to follow him. Across the sea, in Scotland, there are identical columns… the other side of the destroyed causeway.

So one of the helpful hints that Peter had given us before heading out on our day trip was a suggestion that we park at the hotel next to the national park. Apparently it is free to enter the park, but they charge you 11 euros per person to park. But, if you park at the hotel and grab a bite to eat or a coffee, then you can see the site for free. Good to know. It was interesting because apparently he is appalled at the price they are charging and is under the impression that the entire local population is also appalled by this. Who knows, but we are more than happy to pay our money to local businesses instead if we have the option.

Pretty incredible, aren’t they? I’m talking about the stones. Ok, us too.

The woman who took the above picture had seen us sitting down before she approached us (to take a picture of her) and demanded that we sit back down so she could take this photo. Maybe Michael can get IG famous with this.

After Giant’s Causeway, we grabbed a bowl of soup and some drinks, retained our receipt and headed out to our next stop: Carrick-a-Rede bridge. Carrick-a-Rede is a few kilometers down the shore from Giant’s Causeway and is a rope bridge out to a small island that fishermen use to cross.

The rope bridge looks terrifying and the island is beautiful.

How scary is it crossing that bridge? Just how beautiful is it out on that island?

I guess I’ll have to come back and find out another time. The bridge was closed. Super closed – not like the first Cinque Terre barriers where you can just step over it. Closed. Still it was beautiful enough that it was worth the hike just to see the island. Look at that water!

Half of the fun of Giant’s Causeway for me was actually getting there from Belfast. The drive around the coast took about 2 hours and was gorgeous.

We made a couple of stops to see the beautiful scenery and take a few small hikes.

OK – so a little lighter than the first Belfast post, right? Apparently it’s easy to get away from some tension when you physically remove yourself. We had a wonderful day in the country and now it is back to Belfast for the end of a great Sunday.

May 19-20

I’m struggling to decide how to structure this post. We were only in Belfast for 48 hours but so many things happened that I’m just not sure how to do this. I’m going to try to break these two days into three parts and see how that goes.

We woke up a bit slow before heading back to the Dublin airport where we were picking up the rental car. Everything took forever that morning. We struggled with the city buses and ended up just walking the mile to where we could pick up the bus to the airport. Once we got to the airport, the line was long exclusively for our car company and then once we were finally being helped, the woman kept being pulled away to help translate for the French customers next to us who were having problems. It wasn’t an issue at all, after all, what rush are we in? Then we had to take a shuttle over to stand in another line to then get our car. It took forever.

But then we had the car and all was right with the world! Except we are once again driving on the wrong side of the road. Michael did reserve an automatic this time, so at least I didn’t have that issue to deal with.

The drive to Belfast was only about two hours. When we got in, we checked into our airbnb and relaxed for a bit before heading out to the city. We walked up to the Botanical Gardens which were just beautiful.

I don’t know a ton about Belfast, but I do know that they have a recent history of violence and war. Walking through these gardens, seeing everyone sitting around and enjoying their Saturday, I just can’t see it.

Afterwards we had a great dinner at a restaurant that, despite the casual dress code mentioned online, was definitely a place I shouldn’t have worn a dress with tennis shoes. That is one thing that I’ve noticed about Ireland: women are wearing heels here again. In Cape Town, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Paris, London… most of the fashionable women are wearing sneakers with their fancy clothes. Apparently Ireland is not about it. I don’t have any heels, so we’re just going to have to grin and bear it while we’re here.

The next morning we went for runs and then were picked up by Peter, our Black Taxi driver. Black Taxi Tours basically just drive you around the city, telling you about its history and showing you the murals, walls and other landmarks in the city. Knowing so little about “the Troubles”, this was a perfect tour to introduce me to Belfast.

Drive by viewings:

At a very basic level, the Troubles is the name for the conflict in Northern Ireland, starting in the late 1960s and ending with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the violence spilled into other parts of Ireland, England and some parts of mainland Europe, most of it happened in Northern Ireland. The main conflict was between the nationalists who were predominantly Catholic and the loyalists who were predominantly Protestant. The nationalists wanted a united Ireland and the loyalists wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK. Also much of it was guerrilla warfare: car bombs, Molotov cocktails, random shootings, etc.

On the tour, Peter mostly called the groups either Irish or British, with the Irish representing the Catholic nationalists/republicans and the British representing the Protestant loyalists. As we started the tour, Peter explained that although the Troubles are over, there are some number of peace walls standing in Belfast. Note: Michael and I cannot agree on the number told to us and google won’t confirm. I remember 90. Michael does not remember anything. I did see online that as of February of 2016, there were 109 across Northern Ireland. That article spoke to a wall that had finally been torn down. Another article from 2012 stated that Belfast had 99 walls remaining. So I’m not sure.

The walls are anywhere from a few hundred yards long to three miles and are made of iron, brink and/or steel. Some of them are 25 feet high and some have barbed wire along the top. Some of them have gates that allow passage during the day but are closed at night. Some of the gates are closed on weekends. The entire purpose is to minimize inter-communal violence. These barriers started going up in 1969. There was a lot of violence in the 60’s, but since this is a tour about the walls and murals, our tour guide focused on August 14-15, 1969, which Peter claimed was one of the main catalysts for the walls being built. This was when British troops were deployed to Derry and Belfast to restore order and end the riots. In these few days, eight people were shot dead, 133 suffered gunshot wounds, another 600 or so were injured in other ways and more than 400 homes and businesses were destroyed (83% Catholic owned). The most emphasized point from the tour, however, was that 1505 Catholic and 315 Protestant families were forced to flee their homes. This led to the almost complete segregation of neighborhoods in Belfast.

I knew there was segregation in Belfast and I knew that despite peace for the past 20 or so years that there was still tension in the city. I had no clue that these walls were still used to actually try to keep the peace. And the thought that they close the gates on nights and weekends… I just couldn’t fathom. Now, none of these communities are truly gated off. You could walk/drive to the end of the walls and go around them. But I was still shocked.

Peter’s comments on the idea of closing the gates on nights and weekends: It’s basically to keep kids from doing stupid things. Kids will be kids and you don’t want them causing problems.

Ok, fine… I guess. It sounds terrible to me. It is hard to even look at the walls.

Our first stop was Shankill, the largest Protestant neighborhood. When googling to confirm spelling, I am met by a wash of anxiety inducing sites about the Shankill Butchers and Northern Ireland’s “Most Notorious Street”.

Being on the British side of the wall, we saw murals depicting loyalist heroes and nationalist terrorists.

Peter believes that it is important that the murals stay up, but that the current effort to switch out the more inflammatory murals with murals that have better messages is also important.

Here, for example, is a mural dedicated to the women of the war. It focused on family stories of care, loss, remembrance, and love for their families, friends and wider community.

It had replaced this mural:

Peter thinks it is important to remember the more inflammatory murals, leave reminders, but then replace them. He does not think that the community is ready to forget.

Peter suggested that this mural best explains what happened in 1969 when so many families were displaced. Not only did they lose their homes, but they also had to find ways to explain to their children that they could no longer be friends with some of their former neighbors. He thought this was one of the main ways that the war was perpetuated. It order to keep your kids safe, and keep them away from harm, it was easiest to demonize the other side and create fear where just days before these kids were just normal kids, playing with neighbors of a different religion.

Another mural that we visited was this famous mural of King William III who is a hero to the loyalists.

What are the rules here? Do we smile? We did.

Peter told us we have two required pictures and this was one of them.

Each year on July 12 (HBD Betsy), Protestants in Northern Ireland celebrate the victory of King William of Orange over the Catholic King James II at the battle of Boyne in 1690. Large parades are held by the Orange Order and Ulster loyalist marching bands. Streets are covered with British flags and bonfires are lit (the night before). Sounds like quite the party, right? “Bonfires” may not be the proper word to describe what happens. The locals build bonfires made up of wooden pallets and tires (really there is no hope for the environment) with some reaching 100 feet tall. One hundred feet!!

Here is a picture of Peter holding a picture of basically the city on fire:

Tell me that isn’t insane. We saw one bonfire that is already being constructed nearly two months in advance of the festival.

People sleep at the construction site for the weeks leading up to the event to ensure that rivaling neighborhood kids don’t come in the middle of the night to steal their firewood.

These are all built right in the neighborhoods without much concern for what gets caught up in the blaze. In the below picture you can see green space. This is where a bonfire is typically built. A few years ago, it collapsed on the homes that you see in the background. That is why the roof is multicolored. The center part, with the lighter roof, was destroyed when the bonfire collapsed on it.

Feel free to google image search “11th night bonfire collapse” if you have free time. It’s incredible. This is a taste of what you’d find. It’s grainy, but it’s incredible.

We’ll take this moment for a literary note, in the middle of trying to talk about the Troubles, regarding Jonathan Swift who wrote the book Gulliver’s Travels. In the back of the below picture is Cave Hill, also referred to as Napoleon’s Nose, which is believed to be where Swift got his inspiration for the giants, while the smaller people, the Lilliputians, are believed to be named after Lilliput Street in Belfast.

Back to walls… After spending some time on the British side, we were now off to see some gates.

The first gate was actually two sets of gates with space in between. Both gates are locked at nights. These gates are left open on the weekends, which is why we could go through them. The murals in between the two gates were nondenominational.

But not non-political. I’m not entirely sure what this is communicating, but apparently both groups agree to it.

Just into the Catholic side of this gate was this mural:

I had mixed feelings about seeing this mural. This mural very much reminded me of the problems we have in the United States. I’m sure Ireland has its share of racism, but this mural is much more about our problems.

One thing that Peter pointed out in the above mural was Bob Marley who he called “Black Irish”. This is a term that I was not completely comfortable with. It sounds like a racist name for an alcoholic drink. Or just racist, period. Apparently, in 1655 when England captured Jamaica from Spain, Oliver Cromwell populated the new colony with Irish. Many were indentured servants or very low level criminals. Once in Jamaica, the Irish were split up to ensure that they didn’t form Irish communities. Many died from heat and disease. Cromwell thought that they would have a better chance of survival if they were acclimated at a young age, so he sent 2000 kids between the ages of 10 and 14. Pretty horrific. Per google, 25% of Jamaican citizens claim Irish ancestry. The Irish contributed to Jamaica’s motto, “out of many, one people”. I like that.

After the stop at the gate, we popped back onto the Protestant side to see some murals.

Here is our black taxi:

Two quotes seen here:

“I’ll tell me ma when I get home the boys wont leave the girls alone” which is from an Irish folk song “The Belle of Belfast City”.

“Strength and wisdom are not opposing values” which is a quote from Bill Clinton. Similar to Bosnia, the Northern Irish have an admiration for Clinton who helped with their 1998 peace deal.

Some of the murals were really thought out and meaningful. Some were less so. Peter reinforced that he likes the murals and thinks they are important. He stated that everyone has a choice to either grab a rock or grab a pen in this situation. He offered us pens to add our thoughts to the wall. I hated it but did it. I didn’t have anything clever or meaningful to say and definitely nothing that I would admit to on the blog. But I can understand the symbolism of choosing the pen.

Here is Michael’s addition to the wall:

Then we were off to see some more from the Catholic side. First, here is the opposite side of that same wall. Notice how the houses are right up against it. I asked why anyone would want to live there and Peter just replied that they will refuse to leave because it will feel as if they had lost.

This is the office of Sinn Féin which is the political arm of the nationalist fight.

Sinn Féin is a major party in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and has historically been associated with the IRA. It is not clear what association they have currently with the organization, but they claim to have none. Peter’s belief, as stated to us, is that they are completely separate and there is no room for the IRA in the country any more… that people don’t have any more patience for the violence. He emphasized that the reason why the IRA was successful during the Troubles is because they had the support of the people. They no longer have that support as people are sick of the fighting and ready only for peace. Sinn Féin candidates run for government positions although they refuse to sit in the British parliament even when they win seats. They don’t believe it is their place to make decisions about other countries in the UK, just as they don’t believe the UK should be making decisions about Northern Ireland. They currently hold 7 of Northern Ireland’s 18 seats at Westminster.

One very famous republican that was voted into parliament is Bobby Sands. Here is the second “required photo” per Peter.

Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and died on a hunger strike while imprisoned for firearms possession. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike when their prisoner of war status was rescinded. Ten republican prisoners starved themselves to death during this strike. Sands was nominated to parliament while he was on this hunger strike under the label “Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner”, running in an effort to draw attention to their plight. Sands became the youngest member of parliament at the time, but died in prison less than a month later. The British government changed the rules disallowing prisoners serving jail time of over a year from running in elections to ensure other hunger strikers did not step up following Sands’ death.

Many of the murals are dedicated to the remembrance of the freedom fighters. Note: terrorists on the other side of the wall, freedom fighters here.

The interesting thing about the Catholic side of the wall was that there was a lot of murals dedicated to current events. There was one in defense of the Catalan political prisoners being held right now in their quest for independence from Spain.

We have actually seen graffiti in Galway, where we are currently staying, calling for their release as well. Here is a really artistic mural addressing global climate change.

And, very current, was this mural that was still being completed about the newest Palestine/Israel issues. Anyone who has kept up on that news will recognize the man in the wheel chair.

OK… that was a lot and a lot of it was and still is super depressing. This was the tone we ended the tour on and Peter was outright apologetic that he talked as much about politics as he did. But we loved it. This is exactly the type of stuff that we wanted to hear and learn about on this tour. I cannot recommend this tour enough.

A few other things. We asked Peter if he thought the walls would ever come down. He said that there is a huge difference between people over 25 who remember and people under 25 who don’t. For the most part, people under 25 are more forward looking. All they want is to move on and live their lives. Peter believes that the walls will come down in the next 15 years. He did note, though, that there are plenty of people his age and up who don’t think the walls will ever come down. “Not in my lifetime” kind of talk.

We asked the obvious follow up question: will Northern Ireland stay in the UK? Peter was just as certain on that one. Definitely, probably when the walls come down. His theory on that is that with Brexit, people will vote with their wallets, and he believes that Northern Ireland’s economy is going to take a huge hit with Brexit. He thinks the only reason why it hasn’t happened already stems from the heavy segregation. If you are Catholic and you don’t even meet a Protestant until college, then it is harder to understand the whole story. But he has anecdotes about his daughter who is dating a Protestant guy and they just cannot understand what all the fuss is about.

When I think about the idea of having another 15 years of walls, at first I am saddened by it. But then I think about the issues we have in our cities in the US. Many cities have invisible walls built all over the cities due to racial divides. There are plenty of neighborhoods segregated by race and when you cross certain streets, it is obvious that you don’t belong. Chicago is a great example where certain neighborhoods to the south are very black while certain neighborhoods to the north are super white. The difference here is that when you look at a person, you can’t tell if they are Catholic or Protestant unless you want to find out.

In addition to all of the above information, Peter also gave us a bunch of recommendations for places to eat and drink around the city. We took him up on his lunch suggestion as soon as he dropped us off. St. George’s Market is a weekend only market and it’s great; a mix of crafts, shops and great food. Most important, it was a great pick me up after an interesting but tough tour.

Also, they made my food in a wheel of Parmesan cheese.

So that’s it for part 1 of Belfast. I promise that the next 2 parts will be shorter and lighter subject matter (for the most part).

May 17-18

I have been excited to visit Ireland for years, really ever since Michael and I started dating. As some of you know, Michael’s family are of Irish decent and know a lot about their heritage. Some 12 or so years ago, Michael visited Ireland, spending time in Dublin, Belfast and driving around the island. He has often spoken fondly of that trip and it has made me really really really excited to visit.

Our first stop was Dublin and after dropping off bags, we headed out for dinner and a pint. Our airbnb happened to be about 2 blocks away from one of Dublin’s stadiums where The Rolling Stones were playing that night. As such, our neighborhood was swarmed with concert goers wandering around with beers. As opposed to people walking down the streets with cans of beer, as you may see in the US outside a rock concert, people were just walking around with glass pints of beer and setting them next to buildings when they were finished. I guess someone wanders around and collects them later because there were no glasses around the next morning. We thought about going to try to grab some last minute tickets, but instead just went for a pizza instead.

We popped into the bar next door for a Guinness after dinner while the bartenders were tackling the huge task of cleaning up after the masses had left for the concert. Maybe they go out and get free pint glasses from out on the street. Half of them may have actually belonged to that pub.

Guinness!!! In Ireland!!!

We stayed for another and then headed to bed. We had a lot to do the next day.

We jumped up first thing and went for runs along the River Liffey. Merchant’s Arch and a pub called Merchant’s Arch:

And this building:

After getting cleaned up, we grabbed a few quick sandwiches, but passed on the Taytos.

Check out this clip if you need more info on these amazing chips and trust me, you need more information:

https://youtu.be/X_nazEA32Rg

Then it was off to the Book of Kells. BUT…. as it is Dublin and this place is just swarming with history, we had a bunch of stops and interruptions on the way to get there. First – the home of Oscar Wilde, a famous Dublin poet.

The home was donated to and restored by American College Dublin in 1998. It is used for exhibitions and you can apparently take classes in the home through the College. But you can’t take tours. So off to the next best thing! The square right across the street has this amazing smirking and lounging statue of Oscar Wilde.

As silly as I think that statue is, there were four pedestals next to it that have some of his famous quotes written on the stone. We spent quite some time reading through them.

I was going to tell you my favorite, but having read through them again, I’m not sure I can choose. So many clever thoughts!

And then off to explore the rest of the small square. Like many gardens we’ve entered recently, it was just beautiful.

And there were busts of famous people throughout the square, including this one of Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician.

I just googled Michael Collins to say something more thoughtful about him. But with just one search I was reminded that the history of Ireland, its wars and its relationship with the UK is a complex and tough history with a lot of suffering and struggle. It is also a history that I am by no means qualified to speak on and as such won’t in this blog. Any summary from me would be inadequate. Anyone who wants more info can google it or talk to Michael’s father about the subject.

Now on to something of which you can speak with one of our religious scholars that we keep on staff, Michael’s mother. The Book of Kells!

This was something that I was really excited to see and Michael was not. He had seen it the last time he was here and didn’t think it was that cool. But he was easily convinced. First of all, Trinity College is really cool. The campus is right in the heart of Dublin and despite all of the tourists, it still has that really great “college feel”. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about: the energy that you get when you walk on a campus, with lots of young people hanging out in the courtyards, discussing great (and small) things. Trinity College’s notable alumni include Oscar Wilde, Mary Robinson (not the super important Chicago lawyer – the first female President of Ireland), Samuel Beckett (RIP Beckett’s Bar in Chicago), Jonathan Swift, and a bunch of others. Trinity College has nearly three million books, some of which we saw in this amazing old library which houses around 200,000 of the library’s oldest books.

Marble busts line the room depicting authors, poets, politicians and scholars, including Socrates, Pluto, Jonathan Swift, Shakespeare, Newton… and a bunch of others.

But my favorite part was these stairs. I love these stairs.

OK, so now just a few words on the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells was written over 1000 years ago. At that time, there were less than half a million people living on the island, living along the coasts and waterways. The Irish church was made up mostly of monastic monks who lived in communities that were devoted to study, manual work and prayer. They spread the message of the church through hand written and illustrated books depicting the gospels.

The Book of Kells depicts the four gospels, written in Latin, with lavishly decorated pictures and font. There is some uncertainty regarding where the book came from and who to attribute the work to, but one thought is that it came from a monastery on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland around 561 AD, and then possibly moving with the monks to Kells, county Meath, after 806 AD, when Iona was attacked by Vikings. The book was sent to Dublin around 1653 for security during the Cromwellian war in Ireland and was at Trinity College by 1661.

It is believed that there were four main scribes for the Book of Kells who wrote the words and then three major artists who did the illustrations, although there may be some overlap between the two groups of men.

Here are some examples of decorated words from the Book of Kells. Apparently a word may recur but its design is never repeated:

Here is a copy of the portrait of the evangelist John from the Book of Kells:

Here is the description that is assigned to the picture and speaks to the thoughtfulness that was put into these illustrations:

“The double-ringed halo almost overwhelms the evangelist. Its design bears a strong resemblance to a plan of the Holy Sepulchre (tomb of Christ) in Jerusalem and the circular church built over it, as described by Arnulfo, a 7th-century pilgrim from Gaul who stopped at Iona on his return from the Holy Land.

In his right hand John holds an exaggerated quill pen, emblematic of his role as author of the gospel. His ink pot, perhaps made from a cow horn, is visible just above his right foot. The corner-pieces are filled with a geometric interlace of snakes with their heads meeting at a central point. The medieval belief that the snake was reborn when it shed its skin was a fitting analogy for the resurrection of Christ. The blue lines of the frame are extended to form interlace tendrils of foliage terminating in beast heads.

Each of the four crosses inset into the rectangular frame is filled with delicate interlace.”

That’s the first time I have ever heard a snake being compared to Jesus, but we’ll go with it for now.

You can’t tell from this picture, but apparently on the outside frame of the portrait, you can see another figure that is believed to be Jesus during the crucifixion, however, it was cropped out when the book was rebound in the 19th century. The book was rebound a handful of times, with one rebinding having done a lot of damage by just cropping out an edge of the book.

So we don’t have any pictures of the actual books. No pictures allowed in that room. So I went ahead and googled. The pages that we saw were the genealogy of Jesus from Luke and John 10:14-18. I couldn’t find a photo of the page from John, but here is a picture of the genealogy that I found:

I thought that was incredible.

Afterwards, we headed on a slow walk to the Guinness factory. First stop: the Molly Malone statue.

Molly Malone is a popular song set in Dublin that Wikipedia says is the unofficial anthem of Dublin. The song tells the fictional tale of a fishmonger who sold her seafood on the streets of Dublin, but died young of a fever. The legend has grown, as these things do, and now people say that there was a historical Molly who sold fish by day but was a prostitute at night. Another legend says she was one of the few chaste female street-hawkers of her day.

One thing we know is true: stupid tourists grabbing her have rubbed the bronze off her chest. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Enjoying our walk:

Next, we made the obligatory stop at The Temple Bar. This place was great. Now, I know it’s touristy. But it was also a lot of fun.

This sign told us to eat oysters and drink Guinness:

So we did:

It was really crowded at two in the afternoon with a ton of tourists and a few stag and hen parties, so I’m sure it’s ridiculous at nights. I’m not sure I need that experience, but I’m glad we made the stop.

Then we headed over to the Guinness Storefront.

This is something that Michael hadn’t done previously but had heard good things about, specifically, the view while drinking your beer. OK. The tour was self guided and it was fine. We’ve been on quite a few brewery tours before and I’ll say that most smaller breweries are better tours because you end up speaking with some people who are super excited about beer and what they’re doing. The exception is Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis where I’ve seen some really great tours with outstanding tour guides who give a lot of great inside information about the history not only of the company but how it relates to St. Louis as well. This was not that.

But – did you know that the word beer comes from the word baere which means barley? Me neither.

Apparently it’s only possibly true. The google machine is telling me that the more common assumption is that beer comes from the Latin word bibere which means to drink which then went to monastic Latin biber which means a drink, to old English/Dutch/German words beor/bier/bier which then became beer.

But it was a really cool space.

And they did teach you how to drink a Guinness in a tiny glass before handing over the full sized pints.

And the view of the city from the top was indeed amazing.

But there were so many tourists that people were constantly bumping into you and taking selfies. We got out of dodge as fast as we could.

Unrelated: did you know that ostriches don’t actually bury their heads in the sand?

After Guinness, we dropped into another pub to grab some food. This is a marathon, people, not a sprint. Fish and chips! The picture doesn’t look that great. But they tasted great and it was my first fish and chips in Ireland!

Then we headed to the big event for the day!!! The literary pub crawl!!!

Michael had done this tour the last time he was in town and loved it. And as I love books, this was the perfect tour for us. It started at The Duke Pub at 7:30. So we got to the bar and grabbed some pints.

The tour started with a song and then two actors went on to perform dramatic readings from a handful of Dublin writers including Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, and James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. We stopped at several pubs that were chosen for a handful of reasons. But many of the stops were relevant specifically to the novel Ulysses.

O’Neills is over 300 years old. That’s an old pub.

I would like to say that we have tons of information that I can share with you from this pub crawl. I don’t. We were drinking beers all day. My main takeaway is that I’m going to try to read Ulysses. That was actually the running joke all night that no one has ever read the entire thing. But now’s the time, if I’m ever going to do it.

What I can definitely say is that it was a blast. The actors were great. It was not hokey. And Michael took second place in the end of tour quiz. Of course he did. I would definitely recommend this tour and the next time we’re back in town, we’ll definitely be doing it again.

This is our group at the end of the night participating in the quiz:

Here is Michael with his winnings. He was really excited.

When the tour ended, we stayed at the last bar and had a great conversation with a guy named Eddie. He lives outside Dublin but was in town for the Ed Sheeran concert. Well, his wife and kids were there, while he was at his favorite bar. We talked with him for quite some time and had great conversation.

There is a big vote in Ireland on May 25, while we’re still in the country. It is a referendum to repeal anti abortion laws. And the city is littered with signs from both sides stating facts and opinions. As is the case with most heated topics, some of the facts on signs leave me wondering just how truthful they were being. This topic came up with our new friend Eddie. We hadn’t had a chance yet to talk to anyone from Ireland about the topic and we spent 20 or so minutes trying to get his opinion on the matter without suggesting our thoughts on the matter.

This conversation could have been a disaster. Once again, all three of us were a few beers in, and talking about such a charged issue is better done with a clear head. But the conversation was great. For being a really normal, working class guy, he was educated on the topic, seemed to understand both sides of the argument and seemed honestly torn between which way he’d vote. He understood the information that was being thrown around and was cautious about accepting any of it from either side at face value. Thoughtful and well informed discussion about a tough topic. How about that? We left the conversation at that and moved on to talking about other important things, like a detailed conversation about the documentary, “The Last Waltz”, about the band, The Band.

May 15-16

After about two hours of beautiful Scottish countryside and coast lines, our train pulled into Edinburgh. Immediately, this city and I got off on the right foot as the train station asked me to keep to the left. Boom! Consistency!

Plus some beautiful flowers:

We had a great little Airbnb in Leith which is the neighborhood near the docks. We had dinner at a small restaurant called Gardener’s Cottage which sat on the edge of the Royal Terrace Gardens.

Afterwards, we stopped by a pub to grab a pint and found… trivia!

Michael was pumped. In general, I have mixed feelings on trivia, but I was at least excited to see what types of questions they were going to throw out. We were too late to join officially, but played along unofficially and did pretty well. There was a question or two where we just couldn’t understand what the Scotsman was saying, and as such couldn’t answer. And then there was a question or two that were gimmes for the locals, like name the top 6 newspapers in circulation in Scotland or something like that, which we also couldn’t answer. Otherwise we had all of them. Fastest answer of the night from Michael? A question about a 1990’s movie that has been turned into musical. The answer was Sister Act, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Michael answer anything so fast. He claimed it was obvious…

The next morning Michael grabbed a run along the water and then we were off to see the city. It’s a beautiful city with rolling hills and castles right off of the main roads.

Our first stop was an incredible meal at Ting Thai Caravan which serves Thai street food. Michael ordered the Khao Mun Gai Tod – shallow fried chicken with ginger, chili, grated coconut, cucumber & shallot ajard, two brothers sauce and jasmine rice. That’s right… I took a picture of the description on the menu. I had to look up the word ajard – it’s a relish. I ordered something also, but really there is no need to mention it or any other food ever again. That’s how good this dish was. Don’t get me wrong – my curry was really good. But it was just destroyed by Michael’s. This is the only picture we have from that meal. My dish is still quite full. Michael’s has been demolished.

(Note: there is no chance that I’m never going to mention food again. However, I’ll try to be silent on the matter for a bit so I can show ample respect to this food.)

Afterwards we walked around the city for the next couple of hours. Edinburgh is a great city for Harry Potter fans, which we are. J.K. Rowling moved to Scotland in the 1990’s when she was writing Harry Potter. The city has a ton of cobble stone streets and medieval architecture that she apparently used as inspiration.

Victoria Street is not only an incredibly colorful and cute street, but it was also the main inspiration for Diagon Alley:

Apparently, there is also a grave of Thomas Riddell, inspiration for he who shall not be named, along with Elizabeth Moody and William McGonagall who likely inspired Mad-eye Moody and my personal favorite, Professor McGonagall.

The Elephant House is unofficially titled the birthplace of Harry Potter as Rowling did much of her writing here. We stopped by for a drink, but the place has been turned into a super touristy spot that was mobbed by people, so we just nabbed a photo and moved on.

There are also two schools in town that claim to resemble Hogwarts, although while walking around, it didn’t seem obvious to me. Also apparently these schools sort students into houses, just like Hogwarts.

And a dude playing bagpipes, because of course he is:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_9881.mov

Before flying out the next day we headed back to Ting Thai Caravan for some more Khao Mun Gai Tod. Still ate it too fast to take any pictures. Still really delicious.

May 18-14

London is a cool city. This is our second visit to London and I think both of us will agree that we love it more this time than last. Last time was great! But there was a lot of tourist attractions and things to see in a very short amount of time. This visit, we didn’t do a single touristy thing which was great… well… mostly we didn’t do a single touristy thing. We did get our picture taken here:

And geek out about our train out of King’s Cross Station:

But moving on. Our first night in we grabbed a delicious Thai meal at a restaurant in Soho called Kiln.

This food was incredible and we highly recommend it, even with the super long, nearly two hour wait to get in. While waiting, we made good use of our time by having a pint at a pub that George Orwell visited.

The next morning, we woke up slow and went to Regent’s Park for Michael to get a run and for me to meet up with MP – a Chicago friend who recently moved to London with her husband and her 14 month old, Maggie. I met MP and Maggie at the playground and we got to the serious business of moving at a toddler pace for the next couple of days. Maggie had just learned how to walk so we mainly just let her walk super slow and follow around. It was a great opportunity to relax and catch up with an old friend.

Regent’s Park is an incredible space with the Queen’s garden, a zoo, ponds, lots of running paths and some fields for school children to play in. Later that afternoon, Michael met up with us and then Dave, after work. Apparently some people have to go to work on Fridays. We, however, go to the park with Maggie.

On Saturday we did some more of the same, runs, coffee and park time! If it ain’t broke, am I right?

Then Michael and I headed down to Brixton to meet up with Gabi, one of Michael’s friends from college. Brixton is a really cool part of town, south of the city, that historically was occupied by Caribbean and African immigrants which gives the neighborhood a lot of character, along with great shops and delicious food.

After some Jamaican for lunch, we had the opportunity to grab a few beers in Pop Brixton, an area that reminded us a bit of the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town, with some eclectic shops and plenty of places to sit around eating and drinking.

We left Gabi to head back to Marylebone for dinner with Dave and MP.

On Sunday, MP and I spent some time at the park and buying glitter stickers with Maggie while the guys went to see Tottenham play Leicester City at Wembley (which is where the national team plays as well). It was a great game to see, with Tottenham, the home team, winning 5 to 4. That is a ton of goals to be scored in just one game and made for a lot of excitement.

Later that evening, Michael and I headed down towards the river to meet up with Jackie, one of my closest friends from home and her husband, David, who are in town for a wedding. David is from the UK and as such subject to all of my annoying questions regarding what I consider to be inconsistencies in London. Ex: why do you drive on the left side of the road, but all signage in the underground asks that you walk on the right side? Or why is Thames pronounced “Tems”?

We grabbed dinner at DH Mexico which was ok – good Mexican for London standards?

The next day we set a record in number of steps squeezed into one day by four people.

We started by visiting the V&A museum where we saw a bunch of Greco Roman sculptures, some Raphael works and an exhibit called “Fashioned from Nature” which covered two floors. The first floor spoke to how humans over the past few hundred years have fashioned clothing and accessories out of animals and plants without much concern for the effects of the corresponding pollution, slavery or decimation of entire species.

Fun fact:

And this:

Who knew?!?!

The second floor spoke to fashion designers that are now using renewable sources and alternatives.

This is bead work. Isn’t that incredible? It legitimately looks like fur until you get right up to it.

And these shoes. I can give you no information about them, but aren’t they insane?

Afterwards, we headed to Herrod’s, the most incredible department store I’ve ever been to. It had a gourmet food court with all types of intricate desserts and snacks. It also has a world class wine shop, which was fun because after our trip to Alsace and Hermitage, we actually were familiar with some of the bottles. And then normal department store stuff like leather loafers that have cats sewn on them and cost thousands of pounds. Put those down! You break them…

We didn’t buy much, but all of us had a great time window shopping and spending time together.

Some of you may know that this next weekend is the royal wedding, which meant that London was getting fancy for it with lots of flags and royal guards practicing parades through the streets.

Another thing that I want to point out is public transportation. Michael and I, having spent our adult lives in Chicago, New York and the DC area, have a special place in our hearts for public transportation. This is one of the reasons why I love London so much.

I saw this plaque the first morning after we had arrived and immediately was just so excited to be there. London has a combination of underground and overground train lines that all come together to create a very complex and thorough yet easy to navigate city of public transportation. There are few cities in the world that we’ve visited that are this well connect. The public transportation in Mexico City and New York City both can compete. It is definitely a level of infrastructure and city planning that you just don’t see in most places. Thank you, London, for being so easy to visit! There is no doubt we’ll be back. And thank you to all of our great friends who spent time with us. It felt a bit like being home doing “normal” things like meeting for lunch, hanging out at the park, grabbing dinner, shopping and watching a few minutes of Gilmore Girls. We will see you all again soon!

May 8-10

After arriving back in Croatia from Bosnia, the three of us went down to the pier for a meal at Peppers and a glass of wine at a new winery/wine bar called Skar Winery. The winery was great – it had only been open a few days and the owner/wine maker was there to talk about his process and recommend a glass.

The meal was less impressive with the worst service we’ve received since eating at El Barco Mariscos in Chicago back when we lived in Noble Square. But the food was good and it was a nice final meal before mom’s long trip back to the States.

The next morning, Josip took me and mom to the airport early in the morning where she grabbed her first of four flights back home. It was a great visit! Thanks for coming out and meeting up with us, mom!

Michael and I had two more days in Dubrovnik. I would like to say that we really lived it up and did a bunch of new things, but in reality we relaxed, went for a few runs, and ate at all the same restaurants that we had eaten at with mom earlier in the visit… except for Peppers.

This is what Old Town looks like when you go for a run at 6 in the morning. A huge difference from the cruise ship mob by 10am. The city had a very calm feeling to it. There were locals getting their stores and restaurants ready for the day, and me.

Also we saw this snail!

We did do one new adventure and took a boat out of Old Town to Lokrum Island. The island is fairly small – only 1.3 miles long and we spent a few hours exploring the old castle, the monastery and the hiking paths.

It was a rainy day, but a great way to get out and explore the area a bit more.

Now we’re off to London!

May 7

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms, sisters, sister-in-laws, aunts, and mom friends who are reading this! We love you all and are so grateful for all you do!

Now back to business. Since we had a few days in the area, we decided to take a day trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We had an early morning pickup by our driver, Marco, and joined another five tourists for the trip.

What I didn’t realize (although I would have if I had looked a bit harder at a map) is that Bosnia and Herzegovina actually has a small portion of the coast line, bordered on both sides by Croatia. So when we drove up the coast, we actually left Croatia, entered B&H, and then re-entered Croatia to continue our drive to Medjugorje. I had never heard of this town, but mom had and was very excited to visit. Medjugorie is a popular Catholic pilgrim site because of visions of the Virgin Mary to six local children in 1981.

The town has a complex history, as much of the country does. In the Second World War, 66 Franciscans were killed in Herzegovina. Some of these 66 were burned to death in a garden outside a monastery in Medjugorie. This was the place where, in 1981, the children began reporting the apparitions of Mary. She called for prayer, conversion, fasting, penance and peace. Two of these children, now adults, still claim to receive messages from the Virgin Mary every month.

In 1981, Medjugorie was a part of communist Yugoslavia. Once state authorities got wind of the reports of the apparitions, they forbid pilgrims from visiting. The parish priest was also imprisoned for a “nationalist plot”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I think he ignored the state’s requests to squash this pilgrimage site.

Medjugorie is now Europe’s third most important apparition site with over 1 million people visiting each year. Some visitors have reported visual phenomena related to the sun, including the sun spinning in the sky, changing color, and having figures such as hearts and crosses around the sun. Since people are not the brightest, some visitors have walked away with eye damage trying to seek such an experience. During peak pilgrimage season, they celebrate huge outdoor masses at this altar.

The Catholic Church, after many years of saying “who knows” and an extensive investigation, is now saying that they believe the apparitions from 1981, but have no comment on the more recent visions.

After a short visit, we continued our trip to Mostar, the fifth largest city in B&H. Mostar was named after the mostari or “bridge keepers” who guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva river. The old bridge was built in the 16th century by the Ottomans and is one of B&H’s most recognizable landmarks.

As with most cities in Europe, there is a ton of history. Although the city had been there much longer, Mostar had its name by 1474 relating to a wooden bridge that was used by traders, soldiers and travelers. This bridge made Mostar a trade route between the Adriatic and central Bosnia which was rich in minerals to trade.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1566 in stone, as ordered by the Sultan, and designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student of a famous Ottoman architect. Apparently, it was made clear to him that if he did not succeed, he would lose his head for it. Hayruddin practiced his structure on a nearby crossing before starting the main bridge. That first bridge is still standing today although somehow we didn’t get a picture of it.

The finished product, at 92 feet long and 66 feet high, was a wonder at the time. Then stuff happened: Austria-Hungary took control over B&H in 1878 until after WWI in 1918 when it became part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Then it became part of Yugoslavia, at which point Mostar was recognized as the unofficial capital of Herzegovina.

After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in April 1992, Mostar was besieged by the Yugoslav People’s Army, or the JNA. The Croatians and Bosniaks retook the city after a few months, but numerous religious buildings and most of the bridges were destroyed during the fighting. Bosniaks, per google, are Bosnian Muslims. Croatians are mostly Roman Catholic. Later that year, infighting began between the Catholics and the Muslims within Mostar and in early 1993 the Croat-Bosniak War escalated and divided the city along ethnic lines. During this war within a war, they basically stopped fighting Yugoslavia and just fought amongst themselves. In November 1993, the Stari Most bridge was destroyed. The Croat-Bosniak conflict ended in 1994, so then the people of Mostar got back to fighting against Yugoslavia together. The Bosnian War ended with the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Roughly 2000 people died in Mostar during the war. I’m not sure how many of those were from the Bosnian War and how many were from the Croat-Bosniak War.

There are still some remains of the damage done during the war, although most of the city has been rebuilt.

We started our visit to the city with the Franciscan Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. Apparently a church was built on this site in 1866 and was destroyed in 1992 during the war. It was rebuilt in 2000.

I’m not sure from google research if this was fully up and running since 2000 and then was just gutted again to renovate or if it has just taken this long to construct.

Then I got to high five this pope on an egg. I think it’s a pope at least. Francis? JP2? We weren’t sure…

Our guide then took us to the grounds of a Jewish Synagogue. The Synagogue is no longer there, but is scheduled to be rebuilt. Jews came to B&H during the Spanish Inquisition to escape persecution. When they arrived over 500 years ago, Bosnia was one of the few areas in Europe that welcomed Jews. Down from the high of 14-22 thousand in 1941, it is estimated that 1000 Jews still live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the Ottoman Empire, Jews had autonomy and were able to buy real estate, build synagogues, and trade. They were granted full equality under Ottoman law by 1856.

The Bosnian Jewish community remained prominent after the formation of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War, the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941 and persecution of Serbs, Jews and Romani people began. In September 1941, deportation of Jews (and Serbs) began, mostly to Auschwitz or concentration camps in Croatia. By the end of the war, 10,000 of the 14,000 Bosnian Jews were murdered.

However, our guide was excited to tell us that the Bosnian Muslim population did helped many Bosnian Jews escape. Mostar now has a very small Jewish population, but the town is hopeful that with the building of a new synagogue, Mostar’s proud tradition of multi ethnicity can be fully restored.

Our guide pointed out that if you look look in a straight line you have the Catholic Church, then the site of the Synagogue, then a Mosque Minaret and then an Eastern Orthodox Church (which is what most Serbs identify as) all in a row. He then said in regard to having the Synagogue rebuilt to complete this line through the city: “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”. It was very touching.

After entering old town, we saw the “practice” bridge and walked through the market before heading over to the main attraction: Stari Most. The bridge is truly beautiful.

There is a tradition of men diving off the bridge in exchange for cash, but we didn’t see anyone jump.

Views from the bridge:

After crossing, we entered a shop and watched a video about the bridge during the Bosnia war. The shop sold gorgeous artwork, tea sets and platters:

The video, however, was heartbreaking to watch both the damage to the city and to the bridge. I definitely need to get a book on the Bosnian War and the Yugoslavia War. Too much that I do not know about it.

We walked around the market a bit more before heading to a late lunch overlooking the bridge. A lot of the goods being sold reminded us of things we had seen in Greece, Turkey and Morocco, which makes since since Mostar was part of a trade route.

And, of course, gelato before we headed back to the bus to return to Dubrovnik:

On the way back we stopped by a random castle and did a quick hike up for these spectacular views:

And then we were back to Croatia (then back to Bosnia and Herzegovina then back again to Croatia).

It was a great day trip and we were really thrilled that we got to learn so much about the country and the area in such a short period of time. But as it is with most things in life, the more you know, the more you realize what you don’t know.