A Tale of Two Cities Part Two- Belfast

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. I only say this because I wasn't sure about all this for a while when I first learned about Belfast. This trip was also very educational and we hope to get into some of that later.

The reason we picked Belfast was because my good friend, Melanie is from Belfast and her dad, Maurice, and step-mom, Gwen, still live there and Mel and her husband, Chris, were going to be visiting them after Christmas. We were so excited for this reunion because Melanie and I have so much fun together. Mel also has a brother, Matt, that is around our age that lives there too. We had met Maurice, Gwen and Matt in Atlanta when they had visited and we just loved them - especially with those accents. So after a few days in Dublin we got on a bus for two-and-a-half hours and ended up in Belfast. When we got off the bus we saw Melanie and it was a joyous reunion. We went back to Maurice and Gwen's house in a city seven miles outside Belfast called Carryduff or as Matt likes to call it, "the Duff". We had a great time catching up, laughing, exchanging small gifts, eating and drinking into the night. 

The next morning we were up early to head to the Northern Coast and see the spectacular sight that is the "Giant's Causeway". It was even an adventure getting ready in the morning since there was only one bathroom for six people. We managed to do it and had wheels up at 9am. We got there around 11 and as soon as we stepped out of the car we almost got knocked over by the wind. Once we recovered we made our way down a hill and out to see the Giant's Causeway. There are many myths about the Causeway, one being that a Giant named Finn MacCool built the steps to go to Scotland. The truth is that the column looking stepping stones where formed 60 million years ago by the cooling and shrinking of molten lava from a vast volcanic eruption. The Giant's Causeway is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I don't know if the pictures will do any justice to the stones or the extreme weather conditions we endured during our visit. I will say it was worth all of it. This is one of those things that you just have to see. It was amazing. The other fun thing was they had turned it into a scavenger hunt by having you look for things in the stones like the Giant's boot, the wishing chair, the organ, etc. After about an hour-and-a-half of cold wind and rain we were ready to get warm. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at the Causeway hotel and it was here I enjoyed my first Magner's cider. The Irish might not be able to make some good beer, but they make fantastic cider.  On the ride back we drove all along the coast and Maurice was our personal tour guide. With the wind blowing it made for crazy coastline conditions, but a good show for us. That evening we enjoyed a home-cooked meal by Gwen and this was the first of many home-cooked meals, it was awesome!

Our fabulous tour guide, Maurice and our good friends, Melanie and Chris.

Just getting started!

All bundled up and me looking like a bubble gum colored mushroom.

The Giant's Causeway

The wishing chair! Even though Justin looks like he is taking a dump.

The Giant's boot. Also the sight for one of Maurice's many paintings.

Lunch at the Causeway Hotel

The next day we headed into the city of Belfast and did a little shopping and sight seeing. Right outside the city hall they had a ferris wheel, but we are talking about a deluxe one. We went into the city hall to witness a couple taking wedding photos and also took pictures of some stained glass windows. Belfast is a very cute city that has a lot of history. I enjoyed all of the great pubs and restaurants, each with its own personality. This was New Year's Eve day and Gwen and Mel had set up a reservation at Mel's favorite bar, The Crown Bar. She had told me all about the Crown bar and it did not disappoint. They reserved something called a snug. This is an enclosed booth with a door, it was like our own little space. Everyone was there and it was a really good way to start the day off.  

Belfast city hall and the deluxe ferris wheel

Stained glass windows in city hall.

Our "snug" door

The whole crew sitting in our snug!

My mom would love this place. It was made for her royalty.

After lunch we decided it would be a good idea to go home and rest up for the late night. Gwen cooked up some Shepard's pie that rocked my face off. Around eight we headed over to Matt's to meet some of his friends and for Justin to enjoy Metallica Guitar Hero. While we were there I met two of Matt's friends from Dublin that will be moving to Newport Beach, CA in February. For those of you that don't know, that is the city next to my hometown. What a small world. I told them all the things they need to see and places they need to eat. (Las Barcas of course!) It was good fun, but around 10:00 the boys shipped out for a much crazier night than ours. We all decided we wanted to have a quieter New Year's Eve so we headed back to the Duff to celebrate. America has Dick Clark and Ryan Seacreast for New Year's Eve well the UK has Jools Holland. This was the best NYE show I have ever seen. Jools had tons of musicians from all different styles and they played up to, and well into the New Year. I had never heard of some of the artists, but they were fantastic. They had some you would know like Boy George (can't sing anymore), Tom Jones (can definitely still sing and rock it out) and Paulo Nuttini.  A few new ones I liked were Florence and the Machine and Dizzee Rascal. There was hardly any talking and lots of  upbeat music. So we rocked into 2010 and as the clock stuck midnight there were hugs, kisses and Maurice leading us in a dance around the coffee table. It was a special night spent with great friends. We ended the night with some Bailey's and headed to bed around 2am.

Looking good for New Year's Eve! Silk shirts were in this year if you didn't get the memo.

The next day Maurice took us around the city looking at all of the murals painted around the city. I will have Justin give you more of the history about all this later (he is reading a book on it), but to make it short throughout the city of Belfast areas that were Catholic and areas that were Protestant have murals painted either as memorials or for patriotism. It was quite interesting and Maurice again was a great tour guide as he has lived through "the Troubles." From the pictures you will be able to see some of the ridiculousness and also some of the pride. Like I said it was very educational and even made us want to buy a book which we are reading right now. We were a little too young to really grasp this whole event when it was happening and now having been there and talked to people from there I am starting to understand more. This is one of the reasons I love traveling - learning. You can only read and hear so much, but by actually going there it truly opens your eyes to the real history. After touring we stayed down in the city and Mel, Chris, Justin and I enjoyed a relaxing lunch and a few pubs. 

Murals of Belfast

Bobby Sands memorial. He was the the first person to die during the hunger strike.

Titanic mural. Did you know that the Titanic was built in Belfast?  Locals claim "it was fine when it left Belfast".

Now doesn't that look inviting?  Right across the street from the Day's Inn.

Cloth Ear pub

Ferris wheel at night.

The following day we all hopped on the local bus and Maurice and Gwen treated us to one of the best meals for lunch at Deane's Deli. It was a famous chef from Belfast named Michael Deane and the food was to die for. Justin had to have the fish and chips while I enjoyed some organic salmon. From Deane's we went to Morrison's and had to have some Irish whiskey. Man that will put some hair on your chest. At least we can say we did it. We headed home because we knew the next day we had a full day of traveling starting at 2am. We said our goodbyes and honestly I was sad to leave. Maurice and Gwen were fabulous hosts and we felt like one of their own. It was so great to see Mel and Chris and just pick up right where we left off. 

Deane's Deli.

All the essentials: Guinness, Magner's cider and Irish Whiskey - Bushmill's of course.

The trip home was a bit crazy with a two and a half hour bus ride to Dublin to catch a plane at 6:50am. We arrived at the Dublin airport at 5:15 am and I have never seen an airport that crowded. We got on our plane and towards the end of the flight we are told we couldn't land in Frankfurt due to heavy snow and so we had to land in Dusseldorf and take another bus two and a half hours to Frankfurt. What a day, but more than anything what a trip.

I have decided in all the places I travel or live I am going to miss things. From Dublin I am going to miss the music. From Northern Ireland I am going to miss the funny sayings like, "Fancy a chinkie?" and, "a wee". Also the Magners cider and british chocolate will be up there too. I know Justin will miss the Carryduff meat and veg.

Carryduff meat and veg one of Justin's favorite's.

A Tale of Two Cities Part One- Dublin

After Christmas we were kind of over Frankfurt, so we flew over to see Ireland and Northern Ireland for about a week.  So, what can I say about Dublin, which is where this journey starts off?

            Dublin is a good-sized city that was relatively easy to walk around.  The bus system was more complicated than hieroglyphics, but we managed to make it to all of the big sites.  On our first day we walked down Grafton Street, which was a nice little pedestrian shopping street with several street musicians “busking” for change.  That was a new word that was added to our vocab just before the trip – we’ve all seen it in a downtown area or subway but might not’ve known what to call it.  As it turns out, on Christmas Eve (a mere three days before we got there), one of our favorite musicians Glen Hansard was out busking with other Dublin musicians for charity and none other than Bono himself showed up to support the cause.  No joke – saw it on youtube.  Anyways, Grafton Street is awesome and you never know what you’ll get.

Grafton Street - where it all goes down

            Also on our first day we checked out an Irish pantomime at a really old theater called the “Gaiety”.  A “panto”, as the locals call it, is basically geared towards a family setting, is usually a children’s story (in our case it was “Jack and the Beanstalk”), and is a combination of a play with singing and dancing, lots of humor, and audience participation.  It was very well done and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  As far as audience participation…….we found ourselves having to sing and dance to a Hannah Montana song (unfortunately it wasn’t “Party in the U.S.A”).  Lots of fun and it is a tradition for families to go around Christmas time, so we felt like locals for a moment.

Pantomimes - much more entertaining than regular mimes

            I know that there are all kinds of jokes consisting of Irish people being drunk and liking to drink so I know that’s a stereotype that’s out there, but seriously……….I’ve never seen more bars and pubs in one city in my life.  Now to be fair, pubs seem to be works of art, rather than raunchy watering holes.  We got to see our fair share and they were all unique and some of them were hundreds of years old, but they all seemed to be really cool in their own way.  We were also able to find a couple of places that had free live traditional Irish music which was incredible.  I’m a big bluegrass fan and this was basically where the roots of bluegrass came from, so it was a real treat.  Check out some of the videos below for a sample – the one video has several clips from different places.

Inside the "Vat House" listening to live music

"Bruxeles" pub (our first experience in a true Irish pub)

"Vat House"

            Dublin is home to a ridiculously old college by the name of Trinity College.  It was founded in 1592 and it’s a nice little place to walk around.  It’s also home to a really neat library which houses the “Book of Kells”, which is apparently a really old Irish manuscript containing the four Gospels hand-copied and beautifully illustrated in Latin by monks around the year 800.  That’s right, the 9^th century, so we’re talking a really old book here.  Unfortunately, since the university was closed for holidays, so was the library during our visit so we didn’t get to see it.  That was a trip low point, but it got better.

Trinity College entrance

just inside the gates, in front of the Campanile (much older than the GT "shaft")

False advertisement

interesting sculpture outside library at Trinity

            No one in their right mind would come to Dublin without visiting the Guinness St. James Gate Brewery – the home of Guinness.  We were no exception.  To be honest………..neither of us really like Guinness very much, but have you ever tried a Coke at the World of Coke?  Ever had a burrito in Mexico?  Ever had tea and crumpets in England?  A 4-piece meal at the Big Chicken?  ……then you know what I’m talking about – you’ve got to do it.  The Guinness complex was originally founded in 1759 by Arthur Guinness, where he signed a 9000-year lease on the original grounds at £45/year to start his business.  He started out making Ales, but switched soon thereafter to making stout which was growing more popular in England.  Today the St. James’s Gate Brewery sits on 64 acres in Dublin and produces around 3 million pints per day!  The Guinness Storehouse tour was fantastic and walked you through the whole process, business and marketing history, etc. much like the World of Coke in Atlanta.  At the end, of course, you can enjoy a free pint at the top of the museum (shaped like a pint glass) in the “Gravity Bar” that overlooks Dublin and gives you a 360-degree view of the city.  Although it takes approximately 2-minutes to pour a pint of Guinness, it was the best one I’ve ever had.  The other pints of Guinness I sampled in the pubs were also pretty good, however I am convinced that it can’t be done right anywhere else.  If you like Guinness you need to plan your pilgrimage to Mecca sometime – trust me.

Mecca for Guinness lovers

Guinness advertisement characters over the years

the perfect pour - approx. 2 minutes

the best Guinness we've ever had overlooking Dublin

            Before we headed out of Dublin we were also able to check out a couple of churches: namely the Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church interior

Christ Church Cathedral interior (catacombs underneath actually have a mummified cat and rat that were both trapped inside the old church organ)

St. Patrick's Cathedral - named after the obvious, who apparently is credited for spreading Christianity to Ireland; this park beside the church is said to have been the very spot where he baptized a bunch of Irish people a long time ago

St. Patrick's Cathedral

            On our last day we visited the National Art Gallery, which was sub-par for European art museums, but we really enjoyed the work of Jack B. Yeats.  Couldn’t take any pictures, but check him out if you get a chance.  We also took a brief walk through St. Stephen’s Green, which is a beautiful park and would’ve been more enjoyable had it not been freezing cold and raining during our visit.  We did manage to pull off a couple of photos to give you an idea though.

St. Stephen's Green - most likely a really beautiful place in the summer

            We will definitely make it back to Dublin sometime – perhaps on the way to the South and Western parts of Ireland, which we’ve heard is amazing.

Christmas in Krautland

Check out this video from Christmas Eve in Frankfurt.  About four times per year a collaboration of 10 churches participate in the "pealing of the bells" in which they ring the mess out of 50+ bells in harmony for a solid 30 minutes straight.  It was nice joining thousands of people gathering with family, busting out champagne and whatnot to celebrate.

We also started a new tradition and made a Christmas poem entitled 

"Christmas in Krautland."

It all started Friday, with an absence of shopping,

the day after Thanksgiving, our Jackets were flopping,

As we watched games on the big screen with friends all around,

in the city of Tuebingen, at 5 a.m. there was hardly a sound,

We knew this December would not be the same,

but German traditions....trust me, aren't lame,

Marisa had the first taste, in the town of Braunschweig,

when she attended Berlitz training and tried the gluehwein,

Then it was off to Nuernberg to see one of the best,

but it didn't quite match up when we compared it to the rest,

Nuernberg was our first Christmas market, but not our last,

hanging out with Katy and Ryan sure was a blast,

German Santa told us about Jesus and over us he prayed,

he really liked America even though Connecticut was the only place he'd stayed,

Work Christmas parties were definitely highlights

food, conversation and music made for great nights,

We decorated the apartment with stockings and a plastic tree,

sending Christmas cards and gifts to the States sure wasn't free,

The ICF choir rocked "Mary did you know?"

and it was really a blessing to get a little snow,

Our Well Fed small group shared a meal and the Christmas Story,

then later shared Feuerzangenbowle and basked in its glory,

The lebkuchen was a treat that was not to be missed,

it only took three days of shopping to get everything on our list,

Attending Mass and listening to bells made up our Christmas Eve,

on Christmas Day we had some lamb and from our apartment did not leave,

All in all this Christmas in Germany has been a pleasant surprise,

and thank God for skype that's allowed us to see family with our own eyes.

German Christmas Traditions

Our friends Mae and Buck had asked us to send them some German Christmas traditions because at the campus ministry they work at in Thailand, they were celebrating Christmas around the world. Since we live in Germany we should be experts right? Well it did give a good reason to ask all our German friends some traditions they partake in every year. Some things are very similar, but some are new and very enjoyable. We thought we would share a few we have discovered this year. I don't know if all of these traditions are actually practiced, but I liked them. Most of them are definitely a staple in a German Christmas.


1.  Advent - this is a major part of the culture here, where they start 4 sundays before christmas and count down the days until christmas with an advent calendar (started november 29th this year).  most kids have an advent calendar and get to open a little window for each day, revealing a small toy or candy.  they also make advent wreaths out of fir or pine trees and light four candles which all have meanings on each sunday leading up to christmas.

2.  Christmas Markets - we've talked about these plenty on our blog, but they basically include lots of handmade crafts such as ornaments, carvings, candles, sausages, etc.

3.  Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and Gluhwein - seems to be served at all markets and is a seasonal treat here

4.  Christkindle - an angellic figure that brings presents on christmas eve (called "Heiligabend", or Holy Eve); the way it works, is the family goes to a christmas mass or service while one family member stays at home and decorates the tree and puts the gifts under the tree.  When the children come home, the door is locked and they cannot enter until they hear a bell ring, signifying that the christkindle has left.  They walk in to a home lit only by the lights on the tree (or candles).  the family sings christmas carols ("silent night" is the most popular), play music on flutes and/or guitars, and opens gifts together - the gift exchange is called "Bescherung"

5.  St. Nikolaus - while Santa Claus is not a traditional figure here, St. Nikolaus day is December 6th and features a santa claus looking figure that delivers gifts and sweets to children around Germany; traditionally children put boots ("Nikolaus Stiefel" or nikolaus boots) on their front porch filled with carrots and hay for the horses (not reindeer) - if the children have been good, then they will find their boots filled with fruit, nuts, candy, and small gifts; however, if they haven't been good they will find a tree branch (the U.S. has a larger supply of coal i think)  **note:  ze Germans seem to really like to make a distinction here that the "Christkindle" brings the presents on christmas eve and is more of a christlike figure, and the santa claus type figure is completely separate; Santa Claus is actually another figure, known as "Weihnachtsman"

6.  Food - the traditional meal usually consists of duck, goose or turkey and is eaten on christmas day; on christmas eve they eat sausage and potato salad.

Stüttgart Christmas Market

Christmas is definitely a time for family to be together, so last weekend we headed down to Stüttgart to visit Marisa’s uncle and aunt one more time before the holiday.  The weekend started off great, with a beautiful train ride down where we could watch the sunrise and the snow-covered landscape pass by our window.  In general it was a relaxing weekend where we were able to watch movies and college football, eat tacos, and stock up on some supplies from the local military base.  The highlight, by far, was the Stüttgart Christmas market on Sunday before we headed home.

Beautiful sunrise on our train ride

Marisa being artsy with the camera

Having gluehwein w/uncle John and his landlady at a local fundraiser for the town elementary school - children sang and a band played and it was way too cold to stay longer than 30 minutes - especially with no handschuhe! (they call "gloves" literally "hand shoes" in German)

                  We’ve been able to see a few different Christmas markets this year, but we both agreed that Stüttgart had the biggest and best of the season.  You would’ve had to have been there to appreciate how massive this market was – I would venture to say that Stüttgart is to Christmas markets, what Munich is to Oktoberfest.  The other thing that set it apart was the variety of the goods that were sold and the food that was served.  We all enjoyed regional food (which I always eat when I’m in Swabia) such as Maultaschen, a type of German ravioli, and Käsespatzle, a type of German mac’n cheese.  For Marisa’s uncle, John, it was his first experience with Christmas markets and he was like a kid in a candy store.  We all had a nice time and we left Stüttgart in great spirits.

Our first steps into the market - John is sporting his Stuttgart VFB soccer scarf.  It's too bad that they are a 1st division team that will finish in the bottom two spots of the league this year, so that means that they will be bumped down into 2nd division next season.  It's the equivalent of the Atlanta Braves having a bad year and getting sent down to the AAA league to work out their issues and maybe earn their way back up to playing in the majors.  I love that about pro sports here.  I think there should be such a system in American sports.

Anybody like model trains?  I would be more into them if I could ride them like this one.

The whole group with Gluehwein (again....it was really cold outside)

We were graced with some snow as we walked through the market, which made it all the more pleasant. This nutcracker had a nut that kept going into his mouth and magically popped out of his belly button again.  The nut was never actually cracked though - as far as I could tell.

Modest Needs- Seeing a need, meeting a need.

I saw this really awesome article on CNN.com today and I thought I would share it. It came in a section title Giving in Focus: 12 Days of Goodness and I just loved that. As a former fundraiser I have a huge heart for people trying to help people especially financially. I love the thought of someone having a small idea and then all of a sudden it just blows up. As you all know times are a little difficult, but one thing to keep in mind is that even $5 can make a big difference. Check out the article.

And check out the website at http://www.modestneeds.org/

Thanks for letting me share.