Belfast and the Peace Walls

Thursday we went to Belfast and did a bus tour there.  We had heard that there really wasn’t much to do or see in Belfast, but we had gotten combo tickets to the two cities the day before. 

I ended up liking the Belfast tour waaay more than the Dublin one (hard to imagine after my unending praise for Dublin yesterday right?).  There weren’t as many old buildings but the history was crazy!  I don’t know how much you know about the unrest between the Unionists (Protestants) and the Nationalists (Catholics).  (The tour guide assured us that it was a political conflict, and not a religious one, and that the two different sides just happen to be supported by the two major religious groups.

Here are the peace walls.  The tour guide told us before we saw them that they weren’t anything like the Berlin Wall, but when we finally saw them, I wasn’t really sure what she meant.  I suppose she just meant that the city wasn’t divided exactly in half like Berlin was, but there’s a wall dividing the different communities!  I thought it was pretty crazy.  I mean, the conflicts aren’t what they used to be, but they still close the gates at night!

Each side of the wall was fascinating, because they had bomb sites or murals that vilified/glorified the same people from the different perspectives. 

Here’s one side’s murals.  I think this was on the Unionist side.

I thought it was really interesting.  Kate’s grandma didn’t like it very much though. 

Probably the funniest part of the tour was about the Europa Hotel.

This hotel is the most bombed hotel in Europe.  They’ve found something like 70 bombs there, but only 37 or something have actually gone off.  They started giving out commemorative ties to the guests in the hotel who were there when a bomb went off, and the tour guide told us that there was once an American tourist who wanted a tie so bad that he stayed there until a bomb went off- 5 or 6 weeks!

Ireland! Dublin

Tuesday we headed out to Ireland.  When we got to the airport, I was excited because this was the first time I’ve ever gotten to go out to the airport grounds to get into my plane.

We got to stay in a Marriott in Dublin because President worked for them for a really long time, and that was probably the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in.

Wednesday morning we went to ZONE CONFERENCE!  I was really excited.  The mission’s focus right now is Preach My Gospel and so they split up into smaller groups and played PMG chase.  Kate and I participated, but we didn’t compete.  Kate did really well- I came in a pretty consistent 4th place.  But sometimes I did really well!  I thought I did well anyway, for having never read it.  It was very fun, anyway.

We left at lunchtime to tour the oh so exciting city of Dublin.  I wasn’t really a fan.  I mean, it’s a cool city, but I was excited about seeing the landscapes and such.  The best part about the tour was that almost all of the doors in the city were painted really bright colors.  It was really pretty, but made even better when the guide told us that it was because when Queen Victoria died, everyone painted their doors black out of respect “but,” said the tour guide, “when have the Irish ever shown any respect?”  so they painted them all of those different colors out of rebellion.  I loved that.

We went to Dublin Castle (every first Wednesday of the month is free apparently) which was cool, but the best part was that there were huge sand castles in the courtyard that were done by professionals.  They had some theme, but we couldn’t figure it out.

That night we saw Riverdance.  I thought I would enjoy it for about 10 minutes and then realize that it was just kind of the same thing over and over again. But I was blown away at how awesome it was.

I was kept interested the entire time and I wasn’t ready for it to end when it did.  It wasn’t all dancing- there were a few choir numbers and I enjoyed that just as much as the dancing.

The Griffiths were so nice to take us to that- I don’t think I ever would have gone if it had just been me or my family.

I love cows.

I love cows. I love everything about them, athough that statement may only be completely true due to my lack of sufficient olfactory senses.

Scotland is full of cows. One more reason that I love this country so much.

On the way back from Anstruther, we were taking the scenic route, and while on this tiny little road, we passed a fence with all these beautiful brown cows lined up at the fence just watching the cars pass.  Look at these guys!

I got out of the car and approached them while they watched me intently. Then I reached down to grab some grass to feed them and they practically fell over they were running so fast to get away from me.  As Kate described it, “they were running away faster than their little hooves could take them so they were falling all over each other".”  It was hilarious!  But sad, because I wanted to be their friend.

So I got back in the car, but turned around to see this!

How could I possibly leave them!  They were so curious.  They just want to know what’s going on!  I got back out of the car and they all headed over.  Although this entirely breaks my theory of cows and their lack of emotion, I just loved them all the more. 

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The most beautiful dairy cows are all over Scotland but the best are the Highland Cows (pronounced coo).  I have been wanting to see one ever since I’ve been here and I finally got to yesterday!

Look at him!

Cows are the greatest.  One day I want to have one. 

Scotland!

I guess I actually have to start updating my blog again since mom isn't covering everything for me anymore.

I am in Scotland! The second greatest country in the world, as far as I'm concerned at this moment in time. I've always wanted to go to Scotland. What are museums and monuments and shopping outlets to lakes and hills and castles?

Monday we drove up the east coast a ways to St. Andrews Cathedral and Anstruther.  

We stopped and got some strawberries; Sister Griffiths says they are the best strawberries in the world.  However, we forgot about them until we were back from Ireland, and so I guess I shall never know. 

We also made a stop at St. Andrews Club, the first golf course in the world. My excitement for anything golf probably overwhelmed everyone there.  :)

Then we went to St. Andrews Cathedral, a ruin in Fife.  It used to be the seat of the archbishop of St. Andrews or something, who knows.  There wasn’t much left of it, but what was left was really beautiful.  

   

I really like the cemeteries here and in England.  A nice break from the ones in Utah, where it’s just a plate on the ground, although I think I prefer the Utah ones overall.

 

Anstruther, a cute little fishing town on the east coast of Scotland.

Kate’s cute grandparents.  I love these two!

They have a fish and chips shop there that has won a whole bunch of awards so we went to get some.  It was haddock, so it really didn’t even taste much like fish, just like I like it!

 

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Facebook Picture Comments

Whenever I log onto Facebook and I have over 10 notifications, I know either Kara or Mom has gotten on and seen one of my new photo albums…

I love my family.

San Francisco!

We decided to go to San Francisco on Wednesday, the last day I was in California.  On the way there, we saw a big woody hill and all I wanted to do was go there.  So we went to check Albany Hill out!

It was a really cool hill because it was mostly deserted, especially at the top.  Although through the trees, you could see the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, there weren’t any lookouts or anything.

There was a rope swing though!  That was just about the only thing that was on the hill.  And bugs.  Lots and lots of bugs. 

After Albany Hill, we headed over to San Francisco.  This is us at Lombard Street.  I didn’t even know that street existed!  Cody had me look at a map to find some other street and I pointed to that one because instead of a strait line, it was a zig zag. I showed it to him thinking he would think it was super weird and he just looked at me and said “yeah, that’s Lombard Street.”  Oops.  :)

Then we went over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  If you ever go there, don’t cross the bridge in a car!  We crossed and then walked halfway out across the bridge and then tried getting back and it was a toll road!  It cost $6 to get back and we had no cash and it was cash only so they were going to have us drive through and take a picture of the license plate on the car and send a bill in the mail for $30!  I say “was going to” because Cody didn’t have any plates on the car yet (he just bought it) and so we didn’t get charged.

From the other side.

That’s Alcatraz in the background, so we did our best thug faces.

Cody is not a hunter-gatherer.  He could survive for months without any food or communication in the wilderness, but he’s not so good at the finding directions thing.  So we got serrriously lost trying to find the wharf.  Yes, it’s an island, and a fairly well known one, but we still got lost!  We ended up in some foresty residential area with homes (I just looked this up) around $40,000,000.  Wow. 

But when we finally found the ocean, we ended up on some beach, which we later learned was China Beach.  It was pretty much deserted, but it was a really beautiful beach with a great view of the bridge!

When we finally found the wharf, I had my first bowl of clam chowder that I can remember, and it actually wasn’t that bad!  And Cody found some people from France and got to talk to them, so that was really interesting to hear him speaking French. 

Due to our finding free two hour parking, we ended up only spending about $15 the whole day (two clam chowder bowls and parking at the beginning of the day).

Who knew I’d be a fan of San Francisco!?

Skydiving!

Tuesday, we did a couple small things on our list and then were trying to decide what to do for the rest of the day.  Cody mentioned skydiving, and I said that would be awesome, not thinking we would actually do it. But he replied with “Really??” and I thought, why not?

We looked it up on the computer and I started to get really anxious.  I knew that I was eventually going to do it, but I was pretty scared.

I gathered hold of myself (Cody was not even a little bit anxious) and we left. 

It was an hour drive to get there.  When we got there, it was this semi-ghetto place.

 

We sat down to fill out the waiver.  For the first time in my life, I was actually trying to read through the whole thing, but I couldn’t because they were rushing us so much.  We had gotten there about 5 minutes before a plane was going to leave and so they said that we could either go on that plane or wait another two hours or something to get on another one.  Of course we chose to leave right then, so we didn’t even watch a video.

The guy I was going to jump out with was from South Africa.  He told me (this was my training instead of the video) that as soon as I jumped out, I just needed to kick his butt as hard as I could and say “Banana banana banana” to keep my body in a good position for flying.

Cody’s guy was from England and he was tiny.

We told him that I would be living in London this summer, and he basically told me that since I don’t drink beer, I wasn’t going to have any fun there.

This other guy kept following me around.  I couldn’t figure out why he kept talking to me until he mentioned something about pictures.  I had decided not to buy pictures even though it made me sad not to do it, and I looked at Cody and he had gotten pictures for me!!!  What a great guy.  I was really excited.

The plane was suuuper ghetto.  I felt like it barely made it off the ground.  Cody told me that as soon as he got on the plane, he was thinking of how he could land the plane (he has been taking flying lessons) and then he realized that if something went wrong, we could all just jump out since we had parachutes. 

I was getting really anxious again leaving the ground.  My jumper could tell and told me some really stupid jokes to keep me distracted and I just decided that I was being a baby and made myself overcome it.  From that point on, I was never really anxious again.

I think we got to 13,000 feet.  But I could be wrong.  Waddling over to the exit was pretty funny.  Both Cody and I wanted to do flips out of the plane.  I kept asking my guy, and he kept saying “We’re going to have a really good time.”  Cody went first and apparently he did like 10 flips straight out of the plane. 

When we finally jumped, it was scary for about 1.6 seconds.  That’s the only time (besides opening the chute) that you actually feel like you’re falling.  The rest of the time it’s just windy.

We didn’t do any flips.  Later I learned that they really aren’t allowed to do flips so since I had the camera on me, he wouldn’t do it with me.  The hard thing about it being so windy was that it was hard to breathe.  Especially since they kept making me look up at the camera.

But here is the funniest picture from the whole thing.  Cody almost died laughing when he saw it.  We all did.  It’s the skydiving picture that everyone has but no one shows because it’s so bad.  Or at least I hope other people looked like this and it wasn’t just me…

Hahahahaha. 

Landing.

We both loved it.  It was really fun and really exciting.  It was fun to ride around in the parachute because they let us drive it.  Cody’s guy had him hold one of the handles as low as he could and then the guy held the other one as high as he could and they whipped around almost horizontal to the ground. 

 

I highly recommend skydiving!