Saturday and Sunday

We've all been lagging a wee bit in our posts...

Saturday was our 4th day here. We started out with a pretty long bus ride to Derry (stroke) Londonderry, which we have opt'd to call stroke city or Legenderry. When we got there we met a lovely man who served as our tour guide along the walls of the city. there is so much history in that city, starting way back in mid-evil ages. So, walking along the walls was really interesting, especially when we encountered a man and woman dressed in outfits that might have been popular in American colonial ages. We got pictures with them and found out they were actually in a play that took place at that time...they couldn't have been nicer.

Something that was very interesting about standing on top of the walls that surround stroke city was that looking over the wall on one side we would see the union jack flying, with murals dedicated to the UVF, and looking over onto the other side the Republic of Ireland flag was waving, and there was spray paint on the roofs of buildings that said RIRA (real IRA). The closeness (spacially) of the two communtities, and how different they are culturally was incredible to see.

After we toured the city via city walls we took the bus up to GIANTS CAUSEWAY!!!! In case you couldn't tell it was amazing, look up pictures if you've never been. basically, giants causeway is a natural rock formation on the coast of Northern Ireland. It's a major tourist attraction, so lots of people were there, but compared to normal it was pretty empty. We were able to run around on the rocks and attempt to jump from one big boulder to another. The weather was great too, and of course to view was beautiful. Overall our trip there was extremely successful, and we were very lucky to have the weather and views that we had.

After the causeway we got on the bus and took the long trip back into Belfast. Once there we split up to go home to our host families. The kids living in the "country side" stayed in town and shopped, the rest of us went home, had tea, and got ready for the SOS bus.

The SOS bus is a bus that sits outside The Odyssey at night for the purpose of helping people who are drunk, and usually disorderly, to sober up, get medical assistance (there tend to be fights), or have a place to sit if they need a break from the 3 night clubs there. Just before we got on the SOS bus to learn about it and see the functions, we walked around the bottom floor of the Odyssey for a little while. There are 3 night clubs, the most popular was "The Box". The line (or Q as they say here) was out the door and around 3 corners. Basically, people tend to get pretty badly drunk before going to the night clubs, and sometimes before people even get inside the club fights will break out. There are security guards to help stop that, and often times what they'll do is break up the fight and bring the people to the SOS bus to calm down or get a bandage or whatever. While we were on the bus though it was pretty early in the night, so we didn't see any problems like that. The general conclusion of the group - I believe - was that the philosophy and ideals of the bus were spot on, and it seems to be very successful, so more power to them.

Last thing we did on Saturday night was go to Kathy's house. We just hung out for a while, then we all went home and got a good night's sleep for Sunday.


Sunday: family day. We all did different things during the day, and at night most of the group met up for a barbecue at Paul's. I went up to Portrush with my host family, the McDowells. It's my "younger sister" Debbie's birthday today, so we were celebrating at her favorite restaurant for dinner. We also went to Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. It's only a little past Giant's Causeway, and it is what it sounds like -- a rope bridge. It was pretty scary going across the first time, but the second was much better. And, the views were spectacular. I wish I could upload my camera to this computer like Cari did, because I think everyone should be able to see what I saw. Anways, after dinner we came back home, had some tea and now were going to bed. I know I made Sunday's description much shorter than Saturday's, but it's only because I know that if I don't go to bed soon I won't wake up in time for tomorrow when we go to see the Lord Mayor, so 'till then.

-Rachel