Advertisement
Published: October 24th 2006
We had quite the adventure exploring Giants Causeway in Ireland, and discovered the generosity of strangers. Ive decided that those who live in Northern Ireland have been the most friendly.
So the story goes...
We leave Belfast on a bus, and after an hour journey along the northern coast, we are the only people on the bus. The bus driver invited us to the front of the bus for a "wee chat", where he asked where we were from and where we were going. "Ballintoy" was our answer-a tiny village on the northern coast of Ireland that only consisted of a hostel and two pubs. We were using it as a jumping-off point to see the bizarre rocks known as "Giants Causeway," which were formed by quickly-cooling lava from a volcano. The rocks got their name from the old legend that Finn McCool saw a nasty giant on the opposite shore of Scotland, and Finn being a nasty giant himself, began a name-calling argument. Soon the two giants on opposite shores were chucking rocks at each other, which stacked up on either side and became known as the Giant's Causeway. Today you can still see the piles of rocks
at the water's edge.
So our bus driver learned that we were headed to the Causeway, but only had 18 hours to see them. He formulated a plan that involved dropping our bags off at the hostel, driving us to the Causeway himself, then giving us 40 minutes to run to the causeway and take the bus back.
And that is just what we did.
We learned later that the bus driver called our hostel to ensure that we made it back safely. The amazing generosity of strangers in Northern Ireland...
I am writing to you from Prague, in the Czech Republic. Ive recently learned that it became its own republic in 1993, splitting Czechoslovakia into the republic and Slovakia. It was bizarre stepping off the plane and being surrounded by a language I dont understand at all. It is still developing in terms of Western Culture, and I think I have enjoyed it all the more because of that.
Once we stepped off the plane, we found our way to the bus, which took us to the metro (subway). I had picked out a hostel from my guide book, but the
guidebook map didnt reach all the way to our metro station We ended up at a stop named Vlatvska with no direction, and no ability to communicate. Certainly a humbling experience.
We wandered around grafitti-filled streets, trying to get oriented, until we decided food was a priority. Finding a road-side vendor, I ordered by pointed to a picture that looked like a chicken sandwich, but it turned out to be fried cheese in a bun. It was delicious! I tried pronouncing the street of our hostel, Dbrovik, and they gesticulated toward the metro again and an English-speaking angel said, "Two stops".
We were off, and found the hostel rather quickly after that. Ive tried learning a few necessary phrases in Czech since that experience.
Yesterday Adam and I took a tour with Stephen, a retired German professor of 25 years who is working on a novel in Prague. He gives walking tours of the city, calling them "history classes" instead of tours. We learned so much about the history of Prague, communism, Kafka, tourism, and America. It was a fascinating, five-hour hike through the city's five different quarters. Today we re-traced some of our steps, navigating
through the world's largest castle, sampling white raspberries from a farmers market from 1500 and eating traditional Czech food!
To help you with some Czech Claims to Fame:
Franz Kafka, though the Germans claim him; the Czechs like his cousin better
95 % of Christmas balls are manufactured here
Wooden toys
Blade 1, 2, 3 filmed here
Olympus Cameras
Sourkraut (not German!)
Tourism only accounts for 8% of the country's income!!! Unbelievable....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 71; dbt: 0.0694s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Sarah
non-member comment
ooooooo checklesylvacia.
wow-thats sounds really cool. Fried cheese? wowie, that sounds kinda gross but i'll beleive you if you say its good. SOunds like a super-nice tour guide/bus driver/angelic Irish guy. We miss you lots and lots here!!!!!!!!!