Until next time,
Jon
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Whoops. Too long again. Well I'm London Right Now
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
More from Saturday, and then Monday
[Disclaimer]
This post is from the blog that we have to submit entries to for the class I'm taking, so if it's unbearably boring, that's why. Basically I didn't want the 25 minutes of writing I did on it go to waste. So no hard feelings if you don't want to read it.
Saturday consisted of a trip to the Northern Coast. Our VISAGE group met up with Professor Troxel and her family at around 9:15am and we headed off for a local hostel where the bus tour would start from. After a short wait, we were on our way, with our very friendly tour guide driving and pointing out famous spots around Belfast as we drove out toward the coast. Our first stop was a castle that had been used up until the 1940s. We had a relatively short stop here, and after about ten minutes we were on our way up the coast again. Our second stop was a short break near a small pier, where most of the group got off the bus and grabbed some Maud’s ice cream (reportedly the best in Northern Ireland—which I can believe because it’s everywhere). We had a nice walk around the pier, before getting back onto the bus. As we continued up the coast, our tour guide told us about the history of Giant’s Causeway. According to scientists, there was a magma flow that created the unique looking rocks that jut up out of the ocean at different heights. However, if you ask the locals in the area, they’ll tell you that the giant, Finn MacCool built it in his attempt to get over to a giant from Scotland. The entire tale is here: http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/ie/the-giants-causeway-in-northern-ireland/. Regardless of how the causeway was built, it’s pretty stunning. Some have called it the “eighth wonder of the world,” but even more incredible than the formation of the rocks (in my opinion) were the magnificence of the cliffs behind, and the sheer beauty of the valley that we were in. Following our stay at Giant’s Causeway, we headed off for the next two (and last) stops on the tour—the oldest distillery in Northern Ireland, and carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The rope bridge spanned about 40m from some cliffs on the coast to large jut of rock that had grass on it. The bridge was about 30m up from the ocean, and until Northern Ireland’s National Trust took over it, had been used as a bridge for sheep farmers to cross when their flocks were grazing on the grass on the island. Some of the group walked across it and spent some time on the island, while the rest stayed on the other side relaxing in the spongy grass. Finally, as the bus pulled back into Belfast, at around seven, most everyone was exhausted from our full, yet fun day.
Monday morning saw our VISAGE group at the Belfast center for the non-profit organization, “Volunteer Now.” We started right off with a trip out of the city to the coast, were we got to the Silent Valley Mountain Park. We started off the day by collecting garbage on the beach that had washed onto the shore from the large fishing trade in that part of the ocean. Armed with garbage picker-uppers and plastic trash bags we got more than 20 bags of garbage worth of mess off of the beach, creating a better environment for the natural wildlife that roam the shores. Following a short lunch, we continued our work with the Park by helping cut down a plethora of pine trees that had taken over a hillside near the reservoir. The pine trees were not naturally occurring in the area, but had been planted many years back, and now needed to be cleared, to allow the naturally occurring plants to grow in their natural habitat. Our guide explained to us that Northern Ireland has the least amount of natural forest coverage in all of Europe, with only 6% of the land covered by trees, and their work at the Park was in part, trying to repopulate the area with indigenous trees.
This was interesting to me, because in the same way that the pine trees were initially planted (with good intention, one would assume) but then took over an area they were not meant for, lots of work with sustainability deals with righting past wrongs. It seems as though, when it comes to the environment, a lot of “quick fixes” are tried, which ultimately hurt an area or environment in the long term. This is what we physically experienced, as we cut down such “quick fixes” in the form of pine trees, to make room for the proper inhabitants of the area—whether it be naturally occurring ferns, or oak trees. Ultimately, while it may take a little bit longer in the short term to look forward a couple of years, it can save a great deal of time in the long term—whether that is planting trees, or designing products that run on renewable energy as opposed to crude oil.
This post is from the blog that we have to submit entries to for the class I'm taking, so if it's unbearably boring, that's why. Basically I didn't want the 25 minutes of writing I did on it go to waste. So no hard feelings if you don't want to read it.
Saturday consisted of a trip to the Northern Coast. Our VISAGE group met up with Professor Troxel and her family at around 9:15am and we headed off for a local hostel where the bus tour would start from. After a short wait, we were on our way, with our very friendly tour guide driving and pointing out famous spots around Belfast as we drove out toward the coast. Our first stop was a castle that had been used up until the 1940s. We had a relatively short stop here, and after about ten minutes we were on our way up the coast again. Our second stop was a short break near a small pier, where most of the group got off the bus and grabbed some Maud’s ice cream (reportedly the best in Northern Ireland—which I can believe because it’s everywhere). We had a nice walk around the pier, before getting back onto the bus. As we continued up the coast, our tour guide told us about the history of Giant’s Causeway. According to scientists, there was a magma flow that created the unique looking rocks that jut up out of the ocean at different heights. However, if you ask the locals in the area, they’ll tell you that the giant, Finn MacCool built it in his attempt to get over to a giant from Scotland. The entire tale is here: http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/ie/the-giants-causeway-in-northern-ireland/. Regardless of how the causeway was built, it’s pretty stunning. Some have called it the “eighth wonder of the world,” but even more incredible than the formation of the rocks (in my opinion) were the magnificence of the cliffs behind, and the sheer beauty of the valley that we were in. Following our stay at Giant’s Causeway, we headed off for the next two (and last) stops on the tour—the oldest distillery in Northern Ireland, and carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The rope bridge spanned about 40m from some cliffs on the coast to large jut of rock that had grass on it. The bridge was about 30m up from the ocean, and until Northern Ireland’s National Trust took over it, had been used as a bridge for sheep farmers to cross when their flocks were grazing on the grass on the island. Some of the group walked across it and spent some time on the island, while the rest stayed on the other side relaxing in the spongy grass. Finally, as the bus pulled back into Belfast, at around seven, most everyone was exhausted from our full, yet fun day.
Monday morning saw our VISAGE group at the Belfast center for the non-profit organization, “Volunteer Now.” We started right off with a trip out of the city to the coast, were we got to the Silent Valley Mountain Park. We started off the day by collecting garbage on the beach that had washed onto the shore from the large fishing trade in that part of the ocean. Armed with garbage picker-uppers and plastic trash bags we got more than 20 bags of garbage worth of mess off of the beach, creating a better environment for the natural wildlife that roam the shores. Following a short lunch, we continued our work with the Park by helping cut down a plethora of pine trees that had taken over a hillside near the reservoir. The pine trees were not naturally occurring in the area, but had been planted many years back, and now needed to be cleared, to allow the naturally occurring plants to grow in their natural habitat. Our guide explained to us that Northern Ireland has the least amount of natural forest coverage in all of Europe, with only 6% of the land covered by trees, and their work at the Park was in part, trying to repopulate the area with indigenous trees.
This was interesting to me, because in the same way that the pine trees were initially planted (with good intention, one would assume) but then took over an area they were not meant for, lots of work with sustainability deals with righting past wrongs. It seems as though, when it comes to the environment, a lot of “quick fixes” are tried, which ultimately hurt an area or environment in the long term. This is what we physically experienced, as we cut down such “quick fixes” in the form of pine trees, to make room for the proper inhabitants of the area—whether it be naturally occurring ferns, or oak trees. Ultimately, while it may take a little bit longer in the short term to look forward a couple of years, it can save a great deal of time in the long term—whether that is planting trees, or designing products that run on renewable energy as opposed to crude oil.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Whoops. I guess it's been a while
I'm really sorry about the length of time between posts. I'd say that it won't happen again, but in all honesty, it probably will.
Anyway, Belfast is a great city. We've been doing more walking here, than I have in most of my life for the period of about a week I'd say. The dorms that we're staying in (Elms Village, I'll try to put in a picture below) are an 18 minute walk from the Student Union building where we go for breakfast on the weekdays, and were about 20 minutes from where we had class for the first two days, and about 15 from where we had class on Friday. We've also walked downtown (probably 30 minutes or so) a few times, so it's been a lot of exercise. That can never be a bad thing though. The first two days of class were a history of Northern Ireland. We were lectured to by a really cool professor here named Dominic, who basically went over the entire history of Northern Ireland, including the Troubles, and everything up to the present day. We talked mainly about the religious tension between the Catholics and the Protestants (which keeping straight who's who can be confusing). After we learned about the basics of the strife and conflict (I'm sure it can all be found on Wikipedia) we took a bus tour of the city's "peace walls" and murals. It was fascinating to see entirely Protestant neighborhoods and Catholic neighborhoods divided by these massive 30' walls. And sometimes those weren't/aren't high enough to keep things being thrown from one side to the other. A short story to demonstrate this point: at one point they were building a bridge over the highway, from a main Catholic part to a mainly Protestant part and they accidentally made the bridge too high, to the point where it was a spot of elevation that made it easier to throw bottles and whatnot over the "peace wall," which meant they had to move it. It's really incredible. While the major conflict hasn't been going on for about 10 years, it's still incredibly obvious the effects that it's had on the area. Even one of our taxi drivers, when we asked him if he watched Gaelic football, responded, "No, that's a Roman Catholic sport." Well I had no idea.
Our class on Friday was more getting into what we'll be talking about for the rest of the weeks we're here. We had a city planner (shout out, Dad) talk to us about urban planning in Belfast. An interesting thing about it is that here in Europe it's much more social/welfare focused, while the US is more legal/zoning focused. I won't bore (Jumbo) you with the details, but one cool thing we did learn was that all the land in the UK is property of the crown, so no one actually owns any land. They just have a lease for 999 years. Crazy!
After that on Friday morning, in the afternoon we went to the "cave hills" and climbed them. We only saw one cave, but the view was amazing from the top, and really gave you a sense of accomplishment (as well as being able to see Scotland). I've put pictures of that below as well.
Today we went for an all-day bus tour of the Northern Coast where we saw a few castles, some ridiculously amazing views, and Giant's Causeway (which some call the eighth wonder of the world--I'm not one of them). It was really cool, but the bus ride was pretty long, and by the time we got back everyone was pretty bushed.
I'll try to write more about that tomorrow, so until then, here are some pictures! They should be pretty self explanatory, but if they need explanation, just let me know in the comments.
Talk to you all in a wee bit,
Jon
Anyway, Belfast is a great city. We've been doing more walking here, than I have in most of my life for the period of about a week I'd say. The dorms that we're staying in (Elms Village, I'll try to put in a picture below) are an 18 minute walk from the Student Union building where we go for breakfast on the weekdays, and were about 20 minutes from where we had class for the first two days, and about 15 from where we had class on Friday. We've also walked downtown (probably 30 minutes or so) a few times, so it's been a lot of exercise. That can never be a bad thing though. The first two days of class were a history of Northern Ireland. We were lectured to by a really cool professor here named Dominic, who basically went over the entire history of Northern Ireland, including the Troubles, and everything up to the present day. We talked mainly about the religious tension between the Catholics and the Protestants (which keeping straight who's who can be confusing). After we learned about the basics of the strife and conflict (I'm sure it can all be found on Wikipedia) we took a bus tour of the city's "peace walls" and murals. It was fascinating to see entirely Protestant neighborhoods and Catholic neighborhoods divided by these massive 30' walls. And sometimes those weren't/aren't high enough to keep things being thrown from one side to the other. A short story to demonstrate this point: at one point they were building a bridge over the highway, from a main Catholic part to a mainly Protestant part and they accidentally made the bridge too high, to the point where it was a spot of elevation that made it easier to throw bottles and whatnot over the "peace wall," which meant they had to move it. It's really incredible. While the major conflict hasn't been going on for about 10 years, it's still incredibly obvious the effects that it's had on the area. Even one of our taxi drivers, when we asked him if he watched Gaelic football, responded, "No, that's a Roman Catholic sport." Well I had no idea.
Our class on Friday was more getting into what we'll be talking about for the rest of the weeks we're here. We had a city planner (shout out, Dad) talk to us about urban planning in Belfast. An interesting thing about it is that here in Europe it's much more social/welfare focused, while the US is more legal/zoning focused. I won't bore (Jumbo) you with the details, but one cool thing we did learn was that all the land in the UK is property of the crown, so no one actually owns any land. They just have a lease for 999 years. Crazy!
After that on Friday morning, in the afternoon we went to the "cave hills" and climbed them. We only saw one cave, but the view was amazing from the top, and really gave you a sense of accomplishment (as well as being able to see Scotland). I've put pictures of that below as well.
Today we went for an all-day bus tour of the Northern Coast where we saw a few castles, some ridiculously amazing views, and Giant's Causeway (which some call the eighth wonder of the world--I'm not one of them). It was really cool, but the bus ride was pretty long, and by the time we got back everyone was pretty bushed.
I'll try to write more about that tomorrow, so until then, here are some pictures! They should be pretty self explanatory, but if they need explanation, just let me know in the comments.
Talk to you all in a wee bit,
Jon
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