The Troubles

No, the title of this blog does not refer to us (although we can understand how you mistakenly came to that conclusion). We are referring to the Troubles faced in Belfast, Ireland. On Friday the 13^th, we visited Belfast and learned about the cultural conflict between the Protestants and Catholics. Our tour included visits to various murals depicting the Troubles, bonfire preparation areas (the protestants have a HUGE celebration of King William of Orange on July 12), and the “peace walls.”

Mural in Protestant area celebrating King William

The building of the bonfires well under way with a full month to go

Steph signing the peace wall

For those of you who didn't track on the details, a peace agreement was signed just 14 years ago (that’s six years after OJ was slowing driving that white Bronco). Even now, each evening the gates are closed and locked between the Catholic and Protestant residential areas. Our Paddy Campbell Black Taxi Tour guides Stevie and Peter were awesome and modeled the way in how hate can be turned in to friendship. 

Stevie and Peter assured us that life is good in Belfast and Guinness flows freely. To make sure they weren’t pulling one over on us we made visits to a few local pubs including the historical Crown Liquors Saloon. Should you have the chance, we highly recommend a visit (to Belfast).

Here’s to another 14+ years of peace and free flowing Guinness. 

Ice, Ice, Baby

 Imagine how much sight-seeing you could do if sunset and sunrise happened at the same time.  And how many cocktails you could drink…how many naps you could take.  Yes, five days in the vicinity of Iceland this time of year will F you up.   No “dark time” wreaks havoc with a couple of night owls.  It’s kind of like living the casino life—you never know what time it is, so you just keep rolling until you run out of money.  On the upside, Iceland is beautiful and we made three stops—Reykjavik (the big city), Isafjordur (a.k.a I-Town and a tiny fishing village) and Akureyi (a.k.a. A-town and an artsy community).  From what we were told, the weather was fantastic, which means it was hovering around 60 degrees and no rain.  Who wouldn’t drink a few Icelandic beers to that? 

I-Town is tiny—maybe 2,500 citizens—and we may have had THE BEST FISH IN THE WORLD for lunch.  Yes, we’re yelling at you because it was right off the boat and unbelievably delish.  It’s a long way to go for seafood, but we’d recommend it.  

The next stop was A-Town, where we bought some awesome souvenirs and experienced a big disappointment.  This day was our big trip to the Arctic Circle.  The AC is a 30-minute plane ride from A-Town. For weeks one of us (not the one you suspect) was worried that this was going to be our death flight. We hopped aboard a 15 seat prop plane and got on our way to…the flight to nowhere. That’s right, we were schedule to land at Grimsey Island and were 200 feet from landing but Mother Nature decided to be a diva. The fog was thick and we were unable to land. Instead, we tooled around the mountains and made our way back to A-town. No Arctic Circle crossing by foot. Although, we can claim crossing by water and air…that counts for something, right? There is always next time.

Lerwick, it's beautiful!

On Thursday we docked at Lerwick, which is on the Shetland Islands in Scotland.  

It’s a little town that could serve as a movie set…one day a year, because that’s as good as the weather gets.  And we nailed it timing wise.  All we heard around the village was how fantastic the day was—about 50 degrees and sunny on June 5. 

Our walking tour guide Linda was sweet as can be.  We wanted to pinch her “Scottish” cheeks.  She even read a poem in her native Lerwick brogue, which shouldn’t be confused with the Scottish dialect (so trailer park).  

Everybody on the ship wanted to move here—if only it weren’t for the 364 days of crappy weather.  Nonetheless, lovely people and solid fish and chips made for a great experience.  Book you ticket now!  

Once upon a time in Copenhagen

Hans Christian Anderson wrote many a great story about Copenhagen. So we were excited to see the magical places and hear the tales of Denmark.  If you have ever been to Copenhagen, you know that biking is the preferred mode of transportation.  As such, we grabbed some bikes (the old fashioned kind where you pedal backward to break) and hit the town.  Bennie, our patient Danish tour guide, led us and 16 other Semester at Sea passengers, around the beautiful streets, parks, palaces, and tourist attractions of Copenhagen.  Turns out that the Little Mermaid story is not quite what Disney would have you believe (shocker) and the movie A Royal Affair (great flick) may actually have some truth to it.

At the conclusion of the morning tour, we kept our bikes and rode to Nyhavn to meet our friends for a delicious lunch.  

 

And, because part of the fun is to attempt to fit in with the locals, we couldn’t pass on the shot of locally made schnapps.  After some nourishment and spirits, we pedaled on to visit the famous shopping street in Copenhagen.  This all sounds great expect by this point it was pouring rain and Megan’s map reading skills were proving to be in need of remediation.  A quick stop at the Royal Copenhagen China flagship store and around 4pm we were back on bikes to make our way to the ship.  On ship time was 5pm – plenty of time to ride back across town (it’s still pouring) and be on the ship with time to spare.  Well, let’s just say that Megan’s map reading skills were shit (in fact, that wasn’t the only shitty thing that happened – a bird took a dump directly on Megan’s head) and Steph had to take over navigation.  A leisurely bike ride no more – we were in high gear trying to find out way back to the ship (picture the wicked witch and hear the melody played as she furiously pedaled).   Steph’s map reading while biking skills were impressive and we cruised in to the port just in the knick of time.

Earlier in the week some friends recounted their two close calls with making on ship time.  In response we had a conversation about why one would endure that stress and agreed that while we would never do this, it could make for a great Copenhagen story…

Stockholm Syndrome

 

We have Stockholm Syndrome.  Except it's not what you think.  We're safe from kidnappers and their hypnotic love holds.  No, what we're suffering from is actually Stockholm Marathon Syndrome--the affliction whereby yesterday's marathon blocked us from all things touristy for the past three days.  Yes, it was inspiring to watch 21,000 runners pound through 26.2 miles, but shouldn't they stay in their hotel rooms with their feet propped up, resting up before and after the big race?  For that matter, shouldn't their family and friends do the same in a show of support?  No, instead they took every dinner reservation and museum ticket to be found.  Our weekend was relegated to bar food and trolling the city streets.  (Okay, it wasn't torture.)  In fact, here's Megan stopping to smell the flowers. 

Friday night, we sat at the bar at the beautiful Grand Hotel, where one of their cheapest bottles of wine and an appetizer ran us $175.  The subway ticket machine wouldn't take our credit card, so we took a two-mile cab ride home to the tune of $30.  We wanted to go to the famous Vassa Museum, which houses a reconstructed viking ship, but the line was around the block.  Maybe next time.  Same drill last night--bar food and a $200 bill.  Of course, we were still hungry, so we gave up and filled up American style.

Stockholm is lovely (for those interested, a few more photos are available here), but we will not be fooled by her hold...we gotta get on that ship.

And we're off

Image courtesy of Mary and Kelly Johnston

We arrived at the Indy airport with steamer trunks filled with appropriately cute Enrichment Voyage outfits, and giddy thoughts of the extra half-inch of leg room we would be getting for our upgrade to Economy Plus.  (You're toats the best, United!)  As we walked to our gate, we received the text that the flight has been delayed an hour...and counting.  So close, yet so far.  What are a couple of thirsty Euro-bound girls to do?