Europe, 2009
February 19-20- Departure and Arrival!- Has it been crazy? Yes, it
has. Not expecting to sail, we were bit surprised
to hear we'd received permission to do so...the day before we were scheduled to
leave. We hurriedly finished loading
the ship, strapped everything down, readied the ship for the voyage, and
contacted our friends and family in Sweden
that we'd be coming after all. We departed Køge at 1500 on Thursday, and
were inbound to Gothenburg at 0800 the
following day. There was plenty of snow to last both days, but the temperatures
and wind were both mild enough as
not to make things difficult. We'll only be in Gothenburg for a few days, and
set sail for The Netherlands this Monday.
*
Harlingen, the Netherlands- We only spent a few days in
Goteborg before heading to our next port, Harlingen.
Harlingen is a beautiful little seaside village built in the Dutch style- many
narrow canals running through town, and
footbridges over them every block. We saw the sun twice in our 11 days there,
but after the freezing cold of Koge, I
wasn't complaining. Harlingen is the home to about 20-25% of Holland's wooden
sailing ships, as well, and you see
evidence of that as soon as you set foot in town. Those small canals are
filed with 'sailvaarts' stacked stem to stern
two and three deep all over town. You can see a few pictures below.
Our ship wasn't blessed with the most scenic
berth, but town was a 15 minute walk, with plenty of things to see and
playgrounds for the kids. Low prices (It's all
low compared to Denmark) allowed us to spend a bit and not hurt our budgets. The
cheese shop was fairly popular.
*
The Scheveningen Shibboleth-
What is a shibboleth and what makes Scheveningen one?
Websters
defines a shibboleth as
'a
custom or usage regarded as distinguishing one group from others',
and it has it's root in the Bible, specifically
Judges 12; 5-6.
"The Gileadites captured
the fords of the Jordan opposite of Ephraim. And it happened when any of
the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the
men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No," then
they would say to him, "Say now, 'Shibboleth.'" But he said, "Sibboleth," for
he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him & slew him at the
fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim Judges
12;5-6"
As the Ephraimites could not make the 'sh' sound
necessary to pronounce 'Shibboleth', they were easily exposed as
imposters.
More recent shibboleths were the American soldiers in WWII who used baseball
trivia to smoke out German infiltrators, and the
soldiers in the Pacific, who asked suspected Japanese spies to pronounce
'lollapalooza'...a word unpronounceable for them. The
Lebanese used the Arabic word for tomato to ferret out Palestinians, who had
difficulty saying it, and the Australians are forever
asking New Zealanders what 5 + 1 is, as they pronounce it 'sex'. The more
clever Kiwis always respond 'half a dozen'. Finally, any
Bsotonian who's traveled out of Massachusetts has been asked where he 'parks his
car' when it's discovered where he's from. How
is 'Scheveningen' a shibboleth, you ask? The Dutch have a funny way of
speaking, wherein many words are formed by slightly
'clearing their throat'. Gertrude becomes 'Hair-trude', and 'good' becomes
'hood'. They claim that only true Dutchmen could say
the name of this town, so if a person was suspected of being a German spy in
WWII, a conversation would be worked around to
Scheveningen. How you pronounced it showed what your native tongue was.
As for me, I can pronounce it well enough not to
embarrass myself, but Dutch friends tell me I'd have been shot in sight in 1940.
Here's an interesting
list of shibboleths on Wiki.
*
Schevinginen, the Netherlands-
Scheveningen is a smallish resort town on the outskirts of the Hague, the
third
largest city in the Netherlands, and also it's diplomatic center. We arrived to
clear skies and 50 degree temperatures.
After the cold winter of Koge and the gloomy weather of the last two
ports, this springtime weather was a welcome
change. We've had an over cast day or two since arriving, but as I write
this, Sunday morning, there's not a cloud in
the sky. We've got a beautiful location in the center of Scheveningen's
harbor, and you can see the ship (or it's stack)
just about anywhere in town. I've taken a few pictures from the ship and the
beach, only a block away from the ship.
At left is a photo looking forward from the stern, next to it a photo looking
aft from the bow. Across the street from
us is a line of surf shops, clothing boutiques and restaurants. Picture three is
a decent shot of the ship taken from the
rampart see in the first picture. Our ship seems to be causing a minor stir &
there are always people stopping to gaze
up at us and take photos. We are one of the biggest ships to ever enter this
harbor, and probably the biggest to berth
at this dock. I really like this town and reminded of my own past beach towns of
Virginia Beach and Hampton Beach.
*
24 March- Dutch
people always seem to be on the move. It took me three weeks or so, but I
finally
realized the other day just how many people were on the move, and the many ways
they used to get
there. I can't recall ever seeing so many different types of transportation
being used in so small of a
country. every sort of design of bikes, moped, motorcycle, car, truck, & jeep
seems to be on the road
here. Bikes are more popular in Holland than anywhere but China, & bicycle
travel is one of the things
Dutch are known for. A popular style is the 'carrier front' seen below
left. It's often filled with supplies,
groceries, or children. I have seen many more disabled or elderly people
traveling in some sort of tri-
cycle, motorized or not, here in Holland. If I took photos of every unusual form
of transportation I have
seen since being here, It would fill up the page, so I'll just include pictures
of the ones that sat still long
enough to be photographed. In addition to the many 'tiny cars' I've seen
here, I've also seen, strangely,
a number of American trucks and Cherokees. A friend tells me it's only the
'rich' who do this, as they
can afford the gas required to drive the big American 'gas guzzlers'.
Chevy is their truck of choice, too.
*
All Things Dutch-
Between Mercy Ships,
Operation Mobilisation, and 5 weeks here, I think I've gotten a sense of what
is
Dutch. Having traveled to over forty countries and hundreds of cities, I
find I am less interested in cathedrals, museums, and
parliament buildings than I am in what John Travolta called 'the little
differences'
in Pulp Fiction. Here's a few things I noticed
about the Netherlands, and Dutch people in general. First, you see a popular
Dutch breakfast- a piece of bread with what we
call 'jimmies' or sprinkles on it. It is then eaten with a knife and fork, as
Dutch normally do. Black licorice, usually relegated to
the jellybeans nobody wants back home, rules the candy heap here. It is sold
here sweet
and, I kid you not, 'salty', dipped in
chocolate, doused with mint, as a gummi or hard; every version of candy you can
think of, Dutch 'dropke's are so popular that
you'll even find them being given away on store counters. Picture three I just
found unusual at the time. A bin of 'rookwurst', or
smoked sausage (kielbasa to you Yankee's) being sold out of a bin...in the front
of a drugstore. Finally, you can't talk of Dutch
without the almighty Stroopwafel. About the size of a coaster, this Dutch
version of a cookie has won fans the world over. It is
basically a hard, gummy syrup (stroop) pressed between two waffles. While I am
not a stroopwaffel fanatic like so many of my
friends, I find they are pretty delicious when they are eaten the traditional
Dutch way...that is, warmed over a hot cup of coffee.
Here are a few things I saw walking along the streets. Most of the houses I saw
had vertical mail slots on them...often 'blanked
off so they couldn't be used. Ok, not that unusual, but I needed something to
post. What did strike me were 'NEE' & 'JA' signs
on many mailboxes. Junk mail is divided into 'occupant' mail, or letters
without addresses and filled with advertisements. The
other type of mail is the local free paper, which usually comes stuffed with
circulars. You can choose which to receive by NEE
or JA posted on your mailbox. Why we don't import this genius idea over to the
states is beyond me. Dutch are well-known for
their permissiveness in soft drugs, and this poster I below exemplifies that.
The poster at left asks ''Dutch drugs laws are bad?
Is America doing better?" while the poster at right compares drug and
alcohol effects and claims 'religious fundamentalism' is
what's driving the 'restrictive' attitude and 'laws made without democracy
are a dictatorship'. Finally, it's just a cat in a window.
*
March 28- By amazing
coincidence, Mercy Ships Netherlands was having a 'reunie & ontmoeting' of
people who had served with
Mercy Ships in some capacity. Marcel and Annette picked me up in
Scheveningen, and off we went to Gorinchem, a small town
on the outskirts of Rotterdam. There, I was blessed to run into all sorts of
Dutchies (and others) from my 4 years at Mercy Ships.
To say they were surprised to see me is an understatement. We
spent about four hours singing, watching presentations on what
the Africa Mercy is doing now, singing, and catching up. There were also short
'interviews' with different ex-crew members, and
even a funny 'trivia contest' for all of us, which I managed to answer a few
questions, even though they were in Dutch! So many
old friends were there, I don't have space to list them all, but I'm sure
eagle-eyed Mercy Shipper can spot old their friends in the
photos below. I even got to meet the mother of my friend Jan Tuinier, though Jan
& Elizabeth were headed to her native island
Dominican Republic that day & were unable to attend. Luckily, they'd come
aboard the ship a week before so I got to see them!
*
Scottish Roadsigns.com? Ok, not as
interesting as signs from Africa, but I did see a few interesting ones. Warnings
about airguns
seem to be everywhere in Scotland, from bus stops to bathroom walls. I
know that an airgun can get me a prison sentence, as I've
been reminded of that a few hundred times. I had visions of Ralphy from 'A
Christmas Story' being thrown into jail for finding a Red
Ryder BB gun under the tree on Christmas morning. Also here are a couple
independence for Scotland signs on a wall on Clerk St.,
which remind me of the 'Britannia Waives The Rules' sign I saw when I was here
last in 1996. Do Not Be Afraid' was a bit of graffiti
outside a pub in Leith. The most curious sign to me was a street sign reminding
you not to use 'loan sharks at Christmastime', and a
confidential number to call if you did. The 'shark tree' was a nice touch.
Finally, what in the name of Thor is 'Anti-Climb Paint'?????
April 6- An old friend from Mercy Ships, Bunmi, came down to Edinburgh
from Aberdeen. We spent the day schlepping around
Edinburgh and the Royal Mile, then took a bus to the ship so she could see
what I do. We didn't go into the castle as we'd seen it
before, but had fun just nosing the streets. My Mercy Ships friends Greenfield,
Moira, and Shonagh also came while we were here.
*
Shopfronts- shopfronts
in the UK have always been fascinating to me. I don't know if it's the different
ways they
find to decorate what is more or less the same 20-odd feet or street-front
property that every one else has, or just
seeing bright and vibrant colors on a drably colored (but magnificantly
constructed) building. Here you see a few of
the more interesting ones I saw. My 'favorites' can all be seen along the
bottom row, from the pink confectionary
complete with icing bag hanging to a lime green 'Curry Connection', a frame
shop, and of course, the Captains Bar.
*
April 13- Was another great
day spent hiking around bonny Scotland, specifically
Holyrood Park right in
Edinburgh. Holyrood
Park is a 650 acre park just on the southeast of Edinburgh city center. It has a
wide array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs,
and more hiking trails than you could do in a day. The highest peak,
Arthur's
Seat, rises only 250 meters (823 feet) above the city.
The hills are sprinkled with briar patches, making it heaven for the hundreds
(thousands?) of rabbits that live there, and it even
boasts some ruins, those being of St. Anthony's Chapel, a 600 year old
monastery. Some friends and I started at the parking lot
at the base, and spent about four hours or so hiking from there to Arthur's Seat
to St. Margaret's Loch and up Salisbury Craigs.
Clouds rolled in soon after we began, but by the time we got
to the top, 45 minutes later, they had burned off, giving us a view
of Edinburgh that was unmatchable. As we hiked through certain areas, the
ground was fairly well covered in rabbit pellets, and
I kept my eyes peeled for them, spotting a few of the creatures. Of the 40 or so
countries I've been to, Scotland has always been
at the top of that list, an honor it shares with Turkey. Between today's
hike and yesterdays, it has solidified it's place on that list!
*
April 12- A friend asked if
I wanted to take a day trip up north and see a little of the highlands after
church. Perhaps do a bit
of hiking. I almost said no. I mean, we only had six hours or so, and we didn't
have a plan, a route, or even a confirmation on
who was going. Anyways, I was going hiking the next day. Still, it's
always
better to regret things you have done than things
you haven't done, so I bit the bullet and said yes. One or two dropped
out, we picked up a couple more, and were over thirty
minutes late getting started. We spent that half an hour forging some sort
of plan by trying to cobble together seeing a 'loch',
seeing the highlands, getting off the highway, and doing a bit of hiking. We
spent another 30-40 minutes in stop-and-go traffic
from Leith to the
other side of the Forth
Road Bridge, but once we were across, traffic opened up and we began a
steady trek
north. The suburbs soon gave way to rolling sheep meadows, like endless
green carpets covered in white dots...some flat, but
most of them shooting up at impossible angles. I tried counting the sheep, but
soon became drowsy and had to stop, lest I fall
asleep and miss the scenery. The farmland itself gave way to sweeping
desolate highlands, each view more stunning than the
last. We managed to make a couple stops, squeezing out a few minutes at a brook
by the roadside somewhere near
Kingussie.
Another 30 minutes and we arrived at out destination,
Cairngorms National Park.
The name of the park translates as 'Blue Hills',
though the mountains are roughly reddish in color. We drove through the
'kickoff' town of Aviemore, which
reminded me of the
many kickoff towns lying outside of National Parks back home, from
Williams, Arizona (Grand Canyon) to
Gatlinburg, Tennesee
(Smoky Mountains). We stopped long enough to map out a plan, as Aviemore was so
crowded we literally had to double park in
the parking lot of a Tesco's to brainstorm together. After a few minutes
studying the map (and a few annoyed drivers behind us)
we headed into the park. We drove past campsites, caravan lots, and
tourist traps like...I kid you not, 'See The Tame Reindeer'
Some things are universal, I suppose. There was also a loch (err, lake)
located at the base of the mountains that we stopped at
long enough to pretend to spot the Loch Ness monster. On the shore of the loch
was a watersports center with visitors queuing
up to do some kayaking, windsurfing, and canoeing. After a 10-minute scenic
drive in the lowest gear possible, we were at the
base of the mountains, and there were people walking by in snowsuits and
snow skis. It's not often you go from windsurfing
to downhill skiing in 15 minutes. Still, there was some snow on the
ground, so we had a brief snowball fight just to say we did.
You can't drive to the base of a mountain and not climb it, so up we went, and
time constraints be damned. The Cairn Gorms
are actually a popular skiing area in the winter, and there were no less than a
dozen trails available, with ski lifts towering over
our heads. We walked as far as we dared, keeping a mind on getting back to Leith
in time for the ships evening Easter service.
Me, I would have hiked until the sun went down, slept under a rock, and hiked
all the next day if I could have. After almost six
months in crowded European cities, most of it confined to a ship with a few
hundred others, the Cairn Gorms were a breath of
fresh air, literally and otherwise. A two-meter high boulder about a half hour
hike up seemed like a good place to stop, so stop
we did, and rested for another 20 minutes or so. Pictures are worth a thousand
words, but a thousand pictures couldn't show
the beautiful desolation of the Cairn Gorms. I've sized my pictures as
large as will fit on your screen, but I doubt it's enough.
Few more pictures to squeeze in. From the rest stop to a staircase waterfall to
the wonderfully named Poo Disposal Point.
*
April 23- It has been on my
mind since we began sailing that this page is slowly becoming focused more on
where
we are than what we are doing. The truth is, I have been so busy with my own
tasks and responsibilities that I have
scant time to get involved in ministry. We work five days a week and take Sunday
and Monday off as our 'weekend'.
Saturday is the busiest day- the day when we generally have the most visitors. We close on Mondays, always a slow
day and that's normally the day the crew gets to go explore whatever city we're
in. Sunday is, of course, church day,
and by the time church is over and you've eaten lunch, the day is half over. So,
Monday it is. If you are an officer or
stand duty, there's a one-in-five chance you have duty that day,
which puts a damper on your time off in port. I've
had my share of Monday duty days since we started sailing. If I have duty on the
'weekend', I will usually put on my
uniform and head down to Deck 4 (our visitors deck) and say hello to the people.
If I don't have duty, I use that day
to see a little of the cities we are in, or go out with a local friend, often an
ex-Mercy Shipper. During the work week,
I am usually in a dirty shirt and pants, and not the cleanliest officer to go
walking around on Deck 4. Still, I manage
to squeak in a little ministry time be helping out where I can-leading a tour,
meeting with local groups that come on
board, or speaking at a church like I did last night in Torshavn. I have a
desire to get more involved in ministry, but
the current situation seems to hinder that a bit. Our Deck Four people
tell me how much people love seeing officers
in uniforms 'walking around', so I try to do what I can. As I get settled
into the routine of sailing and port visits, I'll
learn to eke out more time getting involved more in ministry. After all, it's
what we on the Logos Hope are here for!
*
Faeore Islands- I never even knew of them for my first 26
years or so. Heck, I doubt I had ever heard heard the name. When
I joined Mercy Ships for the first time back in 1996, I remember a friend
telling me about them, the first time I'd ever heard the
words. When I rejoined in 2005, I met a few people from there, and friends who'd
been there on the Anastasis in 2004 spoke of
the incredible hospitality of it's people, matched only by the beauty of the
islands themselves. When I heard the Logos Hope was
headed there, I was glad I'd finally get a chance to see them for myself.
I won't bother trying to put that beauty into words, I'll
just go ahead and post pictures of our current port, Klaksvik. Starting at
the top left picture, you see what is more or less a 360
degree of the view we have. The pictures start on the port side, and go around
clockwise, finishing up on the port stern quarter.
*
Ministry?- We don't seem to
be doing much here. Most ports we go to don't know anything about the Logos
Hope, so coming on
board is a new experience for them, and often it's their first real exposure to
the Gospel. In addition, we go out to halfway homes,
drug/alcohol treatment centers, and 'troubled youth' homes, any place we can to
help people by bringing hope. Here in the Faeroe
Islands, it's a bit different. This ship isn't new to anyone- they've all sailed
on it before, back when it was a ferry between here and
Denmark. The Gospel isn't really new to anyone either- a local friend
tells me that 25% of the people on the Islands go to church
every week. Not even Operation Mobilisation is new to anyone here. Between
OM and Mercy Ships, there are around 1000 people
who have served with one of the two organizations. 1000 may not seem like a lot,
but that number adds up to around 2% of the
whole population. Not the 'Christian' population, the entire
population. So, neither our ship nor it's mission are new to them, only
our ships crew is...and they have certainly taken steps to correct that. What
does that mean for the Logos Hope? It means that we
are getting our batteries recharged in a big way. I doubt I could list all
of the ways that the local people have blessed us, but I will
try. A line-up team is 3 or 4 people we send ahead of the ship to an upcoming
port to 'line things up' with the port, local churches,
and the media. They did all of the line-up for us here and we didn't need to
send out a team. Two days after we got here, dozens
of locals donated their time & cars to drive the entire crew around the
island, sightseeing, hiking, & exploring. Local ship captains
have been giving groups of us 'sailing tours' around the islands. Our 'sign-up'
board is continually being filled by local people with
opportunities for us go to dinner with a local family, go out on a driving tour
with them, do some hiking, visiting, or just get off of
the ship for awhile. We have being receiving so many donations of bread, cakes,
and local sweets that the dining room often has a
line of them to choose from. We have been getting random donations from
them as well. When I say 'random', I mean just that.
Three pallets of house paint in assorted colors. A pallet of candy. A pallet of
'electronic Soduku games', of all things. I spent a few
hours with Leif Erik Niekelsen, a local man who spends his time collecting spare
food & merchandise from local shops, and giving
it to those in need. He has given us the bulk of our donations...even a pallet
of tools, work clothes/shoes, and much needed flash-
lights. There's no shortage of local volunteers, either. A group of a
dozen or so engineers is currently rebuilding one of our main
engines. Collectively, we are humbled by the seemingly endless generosity
of the Faeroe people. They truly have servants hearts
and we're blessed to know them. They have a heart for the ship as well- it
is registered in the Faeroe Islands, and carries the flag
of the country on it's stern, with 'Torshavn' painted boldly below it. We are
doing what we can to repay their kindness(es). We are
staying open later, having more church groups coming on board, and opening up as
much of the ship as we can to them. Many of
us are speaking in local churches ( I went the other night ), meeting with local
youth groups, and attending the many conferences,
missions nights, and concerts, raising the awareness of missions, and
possibly planting seeds in the hearts of their young people.
Who know? Maybe this trip to the Faeroe Islands will push that 2% number
up to 3 or 4%! So I guess in the end, it only seems
like we're not doing much here. No matter what, it was such a blessing for us to
spend even just a couple weeks in these fantastic
islands, & we'll no doubt be talking of our time here for years.
Please pray for a special blessing for
them, for all they done for us!
*
Grass Roofs-
Quite a lot of them in the Faeroe Islands. It's traditional, of course, as you
can see from the roof at left, the
one with the tourist sitting on it. It's also quite efficient, as the soil,
grass, & roots join together to provide good insulation
against the longish winters and ever-present winds in the Islands. I'm not sure
how they protect against a combined weight
of those three sagging the roof, but I suspect it's just 'strong beams'. You see
them all over and they're only interesting the
first twenty times you see one. Always the smart-alec, I asked a local friend
what they did when the grass grew long, mow
the lawn or just toss a sheep up onto the roof? He replied, "both." They
usually use sheep, but the sheep dislike it so much
being put on the roof, they often wind up just using a mower. The look on his
face said he was telling the truth, but I really
have my doubts. Finally, at bottom right...I'm a sucker for tradition, but
I think grass on the doghouse roof is a little much.
*
April 18- Bommel and I took
a kayaking trip around Torshavn harbor. We borrowed our friend Paul's inflatable
and spent a
few hours paddling around the smallish harbor. Strong winds kept us from
venturing out much further than the entrance to
the harbor, but there was plenty to see inside, especially if you tie up the
boat and walk, as we did. We saw some great old
building, a few monuments, and a great view of our ship. I made a note of what
areas need painting & cleaning. Of course.
*
Hiking in the Faeroe Islands-
I've been able to do my share. As a matter of fact, I've been hiking 4 times in
the past 2 weeks alone,
and those four hikes rank among the best I've ever done. The mountains of the
Faroe Island seem to just thrust upwards at impossible
angles, as thought they rose from the sea themselves. If I let it, this
website could easily become FaeroeIslandsPictures.com, as I have
taken so many pictures since I've been here. They take up more than twice the
space on my hard drive than the last 4 ports combined,
and half of the pictures I've have taken since joining the Logos Hope back in
November are of the islands. Pretty amazing, considering
I've only gone out less than three days, total.The beauty is such that you want
to burn every into your brain so that you don't forget it,
and I find myself gazing out from various vantage points wondering how it is
possible that a land could be so beautiful. Below you see
some pictures of the two hiking trips I've done. They weren't very
strenuous, both being about an hour and a half hike to the top, but
that's a steep ninety minutes. The first row of pictures is from my day
out with Ossur Andreason, who came to the ship and drove six
of us around all day, than to his house for supper afterwards. He, along with a
few dozen other Faroeses, many of them ex-OMers and
ex-Mercy Shippers, have gone out of their way to bless us with everything from
sailing trips around the islands to home-cooked meals!
These pictures below are of the ships current location,
Klaksvik-at 5000 people, the
second biggest city in the islands. Completely surrounded
by mountains, it makes for some great hiking right off of the ship. There's a
view of the mountain top left, with a picture of the ship next to it.
I've got two or three dozen pictures just as amazing, but figured I'd just limit
my post to eight. There's a webcam of Klaksvik, so If you want to
see the ship, go here.
We will be leaving tonight around midnight-ish, (7 pm Eastern Time) if you'd
like to watch our departure. I'll try to get
one more hike in before we go, possibly just around Klaksvik...which considering
the steepness of these mountains, is a decent hike in itself.
The Last Faroe Picture Post. (Possibly)- I had to get these last
pictures out before moving on to Belfast. A local captain with
a heart for missions donated a few hours & a few gallons of petrol to take the
deck department out on a sight-seeing boat tour of
the islands around Klaksvik. The three pictures you see directly below
were taken in sequence by me of some mountains we saw
along the way. I tried to line them up so I could photoshop them together
later, but my skills aren't good enough. Suffice to say
That is how big it was...that it took three pictures just to fit it all
in. What I wouldn't give to be able to hike all of these some day.
Below left you see a smallish house in the middle of the
mountains. I don't know if it was a place for the sheep to hide out when the
weather gets a bit much, or the same sort of thing for the sheep's owners. There
were sheep all over the hills, though-no matter how
rugged the terrain or step the hills, you saw little black and white dots
meandering around. The sheep even managed to get down to
the shoreline somehow and feast on the seaweed that grows along the waters edge.
Locals tell me they like the saltiness of it, much
like horses have salt licks in their stables. I wasn't able to get a very clear
picture from my distance. I was amazed at how they were
able to traverse the steep and rocky cliffs to get down to the seaweed. When
winter begins to draw near, the shepherds will have to
round up all these sheep, so they spend a few days (weeks?) hiking up and
down the hills and valleys finding them. When you see
some of the precarious locations the sheep manage to squeeze themselves into,
you appreciate how difficult a job shepherds have.
There's a sermon in there somewhere. Finally, the two pictures on the right show
the 'bird cliffs' of the Faeroe Islands. Though hard
to see, each of the cliffs house hundreds and thousands of seagulls, cormorants,
& puffins. Puffins and their eggs are actually good
to eat, and Faroese often spend three days in the summer climbing up the cliffs
you see in these pictures capturing the birds. They
use a net on a shortish pole (much like a fish net ) and nab the puffins as they
fly in and out of their nests. There's not much meat
on a puffin, and I was told it takes three just to fill you up. Puffins
are seasonal, and begin migrating back to the islands in Spring.
We got to see one for the briefest of moments, before he got spooked and
disappeared. All in all, it was a great trip for us deckies.
*
May 3, West Belfast- While the name 'Ireland' may conjure up
images of green, bucolic hills and quaint, charming villages,
Belfast
brings to mind a less peaceful image of the country. It was in
W. Belfast that the worst of 'The Troubles', as they're known, took place.
The fighting between the Loyalists and Nationalists has always held a strange
fascination for me. Ever since 1996, when British friends
recommended exiting the Irish pub in London we were drinking in before it got dark, I wondered why exactly two peoples so similar
could hold such animosity and distrust towards the other. The pub, whose
name I forget, looked like any other pub I'd been in, and it's
clientele no different than any other I'd seen in my travels. Yet,
my friends assured me it was very much an 'Irish' pub, and our safety
wouldn't be guaranteed if we continued to drink there for more than an hour or
so. Out we went and into the security one of 'our' pubs
to finish out the evening. I have pondered the differences between 'Irish'
and 'British' ever since, and movies about The Troubles have
ranked among my favorites, movies like The Boxer, In The Name Of The Father,
and The Devils Own. I watched the informative BBC
dramatization 'Bloody Sunday' on the sail down, and upon reaching Belfast,
I really wanted to see little more than the places that I had
seen and read about all these years. While the fighting is usually referred to
as 'Catholic & Protestants', that's really a bit of a misnomer.
The truth is, what separates the two is whose rule they would rather be under.
Unionists prefer to be under the flag of Great Britain and
that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom. They are loyal to
England and the crown (hence the term 'Loyalists') and are
generally Protestant. Nationalists are just the opposite. They want an end to
British rule, prefer all of Northern Ireland to be under Irish
rule, and are mostly Catholic. The media usually just short-hand it to
'Catholics & Protestants', so I will too. Both groups have working
classes, most of which live in West Belfast. The main thoroughfare for the
Catholics is
Falls Road, while the Protestants have
Shankhill
Road to the north of Falls, and
Sandy Row (to a lesser extent) to the south.
The pictures you see below are of some of the memorials
seen on Falls and Shankhill Roads. The first two are a kind of memorial park
outside of the
Rex Bar, which is located right next to what
was once 'Frizzell's Fish Shop'. The fish shop was the site of one of the more
notorious bombings, known as the
Shankhill Road bomb,
in 1993. Rex bar is one of the more popular Loyalist hangouts, & was the scene
of several minor skirmishes itself over the years. Next
you see a memorial to the IRA's
Bayardo Bar attack, which took the lives of five
people back in 1975. You see next to that a mural that
condemns the '30 Years Of Atrocities By The IRA'. Finally, a memorial
garden put up on Falls Road, not too far from the headquarters
for Sinn Fein. Only 1 pro-Nationalist photo? I'm not taking sides or anything-I
just saw more things worth photographing on Shankhill!
The Peace Wall is a 20-foot barrier of steel and concrete separating the
largely Loyalist Shankhill Road from Falls Road, where most of the
Nationalists generally live. We assumed that with over a decade of peace, the
wall would have come down, but no luck. We had to bike all the
way to Springfield Rd. to get past it. The wall itself was a thing of interest,
as tourists from all over the world have come to it to write a thought,
a prayer, a call for peace on it. There were plenty of 'Make Love Not War' type
of messages, even more versions of 'just have a pint together',
and a few funny ones, like 'F__k War- Let's find the leprechauns' and
'Irish Boys are cute- stop fighting'. There were a few Christian murals,
as you can see, and a few not-so-altruistic ones...'Queen Rocks- Freddie
Mercury 4 eva' being my favorite. We biked along the wall until we
got to one of the gates and wound up on Springfield. From there we biked past
shops & storefronts to Falls Road, the more 'Catholic Street'.
With a new era of peace, there are now actually tours offered of the areas we saw today, many of which are
given by former prisoners.
Murals- Both groups express themselves through the use of murals,
and I was told I there are almost 2500 scattered around Belfast.
There's even a difference in the murals the two groups paint. Loyalist murals
tend to depict a certain military company or regiment, or
perhaps a past victory. They also commemorate fallen comrades, and a few pledge
loyalty to the Queen, England, or Ulster. A few of
them were short 'history lessons' on the Protestant Reformation or Oliver
Cromwell. And of course, a number of their murals vowed
support for such paramilitary groups as the
UDA and the
UFF. The government's
actually paying to have these type of murals painted
over...looking forward by covering up the past. The more graphic and
'in-your-face murals' are
slowly disappearing, and I saw much
fewer of them than I expected to. Nationalist murals tend towards honoring
hunger strikers or their fellow 'Freedom fighters' in Spain,
Israel, and Central America. I took pictures of all that I saw (considerably
less than 2500), & stitched them together using my meager
photoshop skills. Directly below are the Loyalists murals I saw, most of
which were scattered all around Shankhill Road & Sandy Row.
Here's a a stitch of most of the murals I saw along Falls Road. As you can see,
the Nationalist murals deal more with hunger strikes and
other terrorists groups they support. There's also a mural honoring the left's
favorite coward, Che Guevara, a charming mural of George
Bush sucking the blood of the Iraqi children, and a reboot of Picasso's
'Guernica'. While these are obviously more political in nature, the
fourth one from the right is a mural advertising the cab company that offers
the 'Black Taxi Tours'.
This stitch is actually one long string
of murals I saw on Falls Road. My photoshop skills put them together the way
they were...ignore the horrible stitching of the sidewalks
and sky. If you're interested in these murals, here are links to sites about
them, including info on the ones that have been painted over-
WebUrbanist
Wikipedia
Google Image
PeaceLineTours
GoIreland
Irish Times
Belfast Journal
And a few more... to finish up the post. The top row is a few more
political ones, including a decrepit old
paramilitary mural near Sandy Row, 'Orange Just Isn't My Color' (orange tends to
be the color of choice for
loyalists), and a few others. The mural at right honors hunger striker Bobby
Sands, and is perhaps the most
well-known of Belfasts' murals. On the bottom row is some old Titanic sings. The
ship was built here, and a
popular tour is built around the old shipyard. And a few other random pictures I
took of Belfast, including a
warning not to drink, 'Sailortown', a cool-looking sports club, and the best
sign of all, seen at bottom right.
*
June 6- Yikes, has it
really been a month since I updated this page? I guess so. Truth is, I was home
for ten days towards the end of May,
so updating the website was pretty low on the list of priorities. It was a good
time home, despite many little troubles that popped up. I had
planned this trip home to be not just 10 days away from work & responsibilities,
but also a chance to stock up on the little things we like in
our lives. For me it was my favorite coffee ( Dunkin' donuts, of course),
my favorite hot sauce (Frank's), of which I was down to to one last
use, a baseball glove, some work clothes, and an assortment of books &
movies I had wanted. For books I got Cormac McCarthy's Border
Trilogy and a couple by Stephen Ambrose, my favorite non-fiction writer, most
known for his books 'D-Day' and Band Of Brothers. I also got
many of the newer movies out on DVD and some of the TV shows I had watched, but
fell out of touch with when I left. Finally, I got a few
documentaries from the library and made copies to watch while I am away. I find
as I go along I like movies less and less and prefer seeing
documentaries. Watching car chases and explosions for 90 minutes seems like a
waste of my time somehow, and after a while, you find that
you've seen it all before, anyways. When it comes to watching
documentaries, my tastes couldn't be more varied. I'll watch documentaries
on any subject, from Che Guevara to the Chicago Fire. Actually learning
something is, for me, more interesting than watching Matt Damon
shoot someone, I guess. Funny that I was such a bad student in school, yet 20
years later, I love learning new things.
The weather was unusually nice while I was home, and from what I heard, it
rained in Dublin the entire time I was gone, so I picked a good
port and a good week to come home. Temperatures got up to 90F/33c while I was
back, and every other vehicle on the road seemed to be
a motorcycle. I didn't see too many friends while I was home, preferring
to hide out and relax. I also used my time home to help my fellow
Americans by bringing back things for them, and I found myself hitting different
stores trying to find a certain iPod or Lego set. I guess it's
impossible for me to fully relax...but it gave me something to do beside sit
around the house copying movies. Some sort of flu was going
around New England, so of course I caught it, which slowed me down a bit.
I got back to the ship 8:30 Monday morning, and by 11:30 we
were outbound Dublin, bound for Cardiff, Wales, where we currently berth.
The weather here is phenomenal; it has been cloudless & warm
every day, despite the rain we had coming in (that was a fun
day...). This weather is so sunny and so nice I feel like we're getting away
with
something. The baseball glove I brought back has been put to use several times
already, and the outside project we've been working on for
the past month has been kicked into overdrive. Crew members are in much
better spirits, going off ship more, and I am seeing quite a few
sunburns around the ship these days. I did some biking with friends last week,
and some Mercy Ships friends are coming tomorrow to get
me and do a bit of hiking around beautiful Wales. I've taken few pictures since I've
been here, and even fewer while I was home, so I have
none to add to this post. I will try to take a few in the next few days.
We leave this Tuesday for London, where we will be for three weeks.
*
Biking London- This is the
third time I've been to London, and I didn't like it the first two times. That's
probably because I was on a budget. This
is not the city to be in if you're watching your pennies. If, however, you are
staying for free...say on some sort of ship, London can be explored on
the cheap. The cheapest means of travel being a bicycle, of course. I've
been on three bicycling trips around the city...two by myself and one with
a friend, Shama. Below you can see some of the many pictures I've taken on
these trips. I don't claim them to be in any kind of order, but I have
labeled them to the best of my recollection. At left is the steps of
St. Pauls Cathedral, which allowed Logos
Hopers to visit fro free, although I was
happy to just peek inside. I've seen enough cathedrals in my life. Next to
that is Shama & I in
Greenwich Tunnel,
a Victorian-era tunnel that joins
East London and Greenwich underneath the Thames. All of my bike trips started
off with a trip to Greenwich, as the tunnel was only about a mile
away and a good way to start a trip around London. Here you see Shama & I
standing in front of a statue of Nelson, outside the historic Trafalgar
Inn. We biked a few miles along the Thames past a giant anchor and stopped
for lunch on the scenic grounds of the National Maritime Museum.
Here you see my riderless bike alongside a fountain at
Buckingham Palace, me at
Horse Guards, at Tower
Bridge, the
Millenium
footbridge, and
finally alongside a statue of the Ghurkha memorial. Having worked with Ghurka's
as Security Officer at Mercy Ships, I am quite familiar with the
history of the Ghurkha's and their relationship with England. They have been in
the news in the UK quite a bit recently, as British actress
Joanna
Lumley (of
Absolutely Fabulous) spearheaded a campaign to allow the many Ghurkha's
who've served four or more years in the British army to
settle in the UK. Less than two weeks before we arrived in London, the
British government granted them the
right to do just that. The flowers
you see around the base of the memorial statue are most likely a way of saying
thanks from the people of London,...and to congratulate them.
Here you see me in Picadilly Circus- the London equivalent
of Times Square. I'm standing next to a kangaroo statue, of course. It was part
of an
ad campaign put
on by the Australian Tourist Board. They are claiming that 20 roos escaped into
the capital city and challenged London travelers
to spot as many as they could, the winner receiving a trip to
Kangaroo Island.
I was reminded of that 'Chi-cow-go'
exhibition a few years back,
when 300 or so life-size fiberglass cows were given as blank canvases to artists
to design and display around Chicago. I was in the city then and
took pictures of a few of them. Likewise, these roos were given over to
local artists to design as they saw fit, and the one you see me with is an
amalgamation of dozens of
road signs warning you of impending kangaroos on the road. Despite
there being twenty of these scattered around
the city, I only remember seeing this one. I guess I don't win that trip to
Kangaroo Island. I also spent a few hours touring around the decidedly
'non-bicycle friendly' Kensington Gardens, and as there was a Neil Young concert
in the park that night, the plethora of concertgoers and dearth
of bike paths kept me off of my bike as much as on it. Despite the many
wide-open roomy paths available in Kensington Gardens, most of them
were closed to those on wheels. I did manage to circumnavigate the park,
visiting a memorial to Diana, some nice statues, and Royal Albert Hall,
which you see below. Of course, all my bike trips finished up at the
best tourist destination in London...home, in the form of the Logos Hope!
For a page about my time in Denmark preparing the Logos Hope for sea, go here.