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"People in the West are always getting ready to live." -- Chinese Proverb

253--Northern Ireland: Derry or Free Derry @ CherieSpotting     Nov 21 2004 - 17:00 PST cherie writes: Few tourists have ventured to Northern Ireland in the past 35 years, since the country has been plagued with terrorism and violence. Now at peace, the only thing we battled was 80 mph winds on a cliff. While the "war" is over, the city is still very much divided. My religious background was always asked about within the first three questions. Most conversations went something like this: 1. What's your name? (Usually by the person's name, you can tell if they are Irish, and hence a Catholic.) 2. What school did you go to? If it is a Catholic school, you are Catholic. If neither of these two questions gives a clue what religion you are...such as Cherie Sogsti and UCLA, the third question is always the same. 3. Are you Catholic or Protestant? In Derry there are no other choices. Click on each picture to see it full size. read comments (0) | write comment| views: 5583    | rated: 0.0    printer-friendly version   How'd they get that rock up there? On the way to Derry, we visit many of Ireland's mysterious dolmens. After a few weeks of exploring Irish castles, Cherie, Lindsay and Kat become experts. They're just pretending to work for the photo. Tourists come from all over the world to see this rock-thing that was built thousands of years ago. Very impressive hole. Cool stone carvings. All they want is peace. A solemn statue. The guns have been put down and the city finally rests. Even in the bakery you can find religion! Pastries for pagans? The psycho-scary mechanical baker. Cherie with an Irish Firefighter. The beach. A beer with friends. Lindsay's Guinness mustache. The spanking maching: Canadian style. Charlie's Angel's in an Irish Pub. I sang "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with this local Irish band. In Ireland, most of the traffic is fluffy. Sheep must get mad when their kids get this close to the edge. Don't you just want to hug him? (Except for the horns.) Giving our legs a stretch. The winds were so strong (gusting over 80 mph) it almost blew me off the cliff. Dave and Mick at the helm...where should we go now? Granny...now that sounds like a wild town. You know what they're thinking: "Where are all the Irish babes in bikinis?" Dave looking cool in his tweed hat. Kat and Lindsay. Hey Mick! These Irish boys know how to make tweed hats look good. The sunshine feels so good! Proof that it is possible to have one too many lawn ornaments. The beach. A dolmen, thousands of years of mystery locked in stone. The ladies wash away their sins (and foot boogers.) Doesn't that feel cool and refreshing? My kind of friends--eating ice-cream and a Diet Coke! Am I in Derry or Free Derry? Statues that make you stare with awe. Driving into Derry. The Protestant part of town (notice the red, white and blue curbs.) IRA graffiti. Barbed wire. Daffodils. Lindsay looks at a mural. Shadows of the past. Cherie. Art screaming for freedom. Life is "pretty normal" according to most Derry residents. "There aren't random bombings like there were a few years ago." Flowers and graffiti. Reaching out to heal. As the saying goes, we are not world's apart, we're words apart. 14 people that the Irish will never forget.