Friday, June 18, 2010

He didn't fall? Inconceivable!

Scotland was an amazing place full of history and rugged terrain worthy of Lord of the Rings grandeur. Ireland was not. While the Scots take pride in their culture, language and identity, the Irish seem to almost resent theirs. Probably due to the great potato famine (i kid you not) where the separation between the rich and poor became so extreme that millions died or left the country. The rich dealt with their English conquerers and could speak the language but the poor spoke only Irish. Thus the Irish language became a peasants language and English slowly took over as the native tounge. Irish is rarely used today except by 'uncultured' country folk. The country are gradually starting to take pride in their culture and language but its still a while to go yet.
True story: A couple of farmers came into Dublin to check out their Irish capital. Irish was their first language and they happily conversed in this... until a schoolkid yelled at them to go back to where they came from. (He thought they were Polish).

Anyway enough history (sorry about that but the Micks didn't give me much else to talk about). Went to the Guinness factory - cool tour, Guinness tastes gross. But the real highlight of my trip around South Ireland was our tour visit to THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY Thats right - THEY DO EXIST!!! The princess bride was filmed here. View was special but it was so much cooler knowing Andre the Giant once powered his way up this mountain with 3 people on his back. Inconceivable!



Happy birthday to my little bro who turned 21 recently. Seeing that I can't be there to do it personally can someone do me a favour and wrestle him to the ground (Watch out for his headlocks) and remind him he's not so big :o)

1 comment:

  1. Between the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Princess Bride, you have embraced some of the best in modern film - but nothing could replace the grandeur of the scenery the Lord has created. Continue to thrill at all you see and experience :-)
    Bless you
    the Warwicks of Dev

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