After a few days of cleaning up smelly dorms and dirty floors, we decided to take a little trip up to Strangford Lough. Our first order of business was to master the Northern Irish bus system, which turned out to be pretty simple. Aside from being time consuming (one hour trip by car, three hours by bus because of two change-overs) and a hair on the expensive side (about £10 a piece each way--that's roughly $18, by the way) it was a really enjoyable experience. We met some slightly intoxicated old chaps at the station in Newcastle. One was named Barney and his opening line was "You have such nice teeth...and she does too!" He told us how he remembers when they used to clean their teeth with soot and salt. Ugh.
We took the ferry across the lough and stayed at a hostel in Portaferry called Barholm. It was right across from the dock and it was really nice. We were a bit disappointed, though, because the only other people there was an older couple that came in late and went straight to bed. In fact, there were very few people anywhere in the town. We did hike up to an old windmill overlooking town, though, and the view was amazing. The next day we tried breaking out the guitar while waiting for our bus. People seemed to enjoy it, although no one came up and introduced themselves.
In the afternoon we went to Dundrum to see Erynne. For those of you who don't know, she goes to our church and flew over with us, but is working just up the road at Murlough House. We ate lunch with them and she showed us the grounds, then we drove over to the Oasis, which is an old pub that they've bought and converted into a coffee house. They've done a really great job on the building. It's massive and the upper floor has probably five or six nice bedrooms, furnished B&B-style. We worked for a couple hours on getting the coffee equipment running since they are wanting to open this weekend.
So it was a good trip. Keep praying that God would bring the right people across our path and that we would recognize the opportunities He brings our way. We have a group in this weekend and all next week Youth for Christ is doing training here, so it could be tiring for us. Hopefully purposeful, though.
You can go to our online photo album to see lots of pictures from the trip.
-mark
N.Irish word of the day: torch = flashlight
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3 comments:
You guys are buskers! I don't know if you've learned that word yet, but I'll give you hint: if you see a sign that says "no busking", that's not a good place to get out the guitars! Unless you want to be rebellious.
Becca gave us a little show Friday night, a special treat from her to those of us still at her going away party toward the latter end of the evening. It was a fun night, more bittersweet times at the brick house (but mostly sweet!).
Good to hear about your travels and adventures! praying for you- love, paula
Paula, could you give us a little more formal definition? I definitely haven't heard that word yet. It doesn't sound particularly positive...
Busking just means playing or singing on the street for money. I googled it to find a formal definition and found this site which has links to busking regulations!? and other stuff. (And which has very poor graphic design; I guess not everyone can be a vocalist and a savvy web designer like you.)
Maybe you don't have to pay for a permit to busk if you're actually just playing to give free entertainment to the peoples. That's what I'd tell the bobbies if they come. Then win them with a song. (Seriously, I don't at all think you'll be getting in trouble... I didn't even know there were such a thing as permits til I googled busking.) Don't let it stop you!
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