Belfast, Bonn, Brussels, Bruges, Belfast

Over the past 2 weeks we have been busy bees! On Friday, 5 August we had the joy of serving at a BBQ for our friends Sam's wedding. Sam is from Northern Ireland and his now-wife, Hanna, is from Germany so their families had not had a chance to meet. It was fun to not only meet their families but also provide the space for the families to meet before the wedding day. On Saturday, we attended their wedding. We got to experience many of the differences between Northern Irish/German wedding tradition and American tradition. Here the wedding is a full day event. The wedding was at 1 pm, the dinner reception followed, and then their was an after-party. The party was still going at 1 am. The bride and groom were exhausted by the end of the day I am sure! Micah has said that it is a great tradition for the people attending, but he is glad we got married in the US where the day isn't quite so long! Other differences is that they don't feed cake to each other, the speeches are REALLY important here and tapping your glass doesn't cause them to kiss...it just means to be quiet! It was really great to be a part of their wedding day!

On Sunday (after arriving home a bit after 1 am) we woke up at 2:30 am to head to Germany. It was a day full of travel! We were in 4 countries during out travels! We headed first from Belfast, Northern Ireland down to Dublin, Ireland to fly to Brussels, Belgium. Then we took the train to Bonn, Germany. Even with a few naps along the way, we arrived at our retreat centre a little worse for wear. The retreat is for all European BVS volunteers. There were 18 of us in total. After dinner and some ice-breaker games, we were off to bed for some beauty sleep!

The rest of the week was filled with project sharing, meditations, a visit to GermanWatch (an environmental organization in Bonn), games, sessions on community development, human security and inspiration, a photo slideshow, watching the film 'Life in a day', playing bocce ball, 7s, and ultimate frisbee, a group hike to an old abbey, and a BBQ. On of the highlights for the two of us was biking along the Rhine River on our free day. The weather in general was a bit cold and rainy, but on our free day the weather was PERFECT! Five of us headed out to rent bikes and spent the day biking, taking pictures, 'trespassing' to have a picnic lunch, and eating yummy ice cream! By the end of the day our bums were sore, our faces were sun burnt and we were exhausted....but it was well worth it for the views!

On our ferry across the river with our riding partners, Julianne, Kendra, and Jill.

A pretty cool church.

A vineyard we came across when on a walk.

After the retreat, we spent a few days in Brussels, Belgium. We were able to stay with a L'Arche community there, which was such a blessing. Before we got on the train for Brussels we went to the Cologne Cathedral, which was just magnificent! Brussels was beautiful and we saw way more of it than expected because we got pretty lost the first day when we were trying to find a brewery! It was really interesting to see how divided the city is. During our rather long walk to the brewery we went through neighbourhoods that were almost entirely Asian or Middle Eastern, which is just an interesting phenomenon in cities. Eventually we found it and really were glad we didn't give up. The Cantillon Brewery is family-run traditional brewery that uses the same method as the early 1900s including natural yeast--which means they don't have the control over the outcome as modern breweries do. It was a really interesting process that included a couple years of fermenting in wine barrels and a year of fermenting in bottles. If you are ever in Brussels-even if you don't like beer-we would highly recommend this place! By the time we were done with the tour it was time to head out to the L'Arche house for dinner.

Cologne Cathedral

Sunday we spent the whole day exploring Brussels. We went to a couple cathedrals, enjoyed the architecture of the Royal Place square, ate waffkes, saw Mannequin Pis and Jeanneke Pis, ate frites and mayonnaise, and walked around a lot! By the end of the day we were exhausted and headed back to the L'Arche community to hang out for the evening.

Out side the EU Parliament Bulding

The EU Parliament Building

From the main square in Brussels. Amazing!

Mannequin Pis

Yummm! Chips with mayonnaise

Belian waffles!!

Christian, one of the L'Arche Brussel's core members.

On Monday we went to Brugge, a smaller town about 1 hour from Brussels. It is known as the Venice of the North because of all the canals...we think this might be an exaggeration, but we really enjoyed spending the day in a quaint Belgian town. A fellow BVSer, Kendra, joined us for the day. It was lovely getting to spend the day with her. Other than lots of walking, we visited churches, went on a canal boat ride, and went out to some windmills. We headed back about 5 pm in order to catch our flight out of Brussels at 9. We had a bit of trouble actually getting to the airport, which led to a bit of freaking out since for awhile it seemed like we were going to miss our flight. Next time we will have learned to make sure our metro map is up to date before we use it to try to get to the airport! But...we made it in plenty of time and even had a chance to buy some Belgian chocolate!

Central square in Bruges

Since being back in Belfast, we have worked in the office. Micah is working hard to get the final details together for Root Soup's summer programme next week. Lucy is trying to recruit a volunteer for September after a volunteer left only a few days after arriving. We have hung out with Joy and Bobby. Micah has helped Sam move a shed to his parents house to store lots of stuff since Sam and Hanna are moving to Russia in a few weeks. Lucy has gone to pick blackberries with Joy and the boys. Last night we went over to Peter and Jenna's (MMNers) for dinner and had a great discussion on self-sufficiency! It seems that life just gets filled up pretty quickly!

We are looking forward to our final summer holiday to Inverness, Scotland with Thomas in a few weeks. Then, we are looking forward to returning to a routine! It is amazing how tiring being out of routine can be even when we are so thankful for the experiences we have had!! Please remember Micah and the Root Soup team in your prayers as they work hard next week to make the summer programme a huge success!

Holiday, Visitors, and Wedding Prep...

Wow! It has been a long time since we have updated you all. Our days seem to be flying by without much chance to stop and smell the roses...which are almost finished blooming here. Since we last blogged, we have had a community holiday in County Cavan, celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary, had visitors from Chicago (Lucy's Aunt Connie and Uncle Chuck) and managed to squeeze in a few days of work. It has been a crazy busy month and it doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon....but for now we will tell you a bit about what happened throughout the past month.

Community Holiday in County Cavan

L'Arche Belfast rented a house for 2 weeks in County Cavan...which is not a well-known county even by locals. It lies just south of the border (in Ireland) and is pretty much only known for its fishing. Before the holiday we were not too sure what we were going to fill our 10 days down there with, but it turned out to be a lovely spot. Just about the perfect getaway from the city. The house was situated up on a hill overlooking rolling green hills, a few lakes in the distance and a horse's pasture. Not what we typically see in Belfast!! The house was a massive 7 bedroom house with plenty of different common areas. Outside the house there was a green house where we could pick fresh salads, potatoes to be dug in the garden and chickens that gave us fresh eggs. So I can't explain it much better than to say that the setting and house were pretty much ideal.

We were quite worried about the location because there seemed to be very little to do around and Jillian in particular needs to have a variety of activities. But, after the first day of not being sure what to do with our time, we were able to fill it with lots of nice holiday activities. We went on short and long walks, had lots of picnics, laid out in the sun because it was soooo sunny, barbequed, watched movies, read magazines and books,went out for a delicious dinner and went on a boat ride with the house owner. One of the highlights was the boat ride with Paul (the owner of the house). He arranged for 2 boats to take 8 of us out and invited local musicians along to play for us. It was awesome to be out on the lake and it was Thomas's first time on a small fishing boat (he had been on a ferry before but this was a bit different). We stopped off at an island that had a really old tower (I forget how old it was...sorry history people out there) and the musicians played for us at the super scenic point. Another highlight was when we went out the dinner. The owner of the house owned a restaurant and from the photo it appeared pub-like, but when we arrived (after booking) we saw the menu and the cheapest main was 23 pounds. Somehow we didn't think that we could afford it, but since we had booked we sent Micah in to say that we weren't going to be able to keep our booking. When he came back out, we were all planning to load into the car to find somewhere more in our price range, but Micah reported that Paul was willing to give us a deal--15 pounds for a starter, main and dessert. We only had a few options instead of the whole menu, but it sounded perfect! And the food was delicious. It was one of the best meals we have ever had. After we had dinner, we headed to a pub to listen to some traditional music. When we got into the pub, we were informed that some of the locals had seen a video of us on the boat and had 'heard about us'. We are a motley crew so it isn't too surprising that we were the talk of the town! A final highlight was when we went on a walk to an old abbey. It was on a family's private land, but we got permission to walk back to it and have a picnic. When we got back to the abbey, the landowner offered to let us picnic in his holiday house that he rents out. It had a beautiful wrap-around deck with picnic tables which made the perfect picnic sight. We were really blessed during the 10 days to have so many people be so generous in interacting with us. (Another highlight of course was celebrating 2 years of married life! We were able to sneak away for lunch and some yummy dessert, which was really nice!!) Below is a highlight video from our time in County Cavan.

Aunt Connie and Uncle Chuck Visit!

By the time we got back from community holiday, Lucy's Aunt Connie and Uncle Chuck had arrived in Belfast. They had visited Ireland a few years ago, but hadn't made it up to Belfast or the North Coast. The first evening (after a bit of a nap), we toured the Ember, saw the allotment and then they took us out to a beautiful dinner at 'Made in Belfast'. Thursday, their second day in Belfast, was a work day for us so they headed out to explore the city before joining us in the Ember for dinner. The next day, we headed out bright and early to drive up the Coast to the Giants Causeway. Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle. Then we drove on Torr Head Road. Uncle Chuck did a great job on the tiny road! After lunch and ice cream we continued onto the Carrick-a-rede bridge before finally making it to the Giant's Causeway. By the time we were finished at the Giant's Causeway, we were all pretty knackered, so we found a bed and breakfast to stay at and headed out to dinner. The next day (Friday) of the tour of the North began at Bushmill's Distillery. Before we even got the tickets bought, the fire alarms were going off so we had to evacuate and wait for the all clear. It was a really interesting tour even though it is the 'dry' season so no whiskey was currently being produced. After the distillery, we headed to the Ulster-American Folk Park where we were able to 'travel' through the process of leaving Ireland during the famine and arriving in America. It was crazy to think about all the changes the immigrants went through to from different house styles to different crops to different climates. How true is that still today for immigrants! Our final stop on the driving tour was several stone circles. The purpose of the stone circles is not known for sure, but it is believed they were used in celebrations and burials. By the time we were back on Saturday, we were all ready for some take-away pizza and bed! Sunday was their last full day in Belfast. Aunt Connie and Uncle Chuck attended church with us and then we headed to the Mount Stewart House. The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens. It was a lovely day out except that Micah got the flu and felt really awful while we were there. He even had to ask to leave the tour of the house!! When we were finished with the tour we went to look for Micah and he was no where to be found. The visitor's centre was shutting down but we were able to get someone's attention so we could phone Micah. Lucy was almost in a panic by this point thinking the worst, but Micah answered and had just been laying in the sun! I can't imagine what it must feel like to loose a child if loosing my husband was that stressful! Uncle Chuck and Aunt Connie left SUPER early on Monday morning. It was so lovely to have them here and they were so generous in inviting us along on their adventures!

Connie and Chuck at Carrickfergus Castle

Back at the Giants Causeway

The Stone Circles

Back to Work...

For almost the past 2 weeks, we have been back in the routine of work, church, hanging out with friends and trying to fit in a little relaxing. It has felt good to get back into some sense of routine after many weeks away from it. Micah this past weekend was invited along to a stag do (aka bachelor party). A group of guys headed down to Wicklow Mountains to the groom's family's land to camp. It was a great weekend filled with repelling, hiking, canoeing, and good craic. He came back really tired and really stinky! We had to wash his clothes 2 times in order for them not to reek! Since getting back, Micah has been helping Sam (the groom) set up for the wedding reception. We are looking forward to going to and helping out with their wedding this weekend. On Tuesday evening, Eileen, a board member, invited us over to her house for dinner. She was the director of hospitality at Queens University for over 40 years so we were expecting a lot and she didn't disappoint! It was a lovely evening and so nice to be in her home.

Next week we are headed to Bonn, Germany for BVS retreat and then stopping off in Brussels, Belgium afterwards for a few days. We are looking forward to a break from Belfast life except that our flight is out of Dublin at 6:50 on Sunday morning (the morning after the wedding!!). Yikes that is going to hurt! Keep us in your prayers as we travel!

We made this video for our BVS retreat. It is a brief overview of what we do in L'Arche.