Carole and Ulf got married - final days in Europe
Trip Start
May 20, 2009
1
24
Trip End
Oct 15, 2009
Balnamore, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
I flew to Heathrow and then had a 5 hour wait that turned into a 6 hour wait. I am down to my last foreign currency. Sweden is not on the Euro so that required Swedish Kroners. One gets spoiled by Euros and wishes everyone had them. It has always been very tricky to determine just how much to take out of the ATM machine at a time. I didn't spend that much in Sweden, had some Kroner to spend, so was able to splurge a little at the Stockholm airport. I actually bought a paperback and a real meal in a restaurant; two luxuries I hadn't allowed myself often.
I am back in Northern Ireland for the wedding of friends Carole Anderson and Ulf Keller. She was a volunteer at Innisfree in 1998. She left and worked at a camphill community in South Africa where she met Ulf, from Colditz (former DDR). They then came to Innisfree together from 01-02, worked a year in Maine and have lived in northern Ireland since then. They were coming to Innisfree on the morning of September 11, 2001 and their plane was over the Atlantic, when it was sent back to Frankfurt, only to be brought back to the U.S. a week later.
I got to Belfast City airport at 4 pm and was called by Carole's sister, Deb who was here for the wedding from South Africa. She was wondering where I was and she was at the wrong airport. Fortunately, the two Belfast airports are only 30 minutes apart. I arrived at Carole's at 5 and the household was a buzz. The wedding was the next day and the stress levels were very high. Carole is from northern Ireland and has 5 brothers and sisters all in the area except for Deb in South Africa. Ulf is from Germany and his parents, sister-in-law and niece all came over, were staying at Carole's and Ulf's and don't speak any English. Carole and Ulf have been together for 8 years and have two children, Ella 2 1/2 and Joe 9 months. They also have three teenaged foster kids. The house is hectic even in quiet times.
I did what I could to pitch in and keep Carole calm and Saturday morning we had the children ready and Deb and I (who were in charge of the children all day), got to the church. The church is the smallest in Ireland and perhaps in the world. It holds 11 people. So most of us were hanging around on the outside. The setting was stunning. The church is set into the side of a hill which is along the northern coast of Northern Ireland, close to the Giant's Causeway. Most locals have no idea it's there. The local minister for this church has the most unusual comb-over that I have ever seen. After some light refreshments, mostly during rain, the sun came out in time for the picture taking. At about 3 we all headed off for the reception/party which was held at Kilcranny House. Some of you may know this was originally started by the Peace People in the late 70's and is now a non-profit farm for residential groups and for peace and reconciliation work. Carole is on the board and it is a BVS project site-small world, huh? There was a large marquis with sides and carpeting that held all 100 or so of us for the next 6-8 hours. The food was delicious, the music was great, but I went to bed at 11 pm when we finally got Ella to go to bed. Many of us stayed over in the dormitory part so we didn't have to drive that night-this is northern Ireland, you know.
It was a terrific day and Mr. and Mrs. Keller seemed to have survived the stress and fuss of the day. We still have people coming and going but it is slowing down a bit. I am practicing some German with Oma and Opa and changing lots of nappies. I leave tomorrow and have two days in London before I head home. I have applied for a few more jobs this week, looked for a possible housemate (at least for the first few months) and spoke to Alex last night. I asked what he wanted me to bring him from London. He answered, "Just yourself." What a guy. Can't wait to see him. Happy September to one and all.
