Just a Matter of Time

Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao

Time is relative. It changes with the activity and from person to person. If we’re having fun, the time flies. When we are bored, a minute passes like an hour.  Just ask any student.  Time is subjective and multi dimensional. Two people can do the same thing at the same time and end up having two very different experiences. Just ask any husband who accompanies his wife at a shoe shopping craze. Time is also emotional; we continuously shape it through our experiences and perceptions.

So how do you perceive time if the experience is disorienting or fragmented?

And no, I’m not referring to Borges’ The Garden of the Forking Paths or Labyrinths. I’m just trying to explain ‘The Matter of Time’, a truly inspiring installation we’ve just seen at the Museo Guggenheim at Bilbao. I am not even sure ‘see’ is the correct word to describe the experience. I might as well use ‘share or walk through’. 

The Matter of Time

The artist Richard Serra created eight shapes of ellipses, spirals and spheres; all layered & gigantic and invites the visitors to map each shape and space through their own motions and choices. There’s no preferred sequence to walk around (or in!) the shapes, you can start with any one of them, walk in, run around, touch, sing and experience the whole thing as you wish. 

Come to think of it, it was as if some of the stories from Labyrinths (The Circular Ruins or Chuang Tzu’s dream within a dream) materialized as huge shapes of steel.

Amazing. No ?

The Matter of Time is not the only think that’s interesting at the Museo; the building itself with it’s curving metallic exterior and huge glass & stone interior is as mind blowing as any installation that took place within.

Tulips 

Both the building and its permanent collection The Matter of Time are hailed as the very best examples of 20^th cc contemporary architecture and art by critics. Don't take my word for it, just have a look. http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/

Pintxos and Waves

Imagine a city that is blessed by nature, adorned by beautiful Spanish architecture and full of friendly people who are wizards in the kitchen...  and you’re probably thinking about San Sebastian.

San Sebastian from Monte Igeldo

The city is well protected from the worst that the Atlantic can offer by its small island on the seaside and by three high hills on the land side. As a result, human habitation has started as early as 24000 BC. It had its share of wars; it was occupied by almost every conquering army -Romans, French, Portuguese, English etc - at one point in time.  

When you see San Sebastian, you understand why every civilisation passing through wanted to settle there.  It simply is beautiful. The city was built around the scallop shaped La Concha bay and today its three beaches are at the heart of the city.  The rumour is that there’s a forth – the phantom beach - between the island and the mainland which can only be seen if the tide is right and light is bright and the stars align correctly when the black crow is flying. Not surprisingly we couldn’t see it, but the ones we did see were beautiful enough.

Parte Vieja Harbour

We had a lovely time in San Sebastian doing what the Spaniards do: Walk and eat pintxos (Basque name for tapas).  We took long strolls on the promenade on Bahia de La Concha, got wet watching the waves hit the  tall walls at Passe Nuevo, climbed both Monte Urgull  & Monte Igeldo and watched the surfers at Playa de Zurriola . Mostly, we did the favourite pastime of any seaside town:  sat at cafes and watched the life go by. And of course, we’ve sampled the Txikiteo bars to eat pintxos.

It’s impossible to describe San Sebastian without mentioning its restaurants and Txikiteo bars. Hosting three of Spain’s six Michelin 3-star restaurants, the small city has a well earned reputation for being the gourmet capital of Spain. And nobody is even counting the lesser Michelin-star restaurants.  But the main surprise came from the variety and taste of the pinxtos.  Before visiting San Sebastian, tapas for me were some sort of meat or cheese put on small pieces of bread. That is still true enough, but now they also come as foie gras cooked in sherry or tuna tartar with lime mousse or artichoke hearts served with lemon mayonnaise. All yummy!

While planning this trip I had managed to find a booking in one of the Michelin 3-stars but had to cancel it due to our changing schedule. I shouldn’t have worried; we had an incredible feast in a local restaurant named La Vida tasting the above and much more. More incredibly, we paid less than 40 EUR for two people including wine!

The city is packed with pinxtos bars and it’s a challenge to find the good ones. The trick that worked for us was to go where locals go. If a place is packed with Spaniards young and old, eating drinking and talking loud, ignore the horrible fluorescent lights and lack of any charm or even chair. Just go in, select one or two types of pinxtos (never more!), pick your drink and find yourself somewhere to sit on the street. Savour the tastes and repeat the same exercise at another similar place.

Another challenge that we still didn’t quite overcome is the language. Spaniards speak Spanish really fast and some of them don’t speak anything else. Even if there’s an English or French menu, the chances are your waiter doesn’t speak either; or the English words might have a different meaning : In one of our favorite cafes' the vegetarian sandwich was coming with three types of bacon. When we utter some words in our best attempts in Spanish, say in a restaurant or in a shop, the reply comes at warp speed and detailed. Up until now we managed to survive but every day brings a new challenge or two...

Today I'm in a bad mood

Living, working and travelling in Europe for years we have seen many places, some are more beautiful than others.  While the geographies or customs change, one thing constant is the attention given by the authorities to make people’s lives better.  The public transport, the public recreational spaces, the basic health services are all there and all in some sort of working order. Basically, the public servants from the president of a country down to a junior clerk sitting in some office in a far away town are doing their jobs better. 

Are these countries richer than mine? Some are but not all.  

Do they all sort out their internal differences whether idealistic, religious or nationalistic and concentrate on the well being of their people as a whole?   No, just take a look at Belgium.

Are their governments and city councils full of people who dedicate their lives just to serve the country without any personal benefit or gain? Come on. People are people everywhere. They all have the capacity to be good and greedy.

Are their media more objective, telling people the truth and nothing but the truth?  Yeah, right!

So why do they serve better ?  Simply because they have to. The public, the media and the system have put better auto controls through the years. If the public servants are caught cheating (and from time to time some cheat big time) or make a mess of their responsibilities (here the examples are endless) they have to resign their posts, take accountability and face serious punishment.

When was the last time anyone can remember this happening in Turkey?

Look at Van. People are dying under horribly constructed buildings, and if they survive the earthquake they have to face cold and hunger. I don’t even want to start writing on Kizilay. Who could have thought it will be cold in late October in Eastern Turkey ? Or people require shelter and food to survive ?

The memories of the 1999 earthquake are still strong in most of us but we again see the history repeating itself.

Does anyone really believe that the people who built the houses and more importantly the authorities who gave the permits will all be punished? 

I just finish reading an article titled ‘ The geography of tears’ where the writer was talking about the recent events we had to face, first the death of the 24 soldiers fighting a never ending war and then the earthquake.  And he was giving more examples of human suffering in Libya, Iraq and elsewhere in Middle East. It was a well written piece and the writer was saying that tears and suffering are the fate of the people who are sharing our geography, so nothing could be done but we have to keep hoping. He wasn't even specific on what we are supposed to be hoping for.

I lost count of the times I read a similar piece or a statement when someone was blaming some can't-be-controlled-authority (fate is the most popular, although the weather, God's will and unseen evil forces all play their parts in such statements). And of course they all advise hope. 

Well, I respectfully disagree.  

We as the people have to start thinking and asking the right questions and force actions. And most of all, remember the past. Because if we don’t look after ourselves, nobody else will.

Why do I write this?  I don’t even know.

But as I said earlier, today I’m in a bad mood.      

A night at the Opera

Courtesy of Grand Opera

As I listened to Carmina Burana’s strong notes in Bordeaux’ beautiful Grand Opera, I couldn’t stop reflecting on two things:

· The power of music and how it never fails to affect me.

· If a man’s body is good, he still looks hot in funny skirts. 

Anyway, back to the present moment. When we decided to visit this region couple of weeks ago, buying these tickets was the first thing I did; as a result our places are just below the nose-bleeding level. But the opera house is beautiful, the ballet combines best of modern and classical dancing and the music is moving. All in all a perfect ending to a day in the city of Bordeaux.

Earlier in the day we walked the boulevards and quays, enjoyed the sights, sat at the roadside cafes and drank Lillet (we both prefer the red, but the white is delicious as well), looked at the shop windows at the Rue Ste. Catherine and climbed the 200+ stairs to the bell tower to gape at the city.  At night we met with our friends Anne and Andre for a delicious dinner and enjoyed the lights reflecting on Miroir D’eau at Place de la Bourse.

Bordeaux is old, rich and beautiful. Situated on both banks of the Garonne river, it was an important trade centre from 11^thcc thanks to its ‘port of the moon’. By 18^thcc, the city was at its peak and played a big-scale role model to Baron Haussmann’s transformation of Paris from a medieval town to today’s beautiful capital.

Our French friends, when they heard about our plans to visit this area, have asked us if we also plan to visit Bassin d'Arcachon, the seaside region on the way to Cap Ferret.  After establishing the fact that Cap Ferret is not Cap Ferrat (which is in Cote d’Azur so a bit far away for a day trip) and learning that the region is famous for its locally cultivated oysters, mais bien sur, we hit the road again.  

A street at L'Herbe

It’s an area of villages and towns placed in close order along the Atlantic with its sand dunes and never ending beaches. The French kept the area to themselves so it’s very local, beautiful and were still buzzing in late October.  We had the best lunch at a seaside restaurant which consisted of a dozen oysters & two bottles of Rose and visited some thoroughly cute seaside villages.

Best lunch ever :-)

Biarritz

The next day we continued to Biarritz, another very famous holiday location. As oppose to other seaside towns along the Atlantic coast, Biarritz is located on cliffs and the sea bottom is mostly rocks. Therefore the colours and sights are very similar to the Med Coast, which adds special charm to this trendy resort.

After Biarritz we’ll be leaving France and continue to San Sebastian in Spain. We know about ten words in Spanish, so it'll be interesting !

Saint-Emilion : A Jewel of a Town

When a place is especially beautiful, the French call it a bijou or a precious jewel.  In that sense, Saint-Emilion is definitely a bijou in the heartland of Bordeaux with it’s narrow roads, underground monolithic church and historic vineyard landscape which have survived intact from 11^th cc. Saint-Emilion and all the surrounding area is a Unesco World Heritage site, which is a reason of pride for the French and a present to future wine lovers. So, thank you Unesco.

The old medieval city owns it name to a very pious young man called Emilion who came to the region in the 8^th cc . He found it so peaceful he decided to live there as a hermit. So he carved a cave of around 15 square metres out of limestone, dedicated his life to prayer and started performing many miracles. His reputation helped to make the town a pilgrimage site and five Christian orders followed suit. Among them the Benedictines proved to be very industrious, they not only designed and built the town of Saint-Emilion they also managed to carve themselves the largest monolithic underground cathedral of Europe in just 40 years.  What I especially liked was how they used the Zodiac calendar in their planning and architecture; letting the stars guide them in the outlining of their town. 

The magnificent underground cathedral was once covered with carvings and paintings, some of which were inspired from the paintings at the cave churches of Cappadocia.  After the French revolution when all religious assets were nationalised, its walls were scraped to obtain saltpeter to be used in guns, only leaving a fraction of its original glory. Now the Romanesque church and it’s catacombs rests just over the underground cathedral and the hermit’s cave , adding another dimension to this medieval town.

Today the little town hosts two striking cathedrals, nice bars and restaurants, numerous wine boutiques who are selling any imaginable produce & vintage & gadgets (I bought two bottles of salt seasoned with Merlot & Cabarnet; I don't know what I'll do with them but they smell great!) and Madame Blanchez’s small patisserie that is specialised in heavenly Canneles and macarons. Canneles and macarons are a serious business in this part of the world for centuries.  For centuries Bordeaux wine makers use egg whites to cleanse the wine from remaining sediments.  Just before bottling they scrape 4-6 egg whites to a barrel and wait until the egg whites along with remaining sediment rest at the bottom. They then get the clear wine and sell the unused egg yolks to neighbouring patisseries who make a special desert called ‘ Canneles’  (taste similar to Izmir’s lokma in a wine syrup) .  And Mme B's recipe for macarons is one of Saint-Emillion's best protected secrets. 

It’s impossible to talk about Saint-Emilion without mentioning its beautiful vineyards and wonderful wine, which Louis XIV called ‘ the nectar of Gods’. So, not surprisingly Saint-Emilion wines have their own classification and own patron saint ! Whereas all other wine growing regions are protected by St. Vincent in France , Saint-Emilion producers chose St. Valerie , a saint that doesn’t appear anywhere else, to be their patron saint. It seems to work just fine ; the little town is buzzing with tourists and wine enthusiasts , all shops are doing good business and this years’ harvest was bountiful.  

Route des Chateaux

We started our Bordeaux tour from Medoc, the home to the famous Grand Cru wines. Medoc region lies on the west banks of Gironde river and a wonderful  route – Route des Chateaux – connects all the famous appellations of Haut-Medoc, Margaux, Moulis, Saint-Julien, Saint Estephe and Pauillac, the largest town of Medoc region.  True to the name the route is lined with Chateaux, a number of which are producing some of the world’s best and most expensive wines.  

Ch. Margaux

We came to Bordeaux just after the harvest and found out that this is in fact a very good time to visit the region. The weather is great, the vineyards are looking beautiful in autumn colours and most importantly, visiting the Grand Cru Chateaux are pretty easy.  In fact, apart from Premier Crus which were mostly accepting wine professionals after the harvest, we easily found our way to some very good Grand Crus.

But before writing about what we did (basically drinking and more drinking) some facts on Bordeaux wines:

- Although people were growing wine in this region from the early Roman times, the region put itself on the map by selling most of its production to England from 12^th cc onwards, especially when they managed to dry up the marsh lands of Medoc into world class wine growing terroir . In fact when the Spanish wine became famous among the riches of England in 17^th cc, the owners’ of the largest Bordeaux producers opened their own taverns in central London to sell their own wines and win back the British appetite.  Not very typical French, n'est-ce pas?

- England’s preference to the Bordeaux ‘claret’ is pronounced over and over in the stories of its great novelists like Forsythe, le Carre and Roald Dahl.  You might remember the scene from any Le Carre novel where the foxy spymaster invites an associate / gifted underling /clueless journalist to his Gentlemen’s Club for a ‘bit of lunch and a quiet world’ and invariably invites the ‘old chap’ to the Club’s ‘decent claret’.  Dahl wrote has two very good short stories about the Bordeaux wines (Taste and The Butler).

- As the British -and of course the French- appetite for Bordeaux wines have grown, the number of producers and prices of the wines have increased in parallel. To put some kind of an order among them, Napoleon III ordered at 1855 that a classification system to be created.  As a result, the famous Grand Cru classification was born mostly based on price & quality. Today the Grand Cru classifies 61 producers into five categories from Premier Cru down to 5th (5eme). The problem is, the list has not really been updated since then. So if your grand granddaddy was not producing & selling his wine at Medoc in 1855, you can’t get your wine classified as Grand Cru today whatever its quality may be. In order to overcome this particular problem and after years of discussions, the inventive French come up with different classifications (Cru Bourgeois, St Emillion Classification, AOC,VDP etc etc) and confuse the hell out of the wine drinkers around the world.

- Although each producer adds a special small twist, the Grand Cru Chateaux are all producing their wine using most of the same techniques that they were employing over the centuries; mainly due to tight regulations and strong tradition. For example they are not allowed to irrigate if there’s a drought, or they can’t cover up their vineyards if a bad storm is coming. Of course they don’t even think about adding any chemicals. So although they use the best available technology all through the process , their wine is still as natural as it comes.

Wine tasting in Bordeaux is easy. Or to quote Erbil who likes his computer games ‘They made Bordeaux interface user friendly’.  Most Grand Cru’s require appointments (which you can get on the internet) although some have daily scheduled tours. The smaller producers don’t even require that, you just knock on their doors and asked to be shown around and taste their wine. A typical tour is around one and a half hours including the wine tasting and costs between 7-15 EUR per person. In Champagne region the similar tours were more impressive, for example Mercier have the famous cellar train or a visit to Moet & Chandon feels you feeling grateful to taste their excellent champagne; but in Bordeaux the process is more friendly. A nice hostess welcomes you and while explaining the wine making process , she takes you to the vineyards, Vat room , cellars and finally the tasting room where she generously pours glass after glass of great wine while chatting about this or that.  Since we visited the region just after the harvest, the workers were actually performing some of the tasks that our hostess was explaining. An unseen benefit was the smell of fresh wine so powerful it made us light headed before we hit the tasting rooms.

We visited quite a few, the ones that stood out are Chateau Pontet Canet  which is the only Grand Cru that is certified as organic and biodynamic  and Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron . In the first one the process is totally natural to the point of using horses instead of any kind of machinery. I loved the second one for it’s fairy castle, beautiful cellars and excellent wine. Among other wines we tasted, the Ch.Pichon Longueville Baron 2004 was unforgettable! 

After Medoc we continued to Graves and Sauternes and took the Circuit de Sauternes which took us through the beautiful French country side. In Medoc the villages are very cute (especially Saint Julien) and the vineyards and Chateaux are lined up one after the other. In Graves and Sauternes, although the countryside is more beautiful, I found the region less charming than Medoc. One note on the sweet Sauternes wines :  I know some of my friends always prefer red wine and with good reason; however nothing beats a glass of Sauternes with a plate of home made Fois Gras ! 

ICELIM ACILALIM - 1

Yıllar önce Erbil’le Istanbul’dan çıkıp bütün kahverengi tabelaları takip ederek bütün Akdeniz kıyısını gezmiştik. Birlikte yaptığımız onlarca gezi arasında en keyiflilerinden biriydi. Bir sürü yere girip tarihi mekanları gezmiş , minik lokantalarda yemekler yemiş , hiç bilmediğimiz yerler keşfetmiştik.

Şimdi de o turun biraz farklısını Avrupa’da yapalım dedik. Brüksel’den yola çıkıp Bordeaux üzerinden İspanya’ya gitmeye karar verdik. Turun ilk bacağını yani Bordeaux ve San Sebastian’ı  az da olsa planladık, sonrasına Allah kerim.

Brüksel – Bordeaux arası 900km’nin biraz üzeri, biz de sabah erken çık yol al tarzı bir çift hiç değiliz. Dolayısı ile ilk gece yol üzerinde bir yerlerde kalalım dedik, haritayı açıp parmak basarak bulduğumuz yer Orleans çıktı.

Orleans’ın güzel bir gotik katedrali, çok sempatik bir ‘old town’ ı ve Jeanne D’Arc’ı var.

Jeanne 12 yaşlarından itibaren tanrısal sesler duyduğunu iddia eden ve Tanrı’nın kendisini Fransa’yı işgalci İngilizlerden temizlesin diye görevlendirdiğine inanan bir kız. İnancı ve hep doğru çıkan öngörüleri sayesinde dönemin yöneticilerini de ikna ederek uzun zamandır İngiliz işgali altında olan Orleans’ı kurtarmaya giden ordunun ruhani lideri oluyor. Ve yine inancının kuvveti sayesinde (ben başka açıklama bulamadım)  askerlerin moralini etkileyip Orleans’ ın sadece 9 gün içerisinde İngiliz işgalinden kurtulmasını sağlıyor. Bu yetmiyormuş gibi İngilizlerle farklı cephelerde savaşıp onları  yenmeye devam ediyor. Sonu malum, İngiliz yanlısı Fransız’lar tarafından yakalanıp on bin altına İngilizlere satılıyor ve kısa bir mahkeme sonucu suçlu bulunduğundan 19 yaşındayken yakılıp öldürüyor, tabii daha sonra da şehit ve azize ilan ediliyor.

 Orleans’lılar günümüzde Jeanne’e olan şükran borçlarını bilimum cadde, pastane ya da şarküteriye onun adını vererek ödemişler. Ama yine de kısa bir gezi için Orleans keyifli bir şehir. Bölge yine şarapları ile ünlü Loire vadisi üzerinde, binalar restoranlar barlar vs son derece sempatik. Güzel bir Thai restoranında yemek yeyip şehirdeki barları gezerek çok hoş bir gece geçirdik. Hava da şansımıza çok güzeldi.

Bordeaux’da iki yerde kalacağız. İlk durak Medoc bölgesinde Château Meyre. Medoc  tarafında bütün Grand  Cru üreticisi Château’lar var, otelimizdeki çok sempatik resepsiyonist – concierge Celia bize çok güzel bir şarap tadım program hazırlamış. Yani önümüzdeki üç günün planı mümkün olduğunca çok şarap içmek. 

Devamı yarına.

 

Following the footsteps of Knights Templar & Giants

After spending two months in Istanbul and at the wonderful Turkish Riviera, we went on to Scotland and Northern Ireland to meet up with some friends.  

I consider myself as a true Mediterranean i.e. no place is perfect without the sun and the blue skies and the deep turquoise colour of the Med, but guess what? The landscape could be beautiful without any of the above.

We started at Edinburgh, which is truly an enchanting city. Rich in culture and history, it’s also undeniably hip with its cool bars, restaurants and boutiques. My first visit to the city was during the Festival a few years ago. It was buzzing with people rushing from one venue to another trying to capture as much ‘culture’ as possible in some form or another.  I know it doesn’t sound very nice, but doing it was actually quite fun. This time it was only slightly less crowded. The weather was generally terrible which didn’t affect our mood in the slightest.  Since it was the first time for our friends in Scotland, we did some of the touristic stuff , the Castle , the Camera Obscura (ok we looked at the building from the outside and went for a drink), the obligatory cashmere shopping. Mostly we walked the city, tasted various brands of Scotch Whiskey (my personal favourite is Dalwhinnie) and rested at pubs when the rain got really annoying. The nights were alternatively spent drinking cool cocktails at Tiger Lily or tasting great food at La Garrigue.

Outside of Edinburgh there is the lovely Rosslyn Chapel which was made famous in one of the Dan Brown novels. Whatever your feelings towards his books may be, the little Chapel and the surrounding countryside are worth a visit. Built in the 15^th century, it’s a wonderful combination of architecture, myth and history. The interior of the chapel is filled with carvings, statues and symbols and the guides explain all in entertaining detail.

One example is the Apprentice Pillar, which is the object of one of my favourite Rosslyn stories. Once upon a time when the chapel was being built, there was a master mason who carved a pillar and then went on a journey to extend his knowledge to carve a more elaborate one. But during his absence his apprentice carved another pillar next to his master’s which was much more exquisite than the first. Returning back and seeing his apprentice’s masterpiece, the master mason went mad with jealousy and killed the apprentice which in turn caused him to be executed.  If that was not enough, they also put the mason’s own statue across from the Apprentice Pillar, making him look at his downfall till eternity. Justice in 15^th century was a serious business.

There are many more statues and stories; the seven sins and seven virtues, the musical cords hidden in the keystones, the Green Man and the Jesus. For me, the most entertaining ones are around the Knights Templar ; especially  the whereabouts of the secret treasures of the Templar, what exactly is buried under the chapel just under the arrow shaped keystone (the Holy Grail, the Arc of the Covenant or the body of Elvis?) and whether the Knights Templar discovered America before Christoph Colombus (just look at the aloe and maize leave carvings.)

Just a few miles from Rosslyn on a lovely country road we happened upon the remains of a 12^th century Templar church which was filled with beautifully carved old tombstones. If you want to experience peace and calm among the ruins of a graveyard when actually still alive, that’s definitely the place. 

After Edinburg we continued to Loch Lomond for a brief stay at the Lodge on Loch Lomond. The weather was really horrible so we couldn’t take a cruise on the Loch , but nevertheless enjoyed the hotel, the food (yes, even the haggis, tatties and neeps)  and the little village of Luss with its houses fit for Cinderella and seven dwarfs.

We then moved on to Northern Ireland which is a land of green hills, sheep, poets, magical creatures and friendly people who speak English with the speed of lightning. 

We started at Belfast, which for me was Guiness, pubs to drink Guiness and the Merchant Hotel which served Guiness . Plus the Cathedral and a few other places.

We then continued to Bangor, a pretty seaside town just outside Belfast which hosts one of the best restaurants in the country : The Boathouse. Just go to the marina and look for a small stone building which was once the harbormaster's office. Now it’s a great little restaurant whose handsome chef visits all the tables to discuss the food and the experience. If you prefer pub food drive a few miles to Donaghadee and try Pier 36 for good seafood or Grace Neill’s, the oldest pub in Northern Ireland for the atmosphere.

One afternoon we had a few hours to kill so we decided to visit the Folk and Transport Museum. The Transport Museum is a boy’s dream full of trains and cars and buses and everything you ever wanted to know about Titanic. We girls and boys had a lot of fun there. 

The Folk Museum is an open space museum of a typical 18^th century village showing how the people lived then. In its post office we met Viktor, the post office master and a very kind guy who drafted for us the best cross country driving route, carefully emphasizing where to turn and what not to miss.  We took his advice and had a great day driving around. The highlights were Carrickfergus Castle (more Templar stories and decades of wars) , the Torr Road on the way to Ballycastle (which was Viktor’s best contribution), Bushmills Distillery to taste 16 year old malt whiskey and finally the Giant’s Causeway which deserves more time than we manage to spent there.

Giant’s Causeway or Clochán an Aifir as Irish call it is one of the places that feel out of this world.  It is a huge area of some 40,000 basalt columns formed by an ancient volcanic eruption. But when you actually see the size and shape of the landscape somehow this explanation loses its meaning. This is one of the places legends and reality goes hand in hand, therefore I choose to believe the legends instead. 
Legend has it that the Irish Giant Finn McCool built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. But Finn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Finn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. When Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Finn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.

In order to find out which version you believe in, just go and visit. I’ll definitely do it again.