A tour of Giant’s Causeway and The Legend of Finn McCool

Giant’s Causeway is located in the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, near the the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.

It is a beautiful display of nature. In truth, the formations exists because highly fluid molten basalt  mixed with chalk beds 50 to 60 million years ago. As the lava cooled contractions of the rock fractured, leaving the pillar like structures you see in the video below. But maybe – just maybe – there is a different reason altogether …

The far more entertaining explanation for the causeway is told through a legend of how a giant named Finn McCool once lived there. Many of the scenic displays are given names based on Finn’s life such as the Giant’s Shoe, The Giants Organ, and the tall basalt columns on the peak of a cliff known as his chimney. Check out  the video below about Finn’s story!

Giants Causeway Visitors Centre – The Myth of Finn McCool from The Pond Studio on Vimeo.

Our visit to the Concentration Camp

In Germany we took a train from Berlin to visit one of the nearby Nazi concentration camps. We have seen quite a few “[lest we forget]” monuments between our visits to France and Germany. It seem appropriate to post one now since, as a world, we seem to be forgetting all too often. You can watch more videos of our tour of Germany here. 
 
It wasn’t the camps that started the tail spin into genocide. It was the devaluing of human life through the separation of general populations. Last week we visited a camp in Cambodia where the Khemr Rouge separated out minority ethnic and social groups as well as enforced repression of Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. All for “the greater good”. This happened in 1975. Lest we forget, right? :-/ There are far too many sites around the world of this nature to list, but the pattern to avoid should be clear.

 

Get a Visa for your Startup

Have  a startup? Thinking about living in a new city? Maybe even one abroad?

Well, you may be in luck.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a globalization of startups happening. The world is becoming not only more accepting of the startup mentality, but working hard to nurture it.  So much so that many countries now offer visas, and even cash, to startups willing to relocate.

Below are a few I’ve heard of. If you know of others let me know and I will add it to the list!

Chile

Startup Chile

Canada

My Startup Visa / Article

France

French Tech Ticket

Spain:

NY Times Article

UK (United Kingdom):

Tier 1 Entrepreneur

EU (Europe):

The EU

Italy

Italian Startup Visa

Dubai

Dubai Startup Visa

Singapore

Singapore Entrepreneur Pass

New Zealand

NZ Work Visa 

Ireland 

Start a business in Ireland

Hong Kong

http://www.rosemont.hk/worldwide-location/hong-kong-entrepreneurs-visa-/

Netherlands (Dutch)

Dutch Startup Visa / PDF

Denmark

Startup Denmark

Interested in getting a visa to the U.S?

U.S. Startup Visa Options

 

Around the world Part II – What we packed this time

When we left in April for our first around the world trip we assumed we’d follow the sunshine and packed for a year of warm weather. This time we are heading east and starting in Ireland in the fall. As a result we’ve had to pack for colder weather, and hope what we’ve learned for our last packing experience will come in handy.

Aware of underwear

Last time I went light on under garments. Based on how they were advertised I assumed quick-dry and odor fighting under garments would come in handy. They did not. It sucks wearing underwear for more than 24 hours no matter how “antibacterial” they claim to be, and quick drying items don’t dry at jaw dropping speeds. So, this time, I packed 10 days of under garments instead of 3.

For the times we do end up washing clothes, we are packing a few washing machine detergent pods. They came in handy a few times and are pretty small and light weight.

Nix’ing some Knick-knacks

We ditched a lot of knick-knacks and gadgets this time around. The quick-dry towels and specialty water containers never added much value for a hotel hopping couple like us.  After buying one bottle of water we just refilled the bottle and we always had towels in our hotels. We rarely wanted to carried the binoculars with us on our walks, and our bags always weighed the same so the bag scale was useless for 99% of the trip.

Keepers

We doubled up on the vacuum bags. They are awesome. Here is me using one below.