We left Glasgow
to ferry across the sea to Belfast .
After a little drive to the port we drove our bus onto the barge. We were not
allowed to stay on our coach when we were moving across the seat but thankfully
the barge was state of the art.
There were dining halls, restaurants,
shops, seats all around, and decks to wonder around. I got a refillable
hot drink cup for free because the credit card reader was on the fritz.
Score! The journey only took a little bit more than 2 hours and we landed
easily on Northern Ireland .
Our next stop was Belfast .
Belfast has a
very checkered past. I was a little hesitant to visit the city because of the
problems they had had in the recent past. We started our visit with a
black cab tour. We had four drivers from both religions that took our
group around the city to both the protestant and catholic areas. 1969 to
1998 were the real battle years. Like most conflicts of the past only a
few people made the lives of those around them hell. The protestants
believe that the country of Northern Ireland
should stay a part of the UK .
In their area the Union Jack flag flew from every home, street lamp, and
between the streets. There were paintings along the walls of most of the
buildings that depicted those who lost their lives during the conflict.
But the paintings in the Protestant areas they were primarily what the rest of
the world would probably consider war lords.
A few of them were killed
after the official conflict ended in 2000. The stories we were told is
that many of the leaders were killed by other factions on their own side
because of in fighting. There was one painting depicting a lone sniper
that was painted in a way that the rifle barrel seemed to follow you wherever you
went that they call the protector. Very creepy.
Our next stop was
to the Belfast
wall. Around the wall here are 10 gates and all of them are still on
use. It is what you imagine that the Berlin wall should look like.
The wall stands 45 feet tall. People to this day still try to throw
things over the wall. There was a clearly patched area from a Molotov
cocktail that didn't make it over. Many people have signed the wall
hoping that their signature and the wall will be a thing of the past.
We
signed the wall and headed into the Catholic area. The Catholics want to
be a part of Ireland rather
than staying with the UK .
Our stop inside the walls was at a memorial. The most recent troubles
started in 1969 on Bombay
drive where the memorial was with the wall only about 10 feet away. The
homes that border the wall have cages protecting the back of their homes from
stuff being thrown over still to this day. Many people lost their lives
including a few children as young as 4. Photos of those lost and their
names were placed around he memorial.
Our final stop was next to a
memorial wall that memorialized both sides of he conflict and spoke to current
issues. We took a group picture here. All said and done that during
the conflict 3800 lives were lost, more Catholics than Protestants, and about
half of those lives lost were bystanders. Such a silly thing to fight
about and there is truly still no end in sight but at least it is better.
The other thing that Belfast
is known for is their port and specifically the building of the Titanic.
All around the city there were stuff to buy, a new museum to visit (if i ever
come back I'll to there but there was not enough time), and items from it all
around. Our restaurant had quite a few decorations around including the
placemats.
I ordered a leek soup, which was very good, and fish and chips
that was too greasy. It was a bit disappointing not to get the best fish
and chips but I suppose you can't always win. After dinner a group of the
girls went downstairs to a karaoke bar. When we first got there it was
pretty much dead in there but that meant that a lot of us could get up to
sing. I had never sang in a karaoke bar before so it was a new experience
for me. The problem was when more locals started coming to the bar they
were ignoring our song requests so after about 15 minutes of listening to Irish
people singing sad country songs it was time to go and get a decent nights
sleep for he next days adventure.
If I ever get a chance to come back to Ireland
I would defiantly come back to Belfast .
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