Double, Double
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
1
38
110
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Belfast,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
I am finlly catching up to write these final three entries, and this is the last one I have photos for, because my camera was destroyed at Tomatina, losing my photos from Ibiza and Valencia/Bunol. These won't be great, but I did want to somewhat memorialize my final three destinations.
I was only in Belfast two nights. I had not visited when I studied in Dublin in 1991 for obvious reasons, but I had read that, although there are still tensions, the killings have stopped since the George Mitchell-brokered peace in 1998. And I found this to be basically true. The town is still divided along Unionist (Catholics who want to be unified with Ireland) and Loyalists (Protestants who want to stay with Great Britain) in terms of neighborhoods and, to a cerain extent, bars, although most of the central ones appeared to cater to both kinds, given that they prohibited football colors or anything else that would indicate your loyalty
America´s Greatest Failure
.I stayed in the Catholic part of town without knowing it until I got there, but it is impossible not to notice because the neighborhoods are festooned with either Union Jacks or Irish flags and murals depicting famous figures, martyrs and the like (see pictures). I also took an open-top bus tour that goes down all the famous streets and shows you the "Peace Wall" (which raises an interesting question about whether a wall would also bring "peace" to Israel/Palestine) and gates that still separate neighboorhoods, although it is shorter than in 1998 and the gates are open more often.
Other than that, it's not the prettiest city, and it is most famous for being where the shipyard that built the Titanic is located. Tourism is rising, but it is expensive compared to Ireland, probably because they use the British Pound, except for the "black cabs" which are unmarked black English-style cabs that charge one pound per person per trip no matter how far you go. They run set routes and will put up to six people in them, but so what, and everyone still uses them despite the regular buses no longer being bombed.
All that said, I had a pretty good time just wandering around and shooting the shit with the locals
Catholic Flags
. I went on an historic pub tour, which was interesting because, while the tour guide was telling stories about the decor and history, I was checking out which pubs seemed fun, and which were full of "hard guys," the name the locals call the guys who seemed to enjoy (or at least participate) in the Troubles.In the end, though, I found the Spaniard, a totally non-historic bar, which several patrons told me was the best bar in town, and I have to agree. The place was great. No hard men, a great vibe, fun, friendly, etc. I ended up there both nights, although I have no good stories out of it. That about sums it up. I will try to get to
Ibiza, Spain soon.
