Belfast or Bust!
Trip Start
Mar 05, 2008
1
102
107
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Belfast,
Northern Ireland,
United Kingdom
Thursday, January 1, 2009
We were away by 9am & there just before 12 noon. When we arrived Brian took us straight to the hostel to see if it was possible for us to pick up a day tour the next day (cause if we couldn't, we would have caught the bus back later that night). Brian had a concert to go to, so was only able to stay for the afternoon.
When our tour was sorted & our hostel room booked, we went off for a look around the city of Belfast. We saw the oldest pub in Ireland, the Europa Hotel (the most bombed hotel IN THE WORLD!), the Town Hall & the Christmas lights.
After checking out the tourist information centre, we caught a taxi down to the Titanic Quarter, to pick up a tour of Titanic's Dock & Pumphouse. Belfast was where Titanic & her sister ship, Olympic were made, and where Titanic left from on her first (and final!) voyage. As the Irish say ... she was fine when she left here! The tour was quite interesting & we were just amazed at the pure size of the ship!
After the tour we were picked up by Belfast Taxi Tours - a black cab that took us for a 90 minute ride through the main areas of Belfast that were involved in The Troubles between the Catholics & the Prodestants. We dropped Brian at the bus station & just Ian and I went on the tour. It was pretty interesting. There is a ruling here that taxis have to have numberplate tags based on their religion, so the guy told us not to worry if we got bad looks, etc, it was for him (as a catholic taxi in the prodestant area!) Luckily, we didn't see any responses like that, but in the areas he took us to, the troubles still run deep. Depending on who you ask, the peace process is working well - but not well enough according to our guy. We saw places where people had been gunned down or bombed by both the English military & both sides. He showed us the murals & memorials to victims of the times - the vast majority of whom were civilians & children! We still didn't know what to think when we got back to our room - you always feel like you're only getting one side of the story & then don't know who to believe! Anyway, enough about that...
We spent a quiet night in our room before heading down for a bacon & egg breaky before our day tour to the Giant's Causeway. We drove up the Causeway Coastal Road, with lots of amazing scenery, all the way to the north coast of Ireland. Along the way we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle & Carrick-a-rede Ropebridge (unfortunately the bridge is shut for the winter, so no swinging on a rope 25m above the sea & rocks!)
The Giant's Causeway looks like a massive series of building blocks perched up against the cliff faces. They were a bit slippery & quite smelly down where the tide had come in & gone back out, but not bad to look at.
We went from there to quickly look at the ruins of Dunluce Castle & take a couple of snaps, before stopping at the World's oldest licenced whiskey distillery at Bushmills. Unfortunately, it too was shut for the New Year break, so we only got to see it from the outside.
Despite not being able to see or do a couple of things, we still had a great day & then jumped on a bus at 5pm to head back to Dublin where New Year's Eve awaited!
Comments
We loved this changing city Belfast
Every city has it's shopping and coffee culture but Belfast city has a unique past after coming out of 35 years of conflict.
http://www.belfastattractions.co.uk
The North of Ireland has become famous for the murals painted in almost every area of the country. These pictures of murals are often flashed around the world on news bulletins or used as a backdrop when interviewing people. They often depict the history and political views of both traditions and are a way of marking territory. These wall paintings often look intimidating but they have become as much of a tourist attraction as many of the regular attractions within Belfast and beyond.