I ♥ Belfast

After the political tour on my third day in Belfast, Lindsey and I decided to get rush tickets to The Sound of Music, which was at the Royal Opera House. We were able to get tickets, and oh, how I love a good musical.

The woman who played Maria had a fantastic voice. All of the children were great, as well. The actor who played Friedrich von Trapp was sick, and the company didn't have time to get an understudy. So the manager told us before it started that the children had rehearsed for a couple of hours, and there was going to be just six children instead of seven. In Tim Gunn's vernacular, It was a Make It Work moment. And they did make it work even though some of the choreography was a little off. Anyway, one of the first lines Captain von Trapp has is something like, "I have seven children who need a nanny." And right after he said that, he paused, looked at the audience, and without breaking character, he said, "No, I don't. I have six children." It was quite funny, and the epitome of the show must go on even after someone says something ridiculous. He made up for that mistake when he sang 'Edelweiss.' Oh my god, his voice was amazing.

Anyway, The Sound of Music was lovely. But a girl sitting behind me apparently thought she was part of the musical. She literally sang along with every song. Honestly, I paid money to hear the paid actors to sing. A couple sitting next to me kept letting out frustrated sighs every time she started.

After The Sound of Music, I had the greatest food Ireland has to offer. Champ. We had baked potatoes and split Champ. I'm glad I didn't discover Champ until my last night; otherwise, I would have eaten it for every meal. Champ is a variation of mashed potatoes mixed with scallions and cheese and other wonderful things.

We went to Fibber Magees again that night. Lindsey and I both got Guinness, which is the only beer I've ever tasted and actually liked - it tastes a lot like coffee, surprisingly. And other than a hammered old man relentlessly hitting on Lindsey until we could move away from the bar, it was fun. A more contemporary band played that night. They played an Irish rock song that sounded really familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. And  of course, they played U2's 'One.'

I can't wait to  go back to Ireland in June and read some James Joyce, eat some Champ, and drink some Guinness. Nothing but fond memories and awesome photos from Belfast. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any post cards because it really isn't a tourist attraction, which was a little sad, but I loved the fact that I got to go there before it becomes a commercial and tourist enterprise. Now I'm looking for another excuse to go back to Belfast in the future and to stay in the same hostel.

Learning about Belfast's 'Troubles' firsthand

My last day in Belfast was amazing. I had really liked the city up to that point, but on my third day, I fell in love with it.

Belfast isn't really touristy, yet because people still think of the city as the place where the bombings and the violence between the IRA and the British Army took place. But there has been a cease-fire in effect since 1994, but the city still is pretty quiet after 10 p.m., which was the old curfew. Anyway, we had been talking to one of the owner of the hostel about the political history of Belfast, and he said that he still remembered the curfews and the violence. Well, he knew one of the guys who does tours through a Belfast company all about the history of Belfast and 'The Troubles.' It ended up being just Lindsey and I on the tour with him, which was amazing.

Our tour guide was a former IRA volunteer who was a political prisoner for 10 years for attempting bombings in the city center. He happened to be in the H prison when Bobby Sands ran the blanket protest and the hunger strike.

He led us around the nationalist and unionist sides and talked about the violence and the reasons behind it. We got to see the original parts of the peace wall that is still up to separate the two sides. We also got to see a couple of the memorial gardens for the IRA volunteers and the people who lost their lives. We got to drive past the prison, which is no longer used but once held the political prisoners.

Learning about the blanket protest was interesting; basically, the prisoners refused to wear their uniforms and only wore the standard issue blanket. I didn't really know why going in, so I was amazed when our guide explained. Apparently, as political prisoners, the IRA volunteers were allowed to wear their own clothing, but then the government decided to change their status to criminal prisoners, which requires them to wear prison garb. So it wasn't really about the clothes; it was about being changed from a political prisoner.

We also got to see some of the famous murals on the unionist side. The difference between the two sides was interesting. On the nationalist side, houses were built right up to the peace line, but on the other side, they were built pretty far off. The houses built right up against the line have the yards caged in. Our guide said it was to protect against homemade bombs that people would throw over the wall, which was heightened because of this.

Then we visited the cemetery where a lot of the IRA members are buried. So we got to see Bobby Sands grave and some of the other leaders of the movement. Our guide was so cavalier about telling us about the IRA and about what happened over the years. It was refreshing. But it was so sad hearing him point out people he knew in the cemetery, though. He would just say stuff like, "Oh, yeah. He was a friend of mine from when I was growing up." He also told stories about when the government would attack people attending funerals for IRA members or for nationalist families.

I have never learned more on a tour than I did on this one. I had previously thought the issue was strictly religious - Catholics versus Protestants. But our guide explained that it was more about deciding on being a part of Ireland or a part of the UK. For instance, he was a nationalist (usually thought to be Catholic), but he despised the Catholic church. And apparently when applying for a job people are still asked what their religious ideology is.

It made me think about all of the religious conflicts, or what have been considered religious conflicts, over the decades and what they were really about. I'm inclined to think a majority of the issues are something much deeper than what archaic religious laws.

And speaking of religion, the city of Belfast has over 365 churches. You could literally visit a different church every day of the year without visiting the same one twice. The photos from this post are from city hall and some of the churches around the city center.

Belfast Castle and live Irish music

Day Two in Belfast was cool - literally and figuratively. Lindsey and I borrowed a couple of bikes from the guy who owned our hostel and we biked around Belfast.

We decided to go to Belfast Castle, which unfortunately is up a rather large hill. But we did make it to the top and wandered around inside for a bit, then walked around the garden area. There is something about a white cat myth or something. Basically, the story goes that a white cat is always in residence at the castle for luck. And the gardens have nine cats worked into it through mosaics, statues and topiaries. We found eight, but not the actual living white cat. It was cold out, so the cat was probably hiding inside. The view from the castle is amazing. You can see all the way down to the coast, plus all of the city of Belfast.

And the bike ride down was fun, too. But it was freezing, so we had to stop in a shop and buy some gloves. We then rode along the bike paths on the river up to the botanical gardens. It was too cold to wander around outside too much, so we went to the Ulster museum.

The museum was really cool. We were most interested in the Irish history section, though. It went back to before the Irish potato famine up through contemporary times. It was interesting to be able to trace the political unrest through the decades. I found the contemporary Belfast history the most interesting. It was nice to be able to see a timeline of all the events of The Troubles laid out, and to be able to read a neutral account of what happened between the unionists and the nationalists.

Our hostel owner suggested a pub for us called Fibber Magee's in the city center. The pub has live music every night, and on this night is was traditional Irish music. All three guys in the band were really good, but one was amazing. He played like three different instruments. He was fantastic with all of them, especially the fiddle and the tin whistle. Fibber Magee's was connected to a pub called Robinson's, but the Fibber Magee's side is not right off the main road.

I enjoyed the second day in Belfast. Since it's not really a touristy city, we were able to just explore on our own without being bombarded with stupid little tourist shops and what not.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Lindsey and I went to Belfast in Northern Ireland over reading week. Since Belfast is technically in the UK, I still haven't been out of the country, but that is going to change in April. Major trip planned for April.

So we flew RyanAir from London to Belfast, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had read some bad news about RyanAir, but it worked out well other than the fact that we had to sit for an hour while our plane's wings were de-iced. However, there still is some weird shenanigans with RyanAir, but maybe it's the clients rather than the company. Read this story about a RyanAir customer who ate his winning ticket because he got so frustrated. It is hilarious.

Anyway, we made it to Belfast without incident.

Once we were there, we checked into our hostel, which was AMAZING. It was basically like a hotel. And we had movie night with a cute guy who worked there from New Zealand aka a Kiwi.

On our first day, we just wandered around the city center. The city hall building is really cool, and the inside has a lot of marble. Plus, the cool ferris wheel next to it is awesome.

Belfast architecture was really interesting. There is a lot of older buildings next to really modern ones, but the new ones have things that incorporate the more traditional ones, like color. The reason is basically the bombings. Belfast was heavily bombed during WWII and then by the IRA during 'The Troubles' from 1969-1994.

We also went into a pub called Crown Liquor Saloon, which dates back to the 18th century. It has these really cool wooden nooks.

Day One was mainly us wandering around the city center. But Lindsey and I reached a new measurement of hunger while walking around before stopping in a cool little cafe. Some guy was walking down the street eating a sandwich, and we both wanted to just take a bite out of it and keep walking. Luckily, we found The Streat a couple minutes later, and I had amazing chicken soup and a Brie BLT.

Much more to come about my few days in Belfast as well as new things about life in London.