she's the girl from belfast city

Belfast was AMAZING! I loved, loved, loved it. A very interesting city in so many ways, historically, politically and the atmosphere. Like if you were to go in 7 years, the city would be so changed, and it has changed so much in the last 10 years. Like only in the last 7-10 years have they started building in the city centre. A brand new gorgeous shopping centre opened in the city earlier this year, there are starting to build apartments in the centre, hotels, and other people friendly activities. For a long time most of the 70s to early 90s the city centre was patrolled by armed guards and to get into the city centre you had to pass through metal dectors and the city was dead after 6pm. So with peace in the last 10 years, Belfast is becoming a place people want to live again, so a ton of development and trying to bring people and such to the city. 

Before I ramble on about the trip, the most interesting things for me was walking along Shankill (Protestant/Unionist) and Falls (Catholic/Republican) Roads. The wall murals were intense, especially a few along Shankill with the guns and just so powerful, in a bad way. I can't imagine seeing that growing up, most of them weren't too bad, just proclaiming their ties to Britain. I was mad that I was running out of time when I was on Falls road, so I didn't really get up far enough up the road to get pictures of some of the more famous ones - the Bobby Sands/hunger strike ones and a few others, but I got to see them when I was on the bus tour, but it was pouring, so I wasn't on the top of the bus and unable to get any pictures. The most intriguing bit was the peace walls, in the areas that have Catholics, they have walls erected to seperate the neighbourhoods, and it is weird becuase the city is checkerboarded, with pockets of Catholics, surrounded by Protestant neighbourhoods. So during the height of the Troubles, you knew not to walk past a certain block or risk violence, and in some of the strongest areas, the stones along the sidewalks were painted red/white/blue or green/white/orange. Along Sandy Row they are still painted red/white/blue. I didn't see as much from the Catholic areas, though I wasn't in them as much, but it seems like their murals weren't as intense, but then the murals do change. The pIRA (provisional IRA, which seperated from the IRA in the 1970s as the IRA wanted to be non-violent so a group splintered to form the pIRA, and now when you mention the IRA, it is really the pIRA) was extremely active as the pIRA set off all the bombs all over Belfast, Northern Ireland and the UK. I wish I had time to go to Derry, to see everything up there. Anyway, so enough of the history lesson. But it was really awesome walking around, and just thinking about how violent we can be. I hope as a teacher I can incorperate the Troubles into a lesson because it is just another example of how religion/political intolerance can lead to violence. It was intersting to pass a few integrated schools, and there is talk of taking down the peace walls. The whole issue while based on religion in reality has to do mostly with how the communities see themselves, as wanting to be part of Ireland or part of the UK. And while most just say Protestant/Catholic in realitly it isn't just religion. The whole history of partioning and 20th century Ireland is fascinating. Or at least I think so as I took a class on 20th century Ireland and then one on Northern Ireland when I studied abroad, so getting to see it first hand was great. I love history and travel for those reasons, getting to see these places I've studied, I love it. 

Ok, so back to my weekend. So left work at 1 on Friday, and legged it into town to get on the 2pm bus to Dublin.So the bus ride wasn't too bad... Driving through Dublin made me laugh, as I haven't been to Dublin in 3 years and seeing all the sights made me laugh and think of the crazy times I had with Emily, Becky, and Laura. So after finding somewhere close to the bus station for dinner, I hopped back on the bus for another 2.5 hours to Belfast. Got into Belfast around 10, found my hostel. Which google maps I was quite disappointed with, your walking directions totally sucked. There was a MUCH easier way, which I found on accident later on, when I walking around on Sunday and was like hey, thats the hostel where I stayed Friday night. Anyway...  so I got in and just crashed, I was tired after being on a bus for 7.5 hours and had to be up at the train station early. So Saturday I took a train from Belfast to Coleraine, about hour and fifteen minutes away up to the coast. Then I took a bus from there to the Giants Causeway. Now the forecast was quite shitty, gale force winds and rain. So I was lucky when I was at the Causeway there was just winds. So I spent about 2 hours walking around and enjoying the scenery, trying not to get blown away and taking pictures. I would have spent more time, but the path along the coast was closed due to winds. The rocks are soo cool though :) They are mainly hexagonal Basalt rocks from a volcano erruption, which how they cooled left them like this. There is a legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill built the causeway so he would have a way to get to Scotland, where he was to fight a Scottish giant, as there is similar geographical features on an island off the coast of Scotland. But they were just really cool to see, too bad the winds were crazy and it was a really high tide, or it would have looked cooler. Oh well. So I then took a taxi over to Portrush- the buses had the weirdest timetables now that it isn't tourist season, they came at 11 and 6.15... so I couldn't rely on public transport. So walked around Portrush in Co. Antrim and explored the little seaside town, one of the reasons I wanted to go was my education professor grew up here and I've heard it is gorgeous (which it was). It was cute, it forms a little peninsula so it has big beaches on both sides of the town and a lot of maritime history. It was quite dead as it was the end of October and horrible weather. Then I took a bus to Portstewart another cute coastal town in Co. Derry about a 10 minute bus ride from Portrush. I spent the night here, but the weather was miserable, so I walked around the shops, had dinner and took a few pictures, but it was lashing rain and super windy!!

I was up early Sunday morning to get to bus back to Coleraine to get the train back to Belfast. Got to Belfast, checked into a different hostel (as I only planned to come up on Tuesday, I had a hard time finding places to stay, but I figured out I'd just have to stay in different places). And then I started my adventure. I decided to do the bus tour, which I've never done, as things are pretty spread out in Belfast and they only have a bus system and public busses can be quite confusing if you don't know the area, I much prefer metros/subways, and a bus tour would be much easier. So I did the tour and it was rainy, so the bus wasn't open top. It was one of those 24 hour hop on/off ones, so I did the whole tour and then figured I would hop on/off the second time. It was still great to hear and see everything, especially since I had 3 different guides, so their commentary was slightly different. Saw the dry dock where they built the Titanic, and all the H&W shipyards, crazy that at the turn of the century they employed 35,000 men... and now less than 100. Belfast was such a working class city for most of its life with the linen industry, rope and shipbuilding, and then with modernization how fast it all disappears. So then after the tour, I decided to walk around the city centre, the city hall, the cathedral quarter, and victoria square where i got lured into h&m and bought a skirt and jersey material dress. It was only 35 pounds, and with the awesome exchange rate was only $55!! the dollar is at 1.52 to the pound, compared to the summer when it was about 2.10... and the dollar to the euro is like 1.25... over the summer it was 1.60... It is crazy how much it has dropped in the last month! So then I went to dinner and then Crown bar for a pint, this super cool pub. Light by gaslamps and totally victorian... the pictures I took in there didn't come out.. oh well. 

Monday I was up early for a walk around Queens University Belfast, omg, gorgeous campus. I could see myself at QUB. Then I hopped back on the bus to go out to Stormont- the NI assembly. Pretty awesome building, unlike most parliaments/whatevers... this one is outside of the city centre, so gorgeous gardens and everything. Hopped back on the bus and got off at Shankill Road, walked around there across to Falls Road and then back into the city to catch my bus back to Dublin. So Monday was a lot of walking around, taking pictures and just trying to get as much in as possible! Had a bit of a break in Dublin, then back on the bus to Cork. Got home around 10.30 and was exhausted!!

Overall it was an absolutely fabulous weekend, I love Belfast and the North!

Just trying not to freeze, as it got quite chilly in Cork over the weekend, and organise everything. Took out the winter clothes today and cleaned out the closet. Anyway, back to the usual.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KELLY!! 

pictures from the weekend will be posted later, as internet isn't cooperating.