Belfast or Burst

After I finished a marathon of finals on Friday I decided it would be nice to see parts of Ireland that I hadn't before. So I went to Belfast with Pete. He was the only one that didn't have to worry about finals over the weekend, which meant that he was the only friend willing to go with me. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the bus station to take a delightful weekend holiday to Belfast.

Welcome to Belfast!

The bus ride there was surprisingly unpleasant. First, the couple in front of us started going at it and they were gross. Then I decided it was a good idea to drink a lot of water during the first part of our journey. Which meant that during the second part of the journey I had to pee really bad. And I was hungry. So I was really thankful to get to Belfast.

Our view. Yeah, it was bad.

Our hostel was located on Donegall Road, which we heard was about a 20 minute walk from the bus station. Unknowingly Pete directed us to Donegall Street, which is in the opposite direction of Donegall Road, just past Donegall Square West and no where near Donegall Place, which connects to Donegall Road where our hostel was. For not including County Donegal in Northern Ireland, they really like the name. After traffic cops pointed us in the right direction we finally got to our hostel in time for a good nap. Then we went out for dinner and wandered around Belfast. We walked to the City Hall where there was an international food market going on, which was really cool. Pete and I got coffee/hot chocolate with Baileys, and it was good.

City Hall with a Christmas tree and the international market.

The international market at night.

Me toasting my Baileys and hot chocolate to the "no drinking in this area" sign.

The waterfront area has a huge concert hall and other stuff around it as a new development for the peace process. Apperantly that area had been used for gang fights or whatnot. It's really pretty now.

Hearding sheep statues on the waterfront.

The water with a boat, the statue of thanksgiving, and a lit up bridge.

Pete and the statue of thanksgiving, he's so little!

Belfast has some sweet signs, including this one which says "no fouling" but it's ok because only steamy poo counts as fouling, and Pete's only going number 1.

Then we went to some mall and saw Casino Royale, which was good, and I don't usually like Bond movies. After that we walked home and went to bed. The next day I thought our view from the hostel was really pretty because of the clouds over the mountains, so I took a picture. If you look close (or click the picture to get a big version) you can see that the curbs on the left are painted red, white and blue, the colors of the Union Jack (not the American flag). And then tied up by the neck on one of the lampposts is a Hulk doll. This is rather interesting because the curbs mean that we were near a loyalist neighborhood, and the Hulk is green, like the color of the Irish republic and nationalism. That was kind of interesting to see, because it makes the troubles seem more real, even if they are supposed to be over.

The view from the hostel with the colored curbs and tied up Hulk.

Since it was Sunday morning Pete and I went to mass because it was my last Sunday in Ireland and I promised my mom I would go to church at least once. It wasn't much different from mass back home, except that it was 35 minutes long! And the priest had a sweet accent.

Look! I went to church!

Bike lane in Northern Ireland!

Then Pete and I wandered around some until our Black Taxi Tour, which is a popular type of tour to do up here. The taxi takes you around to the Protestant neighborhoods in the Shankill area, and the Catholic neighboorhoods in the Falls Road area. That whole idea of separation made me quite uneasy. As well as the massive wall that separates the neighborhoods. Now in these two areas there are many murals commemorating Protestant or Catholic heros and events that took place. They are quite disconcerting in some cases because they are glorifying drug dealers and thugs who have died. Or just unsavory people like Cromwell or William of Orange. This is when my camera died. So I don't have any pictures of the Cathloic neighborhoods or the peace wall. Which is really dissapointing, but they were very interesting to visit. Our taxi driver, Pat, was Catholic and gave us a very one-sided story, so it was good that Pete was there to tell me a bit more about the history.

If I were to buy a house here, I would make sure I couldn't see this mural from my window.

UFF stands for Ulster Freedom Fighters, a loyalist group. By the looks of it, they don't read and discuss books every other Wednesday night.

I think this was called the peace wall. It separates the two neighborhoods and still has gates going through that close at night.

After the taxi tour we were dropped off at city hall and got delicious Dutch pancakes that were covered with powdered sugar and toffee. Mmmm, so good. We did some shopping and then went back to the hostel for a rest. Pete then decided we should go for a walk before going to dinner, which sounded nice until the walk took over an hour and I was tired and hungry. But we did find a park to play in and that was fun. Pete hopped the fence, and then we discovered that if we just lifted the chain, we could open the gate and not have to jump over the fence. After our walk that took forever we started looking for this restaurant called Molly's Yard where we could get a chocolate pint. We wandered around for a good while and then discovered it was closed. So we ate at a Chinese place down the street and then went to Benedicts for a pint. That place was really cool on the inside, it was all oranate and pretty. The bar closed pretty early because it was Sunday and so we left and called it an early night.

On Monday we got up, ate some delicious breakfast and went home. Overall I really liked Belfast, the history there is really interesting. There is grafitti all over everywhere, so Tony, you'd really like it. And I'm sure they could use a "hugs" tag. Belfast kind of felt like Dublin, though it felt like there were fewer international people. Plus the buildings were taller, and so were the fences.