Belfast

So last weekend my roommate and I went to Belfast. One of the most interesting cities I have ever been in.

We get there by taking a bus to Dublin and then another bus to Belfast. We arrived there sometime around 11:30 PM. Now, I have mapquested our hostel but I have no idea where we are. So we are told by a cab driver that it's just down the road. Comforting at 11:30 PM. We walk down the road a little bit and see this picture.

Toto, I don't think we are in Cork anymore. We find our hostel a little bit down the road from here and pretty much crash. The next morning we are up, bright and early, because it is Giant's Causeway day. We find out that a tour leaves from our hostel. PERFECT. So we get on and find out our first location is the Carrick a Rede Rope Bridge. This rope bridge was constructed 90 feet above the water by fisherman to collect salmon. Now there are no salmon left but the bridge is there. So we decided to cross it and it's a little bit scary.  It is a little more bouncy than I would have liked and a bit windy but we crossed the bridge. Here's a picture of what the bridge looks like.

Next stop is Dunlace Castle. In good Irish fashion, the bus driver decides to tell us a story about the castle. Supposedly there was a party going on, but the wind was a whipping, the rain was a slapping and all of a sudden the crowd heard a large bang. They run outside and think it is lightening. But oh no, the kitchen and part of the cliff has fallen into the ocean. (This is the part where I go, "WHAT???") Anyway the wife didn't want this to happen again so she moved the family somewhere else. Good call, that's a very good call.

After Dunlace, we had lunch at the Bushmills Distillery. We didn't actually tour the distillery but I ate a very delicious Guinness and beef pie. Finally after Bushmills, it was time for Giant's Causeway. Now there is the boring story of how the rocks are formed which was volcanic eruption...or the fun Irish one. So back in the day, Finn McCool was a giant who roamed the land. Since the Giant's Causeway is only about 13 miles from Scotland, he could see another giant skulking around in Scotland. Being all height and no brains, he decides to go challenge the Scottish giant. So Finn constructs this bridge made up of rocks (the causeway) and he crosses over to Scotland. Once there, he finds out that the giant (named Bennadonna) is a wee bit bigger than expected and turns right around and runs home to Ireland. Finn goes to his wife and tells her his predicament, ie. that a huge ass giant is coming over to Ireland to give him a beat down. Finn's wife quickly constructs a crib and tells Finn to lay in it. When Bennadonna arrives at the McCool family residence, he says (and this is a direct quote from the bus driver), "Woman, where is your husband?" Mrs. McCool just says, "I don't know. It's just me and the child at home." Bennadonna takes one look at the "sleeping" Finn and thinks that if this the baby, he really didn't want to meet the father so he leaves to go back to Scotland. In the process, he purposely destroys the bridge that Finn built.

Anyway day two of Belfast consisted of the Black Cab Tour. One of the most interesting and thought provoking rides I have ever taken. We started in the Protestant section of town to see the murals. We learned about the history of the "Troubles" and how the two major para-military groups still retain a lot of influence in the area, the Ulster Freedom Fighters for the Protestants and the Irish Republican Army for the Catholics. Belfast is kinda crazy because it is only 20% integrated and most areas still remain 100% Protestant or Catholic. From what I can understand from our cab driver the "troubles" started in the 60's with the Catholics taking cue from the protests going on in the United States and started demanding equal rights even though they were the minority. Anyway Protestants weren't a huge fan of this and riots started and then escalated into an over 30 year conflict. The cab driver emphasized that it has never been about religion, but politics. About 3600 people have died in the "troubles." I think the ceasefire was signed in the mid-90's but it seems like an uneasy peace.

If you go to the Protestant side, you have murals commemorating leaders of the Ulster Freedom Fighters and one particularly creepy one called the "Belfast Mona Lisa" because no matter how you look at it, it appears that there is a gun pointed at you. They also have ones advocating for more community involvement in the government and ones celebrating heroes to their faith, like Oliver Cromwell. We then crossed the "Peace Wall." This was not a "oh lets celebrate peace in our communities" wall, the bridge is 42 feet high and is only open certain times of the day to let people cross. If you are anywhere in the city, you are also videotaped. We got to the Catholic side and saw more murals with IRA heroes like Bobby Sands and the other ten people who died as part of the hunger strike in the attempt to get political prisoner status in prison (which they had until Margaret Thatcher took it away.) There was also a mural commemorating the women and children who, when there was a sweep of the community by the police for weapons and the place was put on lock down so no one in or out, smuggled weapons out by saying they needed to feed people and then hiding weapons under children and bread. It was an interesting tour. Nothing like I had ever experienced before.

We also got to go to the Belfast Christmas market where I had the traditional Irish food of kangaroo. I figured, why not? Bit gamey. Anyway back in Cork but really interesting weekend.