Last week I went to Belfast on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. It has been 7 years since the last time I visited Northern Ireland. Seven years ago we went on a big tour of the Northern Ireland coastline. There were so many beautiful places, so many memories. At the end of the day, around 7pm we finally drove into the city of Belfast. It was deserved. I was already a bit on edge constantly thinking about the dangers of this city, but seeing the center of the city with no one around terrified me. On my second trip seven years later the experience was very different. Maybe because it was a beautiful sunny day, or maybe because it's been years since the last bombings there, but I was much more relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience.
First of all we went to the newly opened Titanic museum. The ticket was 13.50 pounds and for that money I learned the history of the city of Belfast at the beginning of the 20th century, learned in detail how the ship was constructed, including a simulation ride in the docks at the time of the construction of Titanic, learned how it was launched and the details of it's last day afloat. There were the details of the ship's furniture, with the examples of the rooms in 1st, 2nd and 3rd class. The most poignant were the stories of particular people and urgent telegrams sent out at the ship was sinking. It's a beautiful museum and I will definitely bring my friends there when they visit Ireland.
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| The building of the newly opened Titanic museum |
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| The peculiar statue at the entrance of the museum |
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| The oh so familiar ship |
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| The docks where Titanic was first launched |
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| Belfast City Hall with the statue of Queen Victoria in front of the main entrance |
I've read in the guide book that a short walk away from the center of the city you can find a 6 meters high wall made of steel, concrete and chain link, that separates Catholic and Protestant parts of the city for almost 40 years. It means that it outlasted the Berlin Wall. This so-called Peace Line is 4km long and has around 20 gates, some of which are still closed between 5pm and 8am. I went looking for this wall, but was running out of time so I didn't see it. What I did see was this wall of political graffiti, which is exactly what I expected to see, to be honest.
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| Two different cabs |
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| Businessman in a kilt |
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| Outside the pub on a sunny Saturday afternoon |
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| Lagan Weir - a giant ceramic salmon at the riverbank of the river Lagan. |
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| I call this statue The Lady. I bet it's not its real name. |
My general impression of the city was that it's very quite, pretty and tidy. Not everywhere, but at least much cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than the center of Dublin. I'm still surprised by how few people are on the street though.
