Belfast

I arrived on Sunday in Belfast after a lovely train ride from Derry. Beautiful countryside scenery once again. The peat, ah the peat. My accommodation was only an eight minute bus ride from the train station, unfortunately, since it was Sunday, the next bus was 84 minutes away! So, I decided to hoof it. Definitely a long walk, especially with my pack, but a good walk.  

Arriving in my accommodation, I met Brigid, who is a friendly woman who advertises her home on AirB&B. So this B&B is different from others that I have stayed in. It is more self catering. We have access to Brigid's entire home and take care of ourselves with regard to making our food. But good news is I have access to the fridge so I can store perishables.There is also only one bathroom in the entire home. There are 5 women staying here.  

Anyway, Brigid met me with a cup of tea and a biscuit. We sat at the dining room table and chatted for a good hour. She was very interesting and interested in hearing about me. After copious amounts of tea and conversation, I headed up to my room to settle in.  

I wanted to get some dinner - mainly vegetables! I walked up to Sainsbury's and was able to pick up The Big Salad, chicken, and yogurt. I bought enough for a few meals. I also indulged in my favourite biscuits, McVitie's Digestives with milk chocolate! Yum. Returning to the B&B, I was able to enjoy a late dinner of chicken, salad, and (more) tea and biscuits!  

Overnight was extremely windy and rainy. I woke on Monday morning to pouring rain. I got dressed for running and by the time I was ready to go, the rain had stopped. I ran down to the Lagan and ran along the walk/bike path. The weather had actually turned so that it was sunny. It was still pretty cool but I warmed up with the running. The evidence of the wind was every. Tree branches and leaves were all over the ground. Definitely looks and smells like autumn now.  Today was also laundry day for me. The laundromat was a couple of kilometers away but my pack was a lot lighter with only the laundry in it. It took about an hour and a half to wash and dry and I am back to a full load of clean and fresh clothes.  

I returned home for lunch and to prepare for the afternoon. I wanted to go to Titanic Belfast. Fortunately the city buses run very frequently on a weekday so the bus to the city centre was easy to catch with just a short wait. I made may way to the Tourist Office to see about tickets and tour options. I really wanted to do a Game of Thrones tour. Unfortunately they only run on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so I will miss that this time. But I was able to purchase tickets for a city bus tour. The guy at the office asked if I was a student to which I said no but thanks for the compliment. He asked again. So I told him that I was trying to be honest. He rewarded this honesty with a student price for my ticket.  

The first stop on the hop on hop off tour bus was Titanic Belfast. So, off I got. The museum was a very imposing building near the dry dock where Titanic was built. When I entered the museum there was a beautiful (if inexplicable) Kenyan Choir singing. I stopped to listen to them for a song or two. Purchasing my ticket for the museum, the woman behind the desk was the first person to guess correctly that I am Canadian. It seems most people assume that I am an American. Not that there's anything wrong with that. She said that I sounded Canadian (whatever that means) and that she had been really confident in guessing my nationality. I totally took this as a compliment.  

The museum starts of on the second floor, then you go to floor 4, then 3, then 1.  

Floor two was the history of Belfast from an industrial perspective. There was information on the linen industry as well as rope, whiskey, soda, and finally shipbuilding. This lead to information about Harland and Wolff, the company who build the Titanic and who are still in operation today. Now, H&W no longer builds ships but builds wind turbines.  Especially interesting was the interactive aspects of the museum. The first one was how the Titanic when from keel to ribs, to siding, to rivets. The skeleton of the ship reminded me of dad when he was building his canoe, only on a much larger scale obviously.There was a ride, called the Shipyard Ride, that took you through the various workers at the shipyard and their roles. Then it was off to see a video of the launching of the Titanic. Believe it or not, it only took just over 1 minute for Titanic to go from the dry dock to the water. Over 100 000 people came to watch the launch. At the time of the launch, Titanic was not yet fitted out with all of the trimmings that she would come to be known for. So the next part of the museum showed how First, Second, and Third class were decorated as well as what the quarters were like for the crew.  An interactive floor map allowed you to follow the paths of a variety of the ship's guests. For instance, a second class male or a fireman or a chamber maid in the first class quarters.  

The next section dealt with Titanic's maiden voyage. As I moved on to the inevitable sinking part of the museum, I could hear morse code being tapped out as well as the voices of survivors of the Titanic telling their memories of the sinking. This was a very moving part of the museum, especially reading the different morse code messages that took place between the Titanic and other ships and then between different ships. The museum outlined the number of dead, the number of survivors, and where people ended up after the tragedy.  

The aftermath was next. This included inquiries into the sinking, movies and books based on the Titanic, and a video by Dr. Ballard, who discovered Titanic in the 1980s. There was a large movie screen that showed the debris trail leading up to the discovery of Titanic. It was filmed to give you the illusion that you were on the submarine vessel that explored the ship and the debris field. It is still eerie to see plates still stacked as if they were still sitting on the wooden shelves that have deteriorated, bath tubs, shoes, wine bottles - still corked, let alone the hull of the ship.  

After exiting the museum, I hopped back on the Sightseeing Bus. We passed by the dry dock that housed Titanic as she was being built.  

The tour continued through Belfast. This tour visited the Protestant and Catholic areas of the city. These areas are separated by a 40 foot wall, built by the British, call, ironically, The Peace Wall. Currently, people are able to travel freely between these areas and through the city. But gates are locked in the evening, leaving only a small section open for access, making it difficult to travel easily.  

As I was on the last of the tour times for the bus tour, I was let off in the city centre and thought I would look around a bit more before heading back to the bed and breakfast. It was around 6pm and everyone seemed to be shutting up shop, rushing out of the city. It was like a mass exodus. So, I joined in and headed home.  

Tuesday was another beautiful day in Belfast. It was sunny but a bit chilly. I headed to the city centre early in the morning with the intention of finding the bus location for my ferry connection on Wednesday and checking out the Cathedral Quarter. Unfortunately, I got turned around and ended up exploring on foot, enjoying a coffee, and finally making the decision to head back to the Tourist Office for assistance.  

I was booked in on a tour with a company called Coiste. Coiste provides a political walking tour of Belfast guided by ex-political prisoners. The tour was to begin at 11am and when I finally found the place it was just a bit before 11. It turned out that the three other women who were staying in the same B&B and me were also participating in the tour. Besides the 4 of us, there were 4 other tourists ready for the tour.  

Our guide, Brian, aka Rocky, introduced himself and let us know that we would be walking about for around 3 hours. Brian started off with a short and dirty history of interactions between The Irish and the English up to 1969. The history he would tell us and show us took place since 1969.  

Like the tour in Derry, I got a real education. Brian's perspective was that of an IRA man who believed that he was fighting for freedom in his homeland, who spent about 8 years in prison, was beaten, and generally mistreated. When asked if he hated the English, he said no. But he also added that he didn't like them very much. Although Brian's tour was all from his point of view, outlining his experiences, he did not paint the IRA as totally blameless.  

What he continually pointed out was the young age of many of the IRA members as well as the extremely young age of the prisoners (average age was 18ish for the men and 19ish for the women). The sad facts of the tour was all of the senseless killings of kids (from 8months up to teenagers). I will always find it difficult to justify the murder of children.  

Brian noted that many of the people that had been jailed were interned (meaning they were in prison without being charged). Some were held there for over 4 years. They were treated like criminals. Many of these prisoners began a variety of strikes to protest their internment. Strikes such as the Blanket Strike  where prisoners refused to wear the clothing of a criminal and were therefore given a blanket which they slit a hole through the middle and wore. Their beds where taken from them. Access to visiting relatives was denied.  

A number of prisoners also participated in the Hunger Strike. Many of these men lived without food for longer than 60 days, eventually dying for the cause they believed in.  

There was also the Wash Strike, where the prisoners refused to wash. The jailers dumped their slop buckets on the walls of the cells. Men were forced to wash every 2 months. During the washing, they were beaten, scrubbed with sweeping brushes and hosed down with freezing cold water. At this point, their cells were also hosed down with water and chemicals. Brian recalled that during the Wash Strike, prisoners would let their hair and beards grown. He told us of the maggots that took up residence in their beards and armpits.  

Brian did a great job of emphasizing the role of women in the conflict. He told stories of women who were also political prisoners. They participated in the IRA campaigns and different strikes also.  

Similar to Derry, Belfast has a number of murals through the city. These murals depict occurrence from The Troubles but also injustices that people around the world face. There are murals that act as memorials to different members of the IRA. There is a wall of photographs of all of the men, women, and children that were murdered during this time, including Catholic priests who were coming to the aid of men who were shot, women who were doing the same, and children for reasons I'll never understand.  

The last stop of the tour was at a cemetery where Brian showed us where some of the people he had talked about on the tour were buried. There is a specific section for those who died as volunteers, including those how died from the Hunger Strike. There are two lines of graves. One line is full, the other line is half way full. Brian said that he prays that no one else will be added to the second line and that if we returned in 10 years we would still see the empty half of the line.

Brian then dropped us off at a pub called Felon where we were treated to a glass of Guinness. A good way to end an exhausting, yet educational walking tour of part of Belfast.  

In the end, I am not too sure that taking the lives of other through guerrilla warfare, bombings and shootings is the best way to live. But obviously Brian felt justified in his actions. He said that he would do it all over again but would never allow anyone he knew to participate like he did. He also emphasized that campaigns like the IRA are known for are truly unnecessary now as the English and the Irish are "at the table" as he put it. He also emphasized the importance of the education that children are receiving now and noted that education would be what helps them rise above, rather than violence. I also recognize that if I took a tour on the other side of town, the stories that I would hear would be different and the perspective would be the opposite to Brian's.  

My last job of the day was to ensure that I knew where to pick up the bus for the ferry on Wednesday. I am now all organized for that and am getting ready to pack up once again.  

Generally, I find that once I get my bearings, I am able to navigate a new place fairly easily. Let me tell you, In Belfast, that was not the case. I got turned around a lot. Obviously the city is not on a grid system at all. Streets are closer together than they appear on any of the maps that I was given. I think the Tourist Information Office got used to seeing my confused face!  

Onwards to a ferry ride across the Irish Sea and in to Scotland! Next stop Dumfries, Scotland.  

Extra points for anyone who can figure out the correct amount of Seinfeld references in this blog post.