Welcome to Belfast

While we were still in Dublin, I was browsing a Lonely Planet Ireland travel guide, looking for Belfast tips.  The first sentence in that section said something about Belfast being, "Once on the list of B's to avoid including Baghdad, Beirut, and Bosnia..."  At the time, I thought this was a bit dramatic.  When looking at reviews of our hotel before booking, I noted a comment something like "The huge loyalist mural outside the hotel is a bit of a deterrent."  Similarly, I didn't think much of it at the time.

Then we went to Derry and learned a lot more than we could have imagined about the conflict in Northern Ireland.  You may have already read Chad's post about our experience in Derry.  As an aside, this is a picture we took on our walk to the train station on the way out of town.  Clearly the Derry/Londonderry naming debate is not yet settled.  You can see the name has been changed back and forth a number of times.

Long story short, by the time our train pulled into Belfast, I was curious about what we would be in for.  This was the mural that greeted us next to our hotel, right out of the train station.  Hmmmm.

Mural aside, this is, literally, a banner year for Northern Ireland.  Everywhere in the city there are banners proclaiming "2012: Our time, our place".  As Chad pointed out in an earlier post, it is clear that a huge amount of British money has been invested in revitalization. The Olympics are on, and it's very clear London is working hard to make the rest of the UK feel involved.  The Irish Open is being held in Northern Ireland this year for the first time in several.  And unless you manage to avoid all mainstream media, you'll also know that this is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. The Titanic was built in Belfast, so the city is capitalizing on that with a huge new Titanic 'Experience'.

We spent our first day out of the conflict and exploring the downtown core and the newly built and quickly expanding Titanic Quarter.

The first thing we happened upon was the Ulster Hall - the town's 'community hall' - which was celebrating it's 150th birthday that day.  We took a free tour to hear about its history (it was interesting - to me at least - that the majority of people taking the tour were locals, and they spoke throughout about the things they had seen and done in the hall).  Ulster Hall has had many an act perform here, such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Chad was excited to learn Led Zeppelin premiered Stairway to Heaven here.

Nicely restored hall - the windows were bricked over during the Troubles in case a bomb went off outside (which did happen - a car bomb seriously damaged the hall), but now have glass and there's a nice light in the room.

Chad has a piece of cake in celebration of the Ulster Hall's birthday.

.

Next we headed on to Belfast City Hall where there is a London 2012 big screen set up for Belfast's people to share in the Olympic experience.

And then over the River Lagan for some public art and views of the city skyline.

It is obvious that a lot of money has been invested in the Titanic Quarter, with more to come.  Right now it's a bit like Yaletown, with lots of townhouses and open spaces.  The Titanic Experience sits in front of space formerly the Harland and Wolff shipyards where the Titanic and her older sister Olympic were designed and built.  You don't hear much about the RMS Olympic, but she was built before Titanic and had a long and successful 24-year career as a transatlantic ocean liner with the White Star Line before Titanic came along and a troop ship in World War I (when she was fired on by a U-boat, which missed, and then ran down the U-boat, sinking it).

The Titanic Experience is impressive from afar.

We didn't get to go in (okay, I didn't get to go in, Chad didn't intend on joining me for the horrendous 15 quid admission price), as admission was completely sold out for Sunday.  So we took a wander of the grounds instead.

Harland and Wolfe gantry cranes still loom large.

The two grey buildings in the middle are the site from which Harland and Wolfe ran their ship building empire.

They have paved over where Olympic and Titanic were built and outlined them on the pavement.  We were surprised by how narrow they were.  Titanic's hull sat where this Plexiglas now stands.

If you look closely, you can see alternating planks and turf where Titanic is outlined.  Sorted by class, the planks represent those who survived and the turf those that died in the sinking.  As you move from first to third class, the amount of turf increases greatly, but it also demonstrates how most of the crew went down with the ship, something not often talked about.

Once we had our fill of Titanic, we went in search of - and found - some craft beer from local breweries.  Here I survey the options.

The stout from College Green Brewery was delicious.  The one from Hilden was... okay.

And finally, we went to the Crown pub (upstairs dining room) for dinner.  It's a beautiful spot - their website claims it is the most beautiful pub in Northern Ireland.

When we left Derry, our host at the hostel we stayed at (a New Zealander who lived in Belfast for many years) said that Belfast "is a city that does not fall into your lap".  I think this is very true, but we still had a good first day wandering the city streets.  I'll let Chad tell you about the second!