A Trip to the North

   

    This past Saturday I had the opportunity to visit Northern Ireland and learn a bit about its history. We specifically went to Belfast, which is the Northern part of Ireland that is under British rule. As we made our way into Belfast, there were a few differences right away that were pointed out to us. For example, the speed changed from km to mph, the currency changed from euro to sterling, and the road markings changed from yellow to white. The drive from Dublin to Belfast was fairly quick compared to other coastal cities I've visited. When we arrived, our first stop was the Titanic Museum. Something I didn't know was that the Titanic was actually built in Belfast. The height of the museum is the exact same height as the Titanic which I thought was pretty cool. The museum was also built on the exact same site as the ship. Inside there was a lot of history on the Titanic, its survivors, and the experience being on the ship. My favorite part of the museum, which was something I did not expect at all, was the Shipyard ride. The ride was kind of like a lift that went up and down, as well a rotated, so we could "travel" through the hull.

    After we finished up at the museum, we had lunch at St. George's Market. There were a bunch of stalls selling food, produce, crafts, etc. I got some pretty good chicken and chorizo paella for lunch. Our time at the market was kind of short because we were on a schedule, but nonetheless it was a cool place to see. We had a political tour shortly after so we made our way around 1:30pm. We had a very knowledgeable guide that made the tour more of a conversation rather than a monologue, which I appreciated. He took us on a little walk around Belfast, where we eventually reached the interface gates and the murals at one of the peace lines. In Belfast, there are "peace lines" where gates are located and close at 6pm every evening. These walls/gates were meant to divide the Protestant British side of Belfast from the Catholic Irish side. Our tour guide informed us that once these gates closed, you are stuck wherever you are for the night. If there was an emergency and an ambulance needed to cross, they would have to take a 5 mile detour. It was also very interesting to see the difference in murals on opposite sides of the gate. The ones on the Catholic side were hand drawn and meant to commemorate important people, whereas the ones on the Protestant side were more text and not as personalized. Our time in Belfast ended around 3pm and we were off to our next destination.

    We spontaneously decided we would stop at Carlingford on the way back, which is a coastal town/fishing village famous for their oysters. The town was pretty small but very cute. We did a 360 of King John's Castle and walked around for a bit. The group had a little evening meal at PJ's, where we ate crab claws and mussels with a pint of Guinness (of course). I wasn't able to try the oysters, but I will say the crab claws were delicious. The restaurant didn't have table big enough for our party so a few of us actually ended up sitting at a bench with these two ladies from Omeath. They were very friendly and interested in conversing with us. They showed me pictures of a hike they did and as expected, the views were beautiful. Our day ended around 6:30pm, where we headed back to Dublin.