We decided to leave on Thursday after we were done with classes to give us two full days in Northern Ireland, plus a little bit of Sunday. We hopped on a bus to Dublin at 4pm which got us to Dublin after a few stops around 7:45. We then found where the bus to Belfast was and got on because the buses to Belfast leave on the top of the hour. We got into Belfast around 10:20 Thursday evening and were greeted by Valerie and Gary our wonderful hosts. They drove us back to their house which is right on the border of the city and the suburbs. In traditional Irish fashion (Valerie is originally from Dublin) we were offered tea and biscuits almost immediately after getting into the house. We ended up sitting around for a while chatting and getting to know each other a little better and then headed off to bed. Gary still had to work on Friday, but Valerie had taken the day off since we were going to be there, so the four of us decided to head into Belfast the next day.
Friday morning, we slept in a little bit, and then Valerie made us a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. Once we were done with breakfast, we all walked down the street to the ATM so that we could take out pounds. Because Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, they use pounds instead of the euro. Then we walked down to the nearest bus stop to take the bus into the city center. We then got to ride in the front seats on the top of a double decker bus! We decided to start our day at St. George's Market. It's kind of half a flea market and half a farmers market. It is only open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but on Saturdays they also have live music. We walked up and down all the aisles looking at everything they had for sale, and then by the time we were done it was almost lunch time so we decided to just stay there and eat. We found amazing Traditional Irish Stew for only 3 pounds! It was so good, and we were all happy to get some real traditional food finally (even if it was technically in the UK).
Flea Market Side
Food Side
Irish Stew!
Our next stop was Victoria's Square Shopping Center...I mean who doesn't love to shop right? Well Victoria's Square is unique because it is an open-air, indoor mall. There are no doors so all of the hallways open up to the streets outside, but once you are inside, it feels as if you were walking around any mall in Minnesota (although slightly colder with no doors). One of the other unique things about Victoria's Square is that it has a dome at the top and you can ride an elevator up to a platform within this glass dome. Once you are up there, you can see a 360 degree view of the entire city. This platform is also its own freestanding structure so on a windy day you can feel it move slightly because of the wind passing through the mall below.
the center structure which you go to the top of to overlook the city
Looking down one of the hallways
Albert's Clock Tower from the dome
H & W shipyard where the Titanic was built are the big yellow things
Me and Albert's Clock Tower in the background
After Victoria's Square we wandered around the city for a little bit with the intention of eventually getting to city hall. We stopped in Carroll's which is an Irish gift shop that is in EVERY city, but it is the best place for post cards that I've found so far. Then we walked up to City Hall which is interesting because not only is the building itself used for normal administrative duties, they have a lawn outside with a big projection TV which they have the news playing on often, but they will also show movies at night in the summers when its a little nicer, or have other documentary type things playing and people are free to come and go as they please. We decided to go inside and found out they give free tours, so we decided to go on the one that left 40 min later.
Belfast Street
City Hall at the end of the Street
Inside the City Hall Lobby
City Hall's Grand Staircase
Inside City Hall's Lobby
To fill our time, we decided to leave City Hall and walk a few blocks the Albert's Clock Tower. It was built either on top of a river, or a water reserve and so because of that, the ground under it has shifted since it has been built and it is slightly tilted to one side. Its like Belfast's own Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We then returned to City Hall, and took our tour. It was very interesting because we were able to learn a bit of the history of the building as well as the earlier history of Belfast. Our tour guide seemed very knowledgeable as well, and we got to go into the City Council Chamber which was very interesting to see. Outside City Hall is the Titanic Memorial Garden which we walked through on our way out.
Windows at the top of the grand staircase
Councillors Bench in the Council Chamber
Gallery overlooking the Council Chamber
The Lord Mayor's Chair and Councillors Benches
Sitting in the Lord Mayor's Chair
The Great Hall
Titanic Memorial Garden
We decided that we had seen all we wanted to see in the city center and it was time to go home to start making dinner. Valerie made Lasagna for dinner with garlic bread and it tasted amazing. After dinner, we went to the Titanic District of the city because Belfast is where the Titanic was actually built. The saying in Belfast is always "She was fine when she left here". This is the area where they have built the new "Titanic Experience" like the one that we did in Cove, but this building is about 5 stories tall. The reason we went though, it that outside of the building, they have a dock like area where they have the outlines of the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic next to each other with the exact size that they were when being built. They then also have shown how big things like the lifeboats would have been and where they would have been placed on the boat. This allows you to realize how big these boats actually were. On the other boat outline they have a section of alternating decking and grass. Each set of decking and grass represents one of the classes (First, Second, Third, Staff). The decking represents the people from that class who lived, and the grass represents the people who perished, and they have divided each of these numbers to create a percentage of the entire number of passengers so you can see the breakdown by class of who survived. First and Second classes seemed to be almost 50/50 but as you moved to the Third class and the staff, there is a much bigger difference.
By the time we got back, it was around 9:30 and we decided to play a game. Somehow it was brought up that I knew how to play Farkle (a dice game) and Valerie and Gary realized that they owned it and had never played so we decided to take this opportunity to teach them. For those of you who don't know, I play Farkle at the local coffee shop in St. Joseph where my school is located with a group of retired men. Long story short, one day they asked if a friend and I wanted to play, we said sure, and we've been going back ever since (they play everyday Mon-Sat). We had lots of fun playing and stayed up until midnight.
My Farkle Group at home
No comments:
Post a Comment