Brandon's Belfast Birthday Bash

As we have been checking skyscanner.com for trip ideas, we kept coming around new routes from Amsterdam to Belfast.  The idea of visiting Belfast was very intriguing to us: the conflict is so recent but the area has quickly calmed down and many people are raving about the area.  We also have the luxury of keeping our own Irish expert on retainer: Ryan Keating.

We were planning to visit Belfast in the winter, but the time got away from us, so I used my birthday powers to require that we visit Belfast.

Our flight left after work which only left time for one thing when we arrived:

A proper Guinness

The best thing about our hotel was that not only did it include Irish Breakfast, it was a buffet.  Lekker!  Our plan for Saturday was just to see the city and the area since we didn't plan to rent a car.  But the hotel staff informed us of how close some of the sights were (outside of Belfast), and how cheap the car rental was, so we decided to explore the countryside.  We got a car and drove to Giant's Causeway on the northern part of the coast, and also saw some of the places around the causeway.

It was a great idea to rent a car until I realized what side the wheel was on...

Neither of us had experienced the coast of Ireland before, and our first look actually left us breathless.

As we walked further out into the actually causeway park area, the sights only got better (and the wind only got stronger)

Super windy but super beautiful

Windblown

We passed through the town of Bushmills as we left the Giant's Causeway.  We decided to forego the tour for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge area

Unaltered picture near the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

As we left the coast, we drove down to the town of Derry, the site of many of the conflicts during "The Troubles".  Derry also has many political murals.  It's a neat town that has a wall around the entire city center on which you can call to see the whole area and the different neighborhoods.

View of Derry with murals and Free Derry monument in the lower right

Bloody Sunday memorial

The wall around Derry

The wall around Derry was interesting as it was originally a fortification.  But now it is crisscrossed by fences that don't seem to divide anything.  Our (my) theory is that they separate the neighborhoods

British loyalists protestant neighborhood a few blocks from Free Derry monument

Derry wall

Fence around the loyalist neighborhood.  The telephone pole has a  Union Jack flag

We had a great dinner in Belfast and woke up the next day for a Black Cab tour.  These tours are run by local folks that take you around to the different religious neighborhoods and give you some background on The Troubles and the events that occurred in the area.  We started in the Protestant neighborhood on Shankill Road.

Shankill road murals

Although many of the murals were very old, this one was only 6 months old

The "Peace Wall" between the neighborhoods - that had to be extended twice

Catholic neighborhood monument.  The pictures on the backside of the peace wall

Belfast City Hall

It was really great to meet people around the area and hear their story.  Our cab driver was keen to mention that the conflicts are bred into the families of the area.  Everything is still segregated - schools, social circles, and of course the churches.  A really great overview of the whole weekend came from the cab driver as well, "we are Irish when we are everywhere else in the world, but here in Belfast we are Protestant or Catholic"