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Published: August 8th 2007
I finally made it to Belfast and to the hostel after the usual unguided lap of the city. Just when I thought that Dublin was good Belfast has snuck on in there. After arriving a little late into town I went in search of food, not wanting to dine on the finest kebebs that Belfast could offer the choice was down to KFC. Oh well it had to happen sooner or later.
The hostel was conveniently located around the corner from the Golden Mile or one of Belfast's main pub strips. This was a handy distraction to have around the corner. After the usual menial tasks, it was time to venture out and see what Saturday night in Belfast had to offer. From first looks the bar looked good, all the Hens nights that didn't make it to Dublin were in Belfast. But as the night continued the indicators were there that it was time to retire to the cosy hostel room around the corner before the couple of small altercations amongst the patrons became bigger. Plus I had a big day of touring around the 'troubles' in the morning, so why hang around a pub to see them of
a night. The unexpected bonus that I didn't mention was that from 30 April 2007 all bars in Belfast became non-smoking.
What's there to love about Belfast, there's signs and maps all over town telling you where to go, where you are and what happened around the corner. Plus the tourist info mob are fantastic pointing you in the direction of all and sundry to go and see. There's two main quarters in Belfast, the Cathedral quarter and the Titanic quarter. The Cathedral quarter has all the artsy stuff and is well underway to being he centre of entertainment. The Titanic quarter still has a bit of work to be done, but has all the makings with an entertainment centre and walking trail already in place.
Part of the Titanic quarter is the area where the Titanic was built, this is still being worked on but the potential is there. The building where the Titanic was designed is under refurbishment. But it looks like the slipway where the Titanic was built in has been filled in, but the Thompson graving dock where the Titanic was fitted out is still there. Sampson and Goliath the two cranes built in
the 60's and 70's at the Harland and Wolff shipyards stand out like big yellow painted cranes. Plus Belfast has recently rescued the Nomadic from the French. The Nomadic is a sister ship to the Titanic (bit of a long bow drawn there but they're related) and was used to transport the passengers out to the Titanic at Cherbourg.
There are a few options for touring the area of Shankill and Falls road in Belfast, the popular one is to jump in a black London cab and have a guided tour. The other one is to jump in your black ford focus hire car and drive around unguided. Guess which one I chose?
Map in hand (not a very good one) it was off to Shankill road first (in a car with Ireland number plates). There are some murals in the main street, but the most political ones are in the estates. There looks like there's been a bit of cleaning up done with a bit of parkland where it looks like houses once were. But it all looked pretty safe in the daylight on a Sunday (I figured they were all at church)
From Shankill road
I ventured cross country to Falls road. This trip is hampered by a couple of things, the map lacking street names, street signs not being there and the peace fence. This structure divides Shankill from Falls and it has only a couple of gates to get you from one side to the other. After a few bonus bits to the tour I made it across to the other side ok. The main mural to see in Falls is Bobby Sands on the side of the Sinn Fein offices.
Like last year in Croatia, walking and driving around Belfast made me realise how much modern history I didn't know. A lot of the 'troubles' were still happening in the 90's and have only really just recently slowed to an almost stop. Although there seems to be a lot of things still going on in the background, but armed British troops no longer walk the streets of Belfast.
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