Belfast - Tall Ships Festival & Game of Thrones Tour

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This past weekend, I took a trip to the capital of Northern Island. Belfast is a city that has a violent history, but was very welcoming while I was there. The Tall Ships Festival was going on during my stay, and it was awesome to see sailboats from all across the world in the harbor. I also visited the Titanic museum to learn more about one of the most famous disasters in history. I was in Belfast from Friday-Monday, and while I was there I visited a lot of the local pubs and had some of the best Guinness of my life. I also did a Black Taxi tour, which toured the divided Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods of Belfast and examined the murals of the Belfast Wall. The wall is taller and longer than the Berlin Wall, and is still fully in-tact. It was built to divide the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods, as they were always at each other's throats. It was interesting to learn about the different Protestant and Catholic factions of Belfast that have been in a violent civil war for decades. I also went through the Botanic Gardens in town and had a look around Queens University. On my last day in Belfast, I went on a Game of Thrones tour to the coast of Northern Island. I'm not an avid viewer of the show, so I was mainly in it for the sights. We explored caves along the coastline, small villages where scenes of the show were filmed, crossed a rope bridge over the sea, and saw the famous Giants Causeway. The causeway was an incredible display of nature's beauty, as the rocks were formed into perfect hexagonal shapes that rose up from the sea like Roman pillars. Belfast is definitely a city I would recommend for a visit, it truly has something for everyone.

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