When I last went to Northern Ireland (as a part of the Scotland trip with Dion), I remarked in my blog post about it that I thought I'd get to the Republic of Ireland before I'd ever get to Northern Ireland. I never thought I'd visit Northern Ireland twice before ever getting to the Republic of Ireland, either - but yet that's what's transpired! Sasha and I were joining some friends on a trip to visit the largest city of Northern Ireland, and surrounds. Cory had been the one to suggest the trip, and worked out most of the detail - including which flights to catch, but he wouldn't be joining us on the plane as he was travelling separately up from Dublin (where he had spent a few days with friends). So after work, I headed to Clapham Junction where I'd meet up with Sasha to catch the train to Gatwick. Prior to leaving work I'd changed out of my suit into some more suitable clothes for the weekend, only to discover I'd left my jersey at home - since it was cold out and I knew it could be even colder in Belfast, a quick trip to TK Max was in order and a suitable jersey procured. Once at the Junction and having met up with Sasha, we caught the train to Gatwick Airport, where after arriving at the North Terminal we met up with Nicole. Through security, we got some dinner to eat (just some sandwiches from Boots) while we waited for the gate information to appear. Eventually it did, we went to the gate, and were able to board our plane through an airbridge once again! Such luxury! This too was an Easyjet flight, and because it was a domestic one we never needed to show our passports. The flight was fairly standard - Nicole was sitting elsewhere from us, as we hadn't booked tickets together and unless you pay extra you can't choose your seats, not that we cared! After arrival in Belfast, we had about a 20min wait before the Airport bus to the city arrived, and whisked us into central Belfast. Once there, we had about a 15 minute walk to the Hostel where Cory was already waiting for us. We had a 4-bed dorm room to ourselves, and since it was edging midnight by the time we arrived we didn't stay up for very long. Today was the "main feature" day, - a bus tour to the Giant's Causeway, the strange collection of rocks up the top of Northern Ireland. Because Cory had booked the tour on our behalf, I didn't have much idea of what to expect other than we were likely to be on the bus most of the day and that we'd probably see a few other things as well. We made our way to the meet-up/check-in point, checked in and then were escorted to our tour bus by one of the tour crew who started chatting to me and Sasha - but we couldn't decipher a thing he was saying, until I realised he was talking about the weather (when he glanced up at the sky) and said something that sounded like "It's what you make of it" so I agreed, hoping that was the right answer! Our bus driver was a talkative sort, and asked if we could understand him. "Yes" was the reply throughout the bus. "Well you know that means I can't possibly be from Belfast then!". Turns out he was from Derry, where the accent isn't as thick supposedly. He told us as we drove down a motorway that the walls either side of us were the Belfast Peace Walls, built to "keep the peace" between the Catholics and the Protestants, and we headed north with him pointing out various bits and pieces along the way, some interesting and some odd. Things such as Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles; Antrim Hospital and its wind turbine; the City of Ballymena, where Liam Neeson is from, which we bypassed; Logans of Cloughmills, where you can get cheap Wedding dresses and attire; before we arrived at a viewpoint for Dunluce Castle. The Castle is a ruin, perched atop a small but ragged bluff and of interest to us, was used as the basis of Pyke, the Castle for House Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones, the TV series is mostly filmed in Northern Ireland and also produced there, The weather wasn't very conducive to staying outside very long, and after a few minutes and a few photos, we were all back on the bus which then took us to Bushmills. At Bushmills, we had a 45min stop - conveniently right outside the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery, where we were advised that tastings would be possible. We followed the directions given to us by the bus driver, and found the tasting room - sampling some of Bushmills' Irish Honey Triple Distilled Whiskey, which was rather nice. They weren't offering samples of the other kinds of Whiskies they had, so we spent some time in the gift shop looking around and a few of our group purchased some mini bottles to take home. Back on the bus, it then took us through Bushmills town the short distance to the Giant's Causeway entrance. On the way, our bus driver explained that entry to the Causeway was free, and you could either walk down to the causeway (about a 15min walk) or catch a shuttle bus for £2 return. He also told us the Information Centre tries to make it seem like you need to pay to go to the Causeway and the museum inside the Info Centre is very basic and not worth the money - and also, the coffee's are very expensive! if you wanted food, drink or souvenirs, go to the shop next to the Pub/Hotel where everything will be much more reasonably priced. It was midday, and we had to be back at the bus by 1.30pm. Given the weather and time, we chose to use the shuttle bus - which helped us maximise our time down at the Causeway, which was just as well as it was rather spectacular. The rocks were everywhere, you could clamber over them to your hearts content, and the overcast weather with the crashing waves created this rather neat atmosphere - only offset by the wind, which would occasionally buffet us with strong gusts that would make us take a few steps before we'd regain our balance. No going near the edge unless you wanted to risk falling in the sea! In mythology, the Causeway was built by an Irish Giant between Ireland and Scotland so that he could fight a Scottish Giant, the legend having two different stories - either the Irish Giant wins the fight, or he dressed as a baby, making the Scottish Giant think the baby's dad must be enormous and so he ran back to Scotland destroying the causeway behind him. In reality, it is volcanic basalt rock - the remains of an ancient lava flow which cracked when it cooled down in a hexagonal fashion, much like mud cracks when it dries up in the sun. It is not a unique phenomenon, existing elsewhere in the world but interestingly some can be seen at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish Isle of Staffa - part of the same ancient lava flow, and possibly had some influence on the legend. Some of the rocks have flat ends, and some have dished ends - meaning a lot of the dished end ones retain a puddle of water, one of which Sasha unfortunately sat in while taking photos. Time passed quickly at the Causeway, and we caught the bus back up and had enough time spare to briefly visit the souvenir shop before heading to the bus - some souvenirs were procured, but the food selection there was almost non-existent so we didn't get lunch. We carried on, stopping at a viewpoint to look out of the bus at Portbraddon, said to be the smallest Village in Northern Ireland (not much more than a few houses at the foot of a cliff, next to a beach) and also home to the smallest Church. The next actual stop was Carrick-a-Rede, for a bridge - which upon having left the Giant's Causeway we were told was closed due to the windy weather, but we could still walk up to it and see it and there would be time to get food or coffee from the shop also. We opted to get food first and eat it on the way to the bridge, a wise decision - a queue formed up heavily behind us, and meaning we got the pick of the food we were after before it all disappeared. The bridge is a rope bridge, which joins a small island to the main land across a short gap, of a fairly decent height. To get there was a 15min walk along a pathway, and when we reached the bridge you couldn't cross but you could get your photo posed with the bridge as if you were going to cross. In many respects, this was probably better - because to cross the bridge, you have to buy a ticket which costs £5.90 and as it turns out and by what we saw of the wee island where you go to, there isn't much to see there and the views would be no different than what you see on the mainland. In this regard, the wind had done us a favour I think! Also of note, next to the carpark at Carrick-a-Rede was a quarry which had also been used in Game of Thrones, but you couldn't get a good look at without actually going in there - for which we didn't have time nor a strong inclination. Once back on the bus at 3pm for departure, we drove along the coastal route to Larne (which involved crossing some high moor-like country, and then skirting the winding coast) before heading inland for Belfast where we arrived about 5.30pm. Quite a full day out but an enjoyable one, and we saw lots - and in the process covered a whole swathe of Northern Ireland, in particular just about doing the entirety of County Antrim. We wandered into the city and found our way to the White's Tavern, which is one of the oldest bars in Belfast and dates from the 1600's! We had a lovely time there drinking Guinness and the food we got was top notch also - and some time late in the evening, we traipsed back to our hostel and called it a night. In the end, there was quite a list of things that would be nice to do this day and not really a huge amount of time in which to do them and weren't sure what order to do them in. We contemplated going to the Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, which was nearby the Hostel - but in the end decided to go straight to the Titanic Museum. I'd been there before, but Cory wanted to go and Sasha and Nicole seemed happy enough to go along - as for me, I was happy enough to go along again as well. Admission this time was a flat charge which included visiting the SS Nomadic - last time, it was an optional addition. The visit was much the same as last time, although this time with less people I got to see a few more things I hadn't noticed previously - the interactive rivet game on the ground, written out transcripts of wireless messages that Titanic and nearby ships had sent. The most chilling of these was an exchange between Californian and Titanic, Californian messaging to Titanic that they were stopped for the night, and surrounded by ice - Titanic responded by telling it to shut up as it was sending messages to Cape Race to be relayed on to New York. Californian's wireless operator took the hint, turned off his wireless and went to sleep. Not heeding Californian's warning, within half an hour Titanic had struck the iceberg - the Californian was the closest ship to Titanic by a long way, to the point where Titanic could actually see it in the distance. It could of arrived at the scene before Titanic had disappeared into the ocean and saved many lives. But with the wireless turned off and Titanic not having red distress flares, Californian was oblivious to the disaster unfolding nearby. I had known Californian had been nearby and didn't have its wireless on that night - but I did not know that Titanic had told them to sod off, in many respects sealing the fate of many passengers that night. Nicole and Sasha bounced questions off of me about things they were learning which didn't make sense or other questions about the disaster - finally, knowing all so much inane detail is proving useful! When it came time to sit down in the theatre, instead of watching a video about how Robert Ballard found the Titanic wreck (like last time) we instead watched footage (with post-production narration added) of underwater camera's inspecting the Titanic wreck - to me it wasn't as interesting as the wreck-finding video, and when we went down to the floor where you could see the latest imagery of the Titanic wreck below your feet there wasn't anyone explaining anything like the previous time either. We spent just over 90mins in the Museum, but chose not to go visit the SS Nomadic. When all is said and done, it was a good visit but would have been better if we'd had the option of paying for a ticket without the Nomadic admission (which surely would have shaved £4-£5 off the cost). Walking across Belfast, we stopped for lunch at a cafe we saw along the way called the National Grande, which looked a fairly small place on the outside but turned out to be a huge, modern-style space on the inside. Here we got lunch, with Irish Coffee's to go with it. When the waiter brought the Irish Coffee's over he remarked that he knew we were from out of town because "Irish people never order Irish Coffee". Doing a bit of subsequent research, it seems Irish coffee did indeed originate in Ireland but was refined and popularised in the USA - I guess its a bit like Chilli Con Carne (not Mexican), Hawaiian Pizza (neither Italian nor from Hawaii - invented by Canadians) or Spaghetti Bolognese (definitely not Italian), popular things which might seem to be from a particular country but actually aren't. The food here was very good, and from there we walked towards the Peace Walls. Cory had been to the walls the day we arrived, but the rest of us wanted to see them up close ourselves. While the bus driver had told us the walls either side of the motorway were the Peace Walls, Cory was adamant they were elsewhere and so we followed his lead. We found them - but the route we had taken was blocked, with heavy gates closed across roads. It was a Sunday, and on Sundays (and late at night) the gates are closed in order to protect the areas - I suppose Sunday being the day of worship the main reason for their closure. We took a detour, and then walked along the graffitied wall for a distance. This was an eerie experience - the wall was very very tall, the block next to the wall was fenced off but empty and the road ran alongside the wall, with little traffic. The whole area was very quiet - broken only on occasion by the echoing sound of a Mr Whippy van scouting the streets on the other side of the wall. There may be no "No Man's Land" and no wall guards, but this wall cuts a swathe through parts of Belfast and is still very much performing its function of keeping the peace by separation - something which seems nonsensical considering The Troubles (as they call them) nominally came to an end 18 years ago. Why is it that a Protestant child can hear the sound of the Mr Whippy van, but because of the wall only the Catholic children will be able to get some ice cream from it? Why is it that people who worship the same god in slightly different ways, still need to be isolated from one another? The Belfast Wall seems an anachronism and a remnant from a time long past now, though I'm sure there are those that would argue it is still a very necessary thing. The Wall left me with an uneasy feeling inside that I can't pinpoint, but definitely I felt it shouldn't be there anymore. It just felt wrong on so many levels, it reinforces the fact that there are still divisions in Belfast. Our time at the wall was dictated somewhat by our need to walk back to the bus terminal to catch the Airport bus, and make our flight back to London. On the busride to the airport, the rain that had been threatening to come down finally did, and we remarked how we'd really been quite lucky with the weather - there had been wind, sure but very little rain considering it was supposed to bucket down all weekend. The security and boarding process was fairly easy, although we had to go out onto the tarmac in the rain to board the plane - which in the rain and wind wasn't much fun at all, and the flight back to Gatwick was fine although the descent into landing was a little bumpy (but the pilot touched the plane down onto the runway very smoothly, like a pro). Hopping off the plane, we got into a bus to take us to the terminal - which then stopped for an unknown reason for about 30 minutes in the general vicinity of the terminal. I think something was blocking the way ahead, but there was no information about what was going on and how long we might be there. Eventually we did move, only to find that there wasn't that much further to go to the terminal entrance from where we had been - we could easily have walked less than a minute from the bus into the terminal entrance from where we'd sat for 30 minutes. Why we hadn't been allowed to do so was probably for security reasons, but if someone had been on the ball and realised that we'd be stuck there for a while, why hadn't they arranged a way to escort us from the bus into the terminal? it would have only taken 2 or 3 personnel. This wait in the bus had a larger impact on what time we were able to get to our respective homes by public transport, and is really the first ever gripe I've had with Gatwick Airport - usually they are so good. A post to their Facebook page has gone unanswered, so I still can't tell you the reason why we were held up and why something more wasn't done for the busloads of passengers from our flight! In my blog post when I last visited Belfast, I said that I would visit it again for two reasons and two reasons only - Giant's Causeway (which I made the remark, was probably the only thing going for Northern Ireland as a nature tourist attraction) and Game of Thrones. I have now done Giant's Causeway, and unwittingly in the process we saw a bit of the Game of Thrones stuff as well. In case you're wondering how much of Northern Ireland we covered on our bus trip, I've drawn a map - the answer is, pretty much most of it! There is not really much else that would cause me to visit Northern Ireland now and I don't think I'd plan to visit it again anytime soon, I feel like its mostly "done" but if it was convenient to do so as part of another trip, then I wouldn't have a problem with that. Belfast is a nice place however, its quite pleasant, friendly but doesn't have a huge stand-out character of its own that distinguishes it hugely from any other city (except for those walls, if you go looking for them). It might have been more distinct once upon a time, when Belfast was one of the great industrial centers of the UK - one of the reasons why it was able to construct many ships such as Titanic for instance. With the wane of some of those industries in Belfast, the creation of the Republic of Ireland and the rise of The Troubles, I think Belfast has had some uneasy times being a city over the years. I don't have a strong opinion either way on whether Northern Ireland should stay part of the UK or become part of the Republic, but I do have a strong, negative view of any sectarian violence. I'm glad that they saw sense and the violence has ended, but there are still lingering remains of division. Those walls in Belfast should be torn down, especially in view of the lack of any such violence in recent times for which they were built to stop. For something called the "Peace Wall", the irony is they are probably one of the pivotal things acting against actual Peace from occurring in Belfast now. Belfast, you're good - but rip down those walls and make yourself great once again.
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A Kiwi out travelling in the UK and surrounding countries Archives
August 2019
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