Belfast - Giant's Causeway and Londonderry/Derry

I've already talked about my first day in Belfast, seeing 'Captain America' so I'll skip ahead to Monday and Tuesday.

Monday August 1

Belfast is very different from Dublin. From what I saw while I was there, it seems there are a lot more tourists and things are a lot more compact in Dublin. Belfast was a bit more spread out and did not have the same feel to Dublin at all. In fact when I got up Monday morning I really wasn't sure what I was going to do all day since my options were a bit more limited.

However, there was also a city sightseeing tour bus for Belfast as there had been in Dublin, so I bought a bus ticket and took a tour around the city. This tour was a lot different from Belfast as there were not many stops along the way. So both times I went around I had to sit on the bottom of the double decker bus since no one ever left the top.

It was a fascinating tour as we had a live tour guide and there is a lot of history in Belfast. Specifically, what they refer to as, The Troubles. A period from about the late 1960s to 1998 when there was a lot of turmoil and violence in Belfast. Though this was mainly a political debate, it also was split between two main religious denominations, Catholic and Protestant. Most of the Catholics wanted to be free from British Rule (Nationalist) and Protestants wanted to continue under British rule (Unionist). Because of the violence a wall was built between the two sections of Catholic and Protestants to keep the peace. Today the Peach Wall is still up though much of the violence has stopped since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

The bus tour takes you past the Peace Wall and through these areas. What is interesting is that a lot of the buildings (on both sides of the wall) have large murals painted on them. Often depicting what happened during The Troubles and some of them are still very political.

I highly recommed taking a look at this Wikipedia article and taking some time to understand what happened - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
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Also during the tour we passed the docks where the Titanic was bulit and where the new museum (not open till 2012) is being built, as well as one of Europes largest sound stage. Where they have most recently been filming Game of Thrones which I am currently reading.

After the tour I spent some time wandering around Belfast and the shops. This was also about the time my camera started acting up so I was trying to get some help with it. However the camera shop didn't know what was wrong either.

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Tuesday August 2

Tuesday was my trip to the Giants Causeway. I was most excited about this as I had heard it was a really lovely trip. I got up about 8am and made my way down to the pick up area. While I was waiting for the bus I met a girl named Jenna from Australia, and we hit it off pretty well. So when the bus arrived and we loaded up, we sat together. It was really nice having a day with someone else around my age to talk to! Especially since I had been a lone on a lot of the tours.

From Belfast we went to the Carrick-a-Reed rope bridge. It is along the coast of Nothern Ireland and is an absolutely beautiful area. I did not cross the bridge due to my fear of heights, but it was still an amazing sight to walk along the coast.





Then we drove from there to the Giants Causeway. ~The Giant's Cause way is formed from basalt colomns from a volcanic explosion thousands of years ago. It got it's name because legend says it was built by giants to cross from Ireland to Scotland. Of course today we really know how it was formed, but the legend is still fun. The columns were actually smaller than I expected, but it is still quite a sight to see.








We had a quick lunch at the Causeway Hotel and the drove to Derry/Londonderry. Derry is home to some of the worst fighting during The Troubles, including what is known as Bloody Sunday. On January 30, 1972, 13 civil rights protesters where gunned down by the British Army. Many consider this to be the start of the worst of the troubles. Even though there had been some tension beforehand, this brought a lot more attention to what was happening and the numbers of those in the IRA grew very quickly.

Derry is a walled city and has two names. Those that call it Derry want it to be apart of Ireland and have independant rule, and those that call it Londonderry what it to stay apart of Britian. In fact the area of Derry where most of the nationalist live still has a large wall with the words "You are now entering Free Derry" painted upon it. Though there has been peace for so long, there is still tension between the two sides. Derry also has several of the more intense murals depicting The Troubles. One is a 12 year old boy wearing a gas mask and holding a moltov cocktail.





Being in Derry/Londonderry was very sobering because what happened there set of so many things that happened in Northern Ireland. And even though there has been peace, The Troubles lasted nearly 30 years. I wish I had known more about what had happened before I went to have better appreciated the history of where I was.

Got back to Belfast about 6:30pm and made my way back to my hostel. It was time to eat some dinner and pack up before leaving in the morning!