More on the Troubles and a big ship goes down

Today we got a different perspective on the Troubles and how they impacted ordinary citizens of Belfast, both Protestant and Catholic, and do so to this day. We did the walking tour about the history of the terror with DC Tours. 

Our guide Paul ( Donzo) took us through several seminal incidents that took place in Belfast city centre, incidents that illustrated the "parallel universes" that have been inhabited by people on the two sides of the conflict over the past four decades. He carefully showed how people on either side can have their own truth and their own trauma. I was particularly struck to hear him describe the ways in which a person's own experience in the years of terror can to this day impact that person's viewpoint, body language and behavior. Paul has taken part in a number of educational and reconciliation projects related to bringing peace to Northern Ireland. I wish I had been able to ask how young people who were born after the Good Friday Agreement experience their city. I'm really curious how they view the Troubles and to what extent -- given that something like 90% of primary and secondary schools are segregated by religion -- they are able to have normalized experiences that mix Protestant and Catholic kids.

After the conclusion of the walk at the waterfront, we took a look at the Salmon of Knowledge and then crossed the pedestrian bridge over the river and made our way towards the old ship yards. Our lunch stop was the DOCK Cafe. I can't remember how I heard about this place, but whatever it was made me put it on my spreadsheet as one of my Belfast destinations. In a cavernous space at the base of a new development next to Abercorn Basin, the caff serves up wholesome food on an honour system -- each customer puts whatever amount they think is fair price for their order into an honesty box. The caff also serves as a meeting space for local groups, with comfy donated furniture all around, an art gallery, a prayer garden and place for community volunteerism. On the recommendation of one of the volunteers, we each had the chicken soup and bread and it hit the spot.

Our next destination was the Titanic Experience, where we learned about the late c19 and early c20 industries in Belfast, the dockyards, the building of the Titanic and its sinking. It's an interactive, highly immersive place -- as opposed to a museum proper. Lots of moving images, sounds, buttons to push. I enjoyed both the bits about the industrial history and seeing how the ship was outfitted with furnishings, woodworking, china, linen, etc., most of which was made in Ireland. 

It was wicked easy to catch a bus back to the city centre from Queen's Island. We stopped in a pub -- pint of cider for Roger and pint of Guinness for me -- before catching another bus back to the Queen's University quarter where we are staying. For dinner, we went back to Slim's Healthy Kitchen where we had eaten two nights before and it was just as good the second time around.

Stats:

£3 to top up bus pass

£1.90 for scone for breakfast eaten on the bus

£15 for History of the Terror walk with DC Tours

£3 lunch

£15 Titanic Experience

£4.40 pint of Guinness

£15 dinner and wine

14,392 steps, 6.08 miles

A lesson in history and lunch at the Felons Club

Two of the reasons for this trip to Belfast were to see the political murals and learn more about the Troubles. We did both today on a walking tour of west Belfast, organized by a group called Coiste that supports former IRA prisoners. Advertised as a three-hour tour, we actually spent well over four hours with our guide Peadar Whelan, who put the murals and the individuals depicted on them into context. Woven through the walk were the history of the political, social and economic conditions that gave rise to armed resistance to British rule as well as Peadar's own personal history in prison. The tour is not on unbiased view of the conflict and doesn't pretend to be. It's all about the IRA's fight for a united Ireland free from British rule.

While there are dozens of murals to be seen on both sides of the conflict, we saw only a handful of them. At first I wished we'd pick up the pace and wondered if we'd run out of time before I'd seen enough. It wasn't until we were a couple hours into the walk, when Peadar told us his own story of serving 16 years of a life sentence in the Maze prison (part of that time with Bobby Sands), that it clicked for me. I thought I knew a fair amount about the Troubles but my knowledge was certainly augmented by Peadar's insights. What I had no previous exposure to was the personal narrative of imprisonment. But for this to have come earlier in the walk would have been premature. It seemed right that Peadar tell his story on his own terms at whatever time works for him. I won't retell it here, but suffice to say it gave me a new perspective on the reality of imprisonment, the brutality of the British government and the organized campaign of resistance that the IRA waged within the prisons.

The official end of the walk was at the Milltown Cemetery where many IRA members, including Bobby Sands, are buried. But the real end was just down the road at the Felons Club, a membership club like the Elks for former IRA prisoners. We were invited to the bar for a glass of Guinness and we stayed to order sandwiches for a late lunch. I wanted to take a photo of the outside after as proof positive that I was there, but it was stonking raining when we left so you'll have to take my word for it.

We hopped the bus back into town and then got another bus down towards Queen's University and the neighborhood where we are staying. Sadly, it was too late to go to the Ulster Museum. We then tried unsuccessfully to get into the Palm House and the Tropical Ravine in the Botanic Garden, but those had just closed as well. So we trudged home in the rain, dried off a bit, went out for nearby takeaway from the Thai Tanic (cheap, edible, nothing to write home about) and came back to the flat to eat and crash.

Stats:
£3 to top up bus pass
£8 for walking tour
£5.50 chicken sandwich for lunch
£6.95 Pad Thai for dinner

21,302 steps, 8.88 miles

Street art, Hobnobs and a good night's sleep

We didn't make the 10:35 bus as Roger spent a long time in the immigration queue, but caught the one an hour later. There's not much in the way of scenery to gawp at from the motorway to Belfast -- cows, hedgerows, auto junkyards and a few isolated wind turbines, but no picturesque Irish villages. The journey was fast and we hit the pavement in Belfast city centre by 2 pm. Our first stop was nearby at a tourist ticket shop that doubles as a short term luggage drop (pre-booked on Stasher.com), then to the Belfast Visitors Centre to purchase our city bus passes and to a magic money machine to get a fist full of her majesty' s currency. I learned when I purchased my return bus ticket from the driver in Dublin that the pound coins I was carrying are no longer in circulation. Some time in the last nine months they've been replaced with shiny two-tone nine-sided ones sure to defy any attempt at counterfeit. I spotted a Waterstone's, so nipped in to buy a copy of The Gospel According to Blindboy, a book of satirical and philosophical short stories by one of the Irish podcasters who has been in my ears these past months.

Our original plan had been to spend the afternoon at the Titanic Experience learning all about ship building and ship sinking, but opted to explore the streets and alleyways of the Cathedral Quarter instead. This turned out to be a grand idea as nothing warms my heart more than derelict buildings and street art. Just off the busy shopping streets we found plenty of both, as well as some proper good architecture (Georgian and art deco) and a big cathedral (early c20, Protestant and uninspiring).

After a sit down at Caffe Nero, we reclaimed our bags, boarded a bus and headed to our AirBnB. There was some confusion about the key, but we got that sorted. The place is clean and spacious with most of the mod cons we require. We explored the neighborhood eating options, ending up at Slim Kitchen, a nice bistro serving fresh, healthy and tasty eats as well as booze. Our final destination was Tesco to stock up on essentials -- cereal, milk, more wine and Hobnobs.

Stats:
€2.25 coffee at Dublin airport
€2.20 bottle of water
£22 return bus ticket for Belfast
£6 luggage stash
£3.50 one- day bus pass
£10.99 Gospel According to Blindboy paperback
£3.35 water and banana bread at caff
£24 dinner and wine
£7 bevvies and nibbles from Tesco

19,254 steps, 7.92 miles

I'm in the Emerald Isle ...

... and spending my first five hours hanging out in the arrivals hall of Terminal 1 at Dublin airport. It was an uneventful flight over, packed like a sardine in steerage. I give myself high marks for judicious packing -- my new carry on weighed in at a mere 16 pounds and I successfully hoisted it into the overhead bin unaided. Ate some crap airline food, watched Lady Bird (swearing censored) and slept about an hour and a half on the flight.

Roger just messaged me that he's on the train to Gatwick. I'm hoping he exhausted all his bad travel karma on his recent trip to D.C. If good luck holds, he'll arrive at 10:10 and we'll be on the 10:35 bus to Belfast.

As I know my loyal readership is eager for the scintillating minutia of my travel adventures, I will try to post every step taken and pence spent. Stay tuned for further developments.

Lessons Learned

Happy to say that I didn't lose anything or get lost on my trip. Before I forget them, here are the lessons I learned:

1. I must stop looking for the steps-free access to the westbound District Line platform at Paddington. Yes, it is possible to take the lift up to the ticket concourse/street level from the eastbound platform, but steps-free access back down to the westbound platform does not exist. Advice to self: Deal with it, get a lighter suitcase, or use the Circle/H&C via Hammersmith to get to Heathrow. 
2. Aer Lingus from Hartford via Dublin is the way to go. Doing immigration at Dublin saves much time and hassle over the lines at Heathrow. It was so quick and easy on the way to the UK that I hardly realized (at 4 am) that I had done it, but I have the stamp in my passport as proof. Coming back was a bit more complex, with three different segments to the pre-clearance for US-bound passengers (re-screening of all carry-on items, passport scanning and a final station where you turn in your customs declaration form and receipt from the passport scan), but at 45 minutes all told it was better than the up to 2 hours it can take now at Logan Airport in Boston. 
3. The Airbnb experience was fantastic. I was a bit wary of staying in the home of people I didn't know, but with my room a bit removed from the rest of the house (I was over the garden extension) and my own bathroom, it was extremely comfortable. Traveling on my own, it felt nice to have people to talk to for a few minutes when I came in every evening. The location was ideal -- I really like Queen's Park and it was fun, after two years away, to explore new things in the area.
4. The 2GB add-on package I purchased for £15 with the sim card from EE was more than enough data for my stay, even running Google maps and the Citymapper app every day. I switched the phone to wifi-only data when I was in the flat and used a total of about .6GB of data over nine days. I could easily have gone with the 1GB package for a tenner. 
5. Having a smartie phone with me when I was out and about was certainly convenient for maps and transport info, but time spent looking at a screen is time not spent looking at what's around you, as tempting as it may be to check Facebook when riding the bus. 
6. The 90-day Art Pass for ten quid was brilliant. I got value for money within the first day of using it. They don't advertise the 90-day pass, but I saw a promo code for it in one of the London e-mail newsletters I receive (can't remember now which it was -- possible Open House or London Transport Museum). 
7. I need to upgrade my technology. Taking the bluetooth keyboard to use with my tablet wasn't worth the bother (heavy, awkward touch), so I finger-typed my blog posts on the tablet instead most of the time. Time to think about buying a Chromebook -- possibly the new Asus Chromebook Flip C101. 
8. Many years ago, my friend Helen declared me an honorary Londoner, but at the time I didn't feel that I'd fully earned the appellation. I'm chuffed to say that, finally, I think I wear it well. 

I came home with £20 in my wallet and ~£13 on my Oyster. Time to open a new spreadsheet and start adding things for the next trip to Blighty.