Belfast Belle
Our first weekend excursion was to Belfast. This trip was with UCD, so there were a decent number of people. We all loaded onto two big tour buses early in the morning for the several hour drive up north. Luckily, the back of the bus had a section with three seats, so we could all sit together. And be weird.
Our first stop was the Titanic museum. It's actually pretty neat architecturally, and it's located right next to a filming location for Game of Thrones (bottom left below). Actually, a lot of the show is filmed in Northern Ireland, which is pretty neat. I think it would be fun to go see the locations since the show is done so beautifully.
Some of the old pictures were actually pretty funny if you took the time to look at their expressions. We were deeply amused.
At the same time, it was also incredibly sad. Throughout the exhibit there were tons of quotes from people on the ship and record of the Titanic's correspondence with other ships. It really showed the desperation of the situation, and how they never got the help they needed in time.
Some of the exhibits were set up to replicate either the construction of the ship or the rooms aboard. It was actually kind of trippy.
One of my favorite parts was this huge pane of glass that you could stand on top of. A video of the actual remains of the Titanic played beneath the glass so it looked like you were right above it in the water.
After the Titanic museum, we made a quick stop at the park to take a photo.
Then, we had a break for lunch. It felt like we were going to die of hunger at that point. Check out how weird the police cars were!
We got to explore the city a bit on our little break.
Our next stop was the murals.
And, of course, we couldn't leave Belfast without seeing the Peace Wall.
The last stop scheduled for us was a chat with one of the hunger strikers. His story was very harrowing. He told us about what it was like to be blind for several weeks, how sweet milk diluted with water tasted when he was able to drink again, and how everyone around him reacted as well.
All in all, I don't think I have any need to go back to Belfast again. I certainly don't have a desire to. It was a bit too weird to be driving through empty streets and looked at strangely.