The sun crept through our window curtains this morning. It was a nice little push to get up and start the day. On the agenda was our hop on hop off bus tour and Titanic Belfast. We stopped by the lobby for a quick breakfast and took an Uber to our first stop.
Our Uber driver Paul asked us about our plans for the day and how we’ve liked our trip so far. He started to mention some of the murals on the wall and the turmoil between loyalists and Nationalists. He also showed us the hotel that Bill Clinton stayed at during his visit in 1995. He told us that Bill Clinton was one of the people that helped end the 30 year conflict. Matt and I looked at each other amazed. We didn’t say what we were thinking. But what we were thinking is that generally the United States likes to play guardians of the galaxy but other countries actually feel we do more harm than good. Here’s a fellow really grateful for the work of a sitting US president in bringing peace to his country.
Just then I started to think of how Paul’s accent was a lot thicker than those from other parts of Ireland.
Paul looks up in the rearview mirror and asks, “Do you understand my accent?”
Rats. I’m caught.
“Yes.” Matt returns.
Phew. I thought we were dealing with a mind reader. Just then, Paul drops us off at City Hall where we get in line for our bus. It was really cold so we opted for the inside bottom half.

When the bus gets moving, our driver has everyone laughing around every corner. Anytime there’s a pause between tour items, there’s a joke. We rode all around Belfast, passing through the titanic quarter, queens university, and all the other quarters. We went through a few neighborhoods where Catholics and Protestants are still very clearly divided. The city is full of murals, some dedicated to the queen, some about Jesus, but mostly about different opinions. Some murals I didn’t fully understand. We also drove by the peace wall, which contains millions of signatures and hopes of keeping peace between both sides. Our driver tells us the peace wall is a very safe place to be and that no one has been hurt there in weeks.

Later along our drive the driver shows us Windsor Park and asked if anyone on the bus is from England. He then gloats about the time a
Northern Ireland beat England, 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier. By gloats, I mean he spent a few minutes singing about it, including lyrics like “we’re not even Brazil!” Matt was in tears. After doing some research, I learned the game he was referring to occurred in 2005. Clearly they’re still very proud.

We did a full loop around on the bus and returned back to the Titanic Belfast museum, where the driver let us off, “women and children first.” The joke got more laughs the first time around. We went inside and got our audio guides and started the exhibit. The beginning of the tour took us outside to the docks where we saw where the titanic and its sister ship the Olympia were made. Overlying the docks were two huge cranes, named Sampson and Goliath. These cranes, owned by Harland and Wolf, are responsible for a lot of ships being built, though there hasn’t been any ships built in the last nine years.

It truly is amazing how much time, energy, resources and manpower were put into building such a remarkable ship. At the time, safety was not a priority so plans included losing men in the building process. Workers were referred to as replaceable. After the ship was finished being structurally built, it spent another year on the dock being outfitted and made fancy. We got to see different class cabins and how the titanic was the first passenger ship where 2nd and 3rd class didn’t have to bring their own food for the journey. It was supposed to be a new level of luxury for all classes.

The museum also had a ride showing building conditions, as well as a a video showing all the levels of the ship. Towards the end, we learned about where the ship landed in the ocean and how researchers were able to look at debris without damaging the site. We ended up at the museum for about 3 hours and grabbed a bite at the cafe before heading out.

The day was still young so we hopped back on the bus and rode to the botanical gardens in Queen’s University. We strolled around briefly before heading back to our hotel.

For dinner we headed across the street to the Onyx hotel as most restaurants were already pre-booked. Matt had steak this time and I stuck to seafood chowder. Our server Amalie, ended up being from Nevada and talked to us for a really long time. She is a theater major in queens university and previously received a psychology degree from the United States. She shared with us how she ended up in Belfast and what her plans are for the future.
When it was finally time to go I was glad we were just a short walk from our hotel.