Kanga And Wombats Adventures

Day 22

Our local train station, Greenisland, was only 4 stops from Central Belfast. It was a drizzly morning so we made our way to the Titanic Quarter, specifically the Titanic Museum.

It cost €77m to build and is pure architectural genius. Everything about it is symbolic. The exterior walls represent both the prow of the ship and the iceberg that it hit.

Even the seats outside are different sizes representing the dots and dashes of the morse code message sent by the sinking ship.

The museum is built on the actual slipway site where Titanic was built. The outline of the ship is mapped out on the ground.

Some silly people try and imitate Kate Winslet (John made me do it).

As an aside, the first movie about the Titanic disaster was made 4 days after the event!

The inside is made up of so many different types of displays. Some are static like this one, but if you stood at the bow or stern and looked down the centre piece of perspex, you could see the ship before and after its fit out. Clever!

Most displays are interactive and high tech. One room projects 3D images onto 3 walls, making you feel you are actually on the ship.

There’s even a themepark-like ride. Sitting in little suspended pods, you are taken on a twisting, turning ride, hydraulics lifting you up and down, while you travel through the noisy, busy shipyard.

Time got away…we emerged 4 hours later!

We walked into the city and immediately felt it was vibrant and multicultural, a real mix of old and new.

We found a cosy lunch spot down a very narrow laneway.

Asking the waiter to leave off the fries from our order, his jaw literally dropped. He started to protest and it seemed he might get punished for taking a ‘no fries’ order to the kitchen, so we gave up. Funny thing was, they were the best chips we’d had, and we ate every last one! Our little laneway was one of about 5, collectively called The Entries, linking up major streets.

After our history lesson on the Troubles in Derry, we tentatively ventured into West Belfast. Whilst the city felt very safe and ‘normal’, it didn’t take long for the mood to change. Walking a few kms up Catholic Falls Rd, the bleakness and difference in affluence was stark. Murals covered most walls and house gables.

The Headquarters of Sinn Fein was easy to locate, with a mural of hunger striker Bobby Sands completely covering one exterior wall.

Nearby was a Peace Garden to honour those who died for the cause.

An iron gateway indicated the transfer of allegiances from Republican to Loyalist at the so called ‘Peace Line’,

in reality, a 6m high and 4km long wall. In one step, we were in Protestant West Belfast.

The murals along Shankhill Rd were no less imposing on this side, the messages equally chilling.

We passed several tower-like structures made of wooden pallets like this.

We found out they were intended bonfires, built in preparation for Friday 12th July, when Northern Ireland celebrates the victory of the Orangemen at the Battle of the Boyne. We’re glad we won’t be around for that!

And of course, this side had its own Peace Garden too.

We retreated back to the city centre and to the Parisian cafe, recommended by Irene, and made our way to the balcony. The afternoon weather had much improved and we enjoyed a Parisian coffee ( Tia Maria and Contreau) overlooking the Town Hall. Must remember that combo. It was delicious!

On our way home from the station, we detoured to the War Memorial obelisk above Carrickfergus and looked back over Belfast, lights twinkling innocently as the sky darkened, with the Mourne Mountains silhouetted in the background.

When we got home at about 10pm, Walter and Irene were still mowing the grass.

We talked to Irene about the Troubles and her opinion was that most people wanted to forgive, forget and move on. Amazing she should say that because she told us her father had been caught in crossfire when working in West Belfast and sustained 9 bullet wounds. Now an old man, he has been physically suffering ever since. Understandable!

No one was ever caught for this shooting. It seems very few are.