After a 2-hour train ride, we made it to Belfast. It was sort of impromptu trip with a few friends. We had talked about going but had not made anything concrete until a few days ago. Long journeys are relaxing to me for some reason especially when I am not the one navigating to the destination. Some people hate spending time traveling but sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the destination.

It felt good to be back in Belfast though. The Airbnb was a little farther from the train station than we anticipated but it was a manageable walk to do in the day. The house itself was super cute, plus having an entire home yourself is always great. After living in university accommodation we were more excited at the possibility of sleeping on a comfy mattress and showering with no shower shoes. The most notable aspect of the Airbnb was its location.

The street art, the waving British flags, and churches around the neighborhood were indicative of Loyalist Protestants. In fact, on one of the building Loyalist Tiger on the front and some had pro-Brexit signs. The environment proved to be an interesting shift in the attitudes I’ve been exposed to in L’Derry.

After settling in and crying over how wonderful the Airbnb was, we set about finding some food. We were all ravenous and sushi was on the menu for the night. If anyone is in Belfast I would recommend trying out Sakura Japanese Ramen and Sushi.

I haven’t had sushi in awhile and I found that I kinda missed it. I ended up ordering tempura California rolls with Japanese garlic rice. It was my first time having tempura sushi and it was just as good, sadly, I was too focused on eating to take a picture of it. However, I managed to get one of the Japanese garlic rice.

Jenny had been to Belfast and recommended that we try out the Duke of York. It was charming with a traditional Irish pub aesthetic and live music. The pub was also nestled inside this street that was lined with string lights.

I had an interesting interaction with one of the bouncers. Don’t worry I wasn’t making trouble just friendly banter. For some reason, I referred to Derry as Londonderry when he asked where we were coming in from probably thinking about the location of the Airbnb and what I was seeing there. However, his reaction was interesting. He repeated Londonderry with a confused look stating that London is over the water and de-legitimatized Londonderry while legitimizing Derry as the only true name of the city. Most people in L’Derry refer to it as Derry but on train stations and bus, announcements its referred to as “Derry-Londonderry”, an acknowledgment of both terms.

The interaction really highlights the importance of naming and the role of power relations and historical conflict in the name of places. Who has the power to define and why? What does a name mean beyond the surface?

These are some of the questions I have had since coming to Northern Ireland.

April 6, 2019

The weather this weekend has been the best we have gotten here in a while. We started the day with a visit to the Victoria Square Mall.

The mall is a multi-level semi-open air space with a viewing point at the top that is free. Now, I am afraid of heights and would not go towards the edge. Besides the general fear of heights, the views were very nice and I still enjoyed it. After a quick lunch, it was time for the Titanic Museum. Fun fact: Titanic was built in Belfast.

The walk there was nice and were able to see the Lagan River and the Salmon of Knowledge. The Titanic Museum has to be one of the most interactive museums I have been in so far while in Northern Ireland. I felt like I learned a lot about the a side of the Titanic that I have never learned about before such as the stories of the men who built it and how the ship would have looked and functioned. There was an amazing 180 degree video that took you through the different levels of the ship from the boilers and engines of the ship to the top decks of the ship. The museum also had replicas of what the rooms would have looked like for 1st class and 2nd class passengers.

The sister ship to Titanic, the RMS Olympic, also sits in front of the museum and is a part of the ticket if I remember correctly. Within the museum, there was even a ride kind of like what you would expect at a fair or carnival. Essentially, it is designed to take you through the different parts of the ship as though you were really moving through the actual ship during its construction. They really tried to capture the experience with changes in elevation, sounds, and when we were in the boiler room there were heaters that gave off heat to give an idea as to what the workers would have felt. All of this was done while narratives were being told from the workers themselves. I have to say that the curators really did a great job at trying to make the history tangible and real.

Dinner was a huge margarita pizza from Pizza Express and another interesting interaction about L’Derry with our taxi driver. Unlike the bouncer from last night, the taxi driver made a point of saying Londonderry and warning of the bias that can occur in Derry, essentially stating that there were more sides of the story. His attitude proved to be in complete opposite as the bouncer from yesterday and fit more with the Loyalist side of the debate. It is always interesting to see the nationalist versus loyalist aspect of Northern Ireland on a micro-level. It is one thing to read about the conflict and study in class, but another to see it unfold with you being a participant in the social climate.

April 7, 2019

Belfast has been great and extremely informative, but now it’s time to head home. I got back around 5 pm and did nothing for the rest of the evening really except manage to break the screen of my phone. But, that is a problem for tomorrow at this point.

Belfast Day 2

January 20, 2019

We started our day like yesterday…no plans whatsoever. Well not completely. We both wanted to go the City Hall and maybe do a guided tour, but that didn’t start until 12pm so we had time to kill and breakfast to find.

Like last night we kind of just walked until we found a place that one of us thought looked interesting/good. That’s how we found French Village just a short walk from our hostel. I would definitely recommend. I had the cinnamon apple pancakes which came nicely sprinkled with powder sugar and a little ramekin of syrup and Alaina had french toast with the same garnish.

We went to City Hall just to see the exhibitions that they had until the guided tour time . Let me say that this place was beautiful. It has 16 rooms to explore and two upper levels that only guided tours can go to. It was good to learn about some of the history of Belfast from its conception in earlier periods until now. We never did go on that guided tour…we lost track of time and the tour started exactly at 12pm.

Instead, we went in search of the Botanic Gardens and it was beautiful.

The plants were really nice to look at and smell. Plus, who doesn’t love a Victorian greenhouse? And what do we find on the other side of the gardens…the Ulster Museum.

The Ulster Museum is huge and had a little of everything. 4 floors of exhibitions on art, history, and nature. Truthfully, we only made it through two floors. We had been walking around for several hours without stopping and hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and it was now closer to dinner.

We found Café Melrose. I had a chicken wrap that had fancy mayo with Asian slaw and cheese with a side of fries and a small salad.

We got back to the hostel and kind of chilled in the kitchen/ dining area with other guests and this beautiful boston terrier. I’ve forgotten the name of the dog, but he was friendly and belonged to the owner of the hostel.

At one point, he went and sat under a table where this guy was eating his salad. He had been pretty quiet and stoic, greeting the dog and then going back to eating. And then it happened.

The dog, the dog sitting under his table, farted and it was a loud one.

We all made eye contact and burst out in hysterics as this dog just casually gets up and walks from under the table. The guy tried not to laugh, but honestly, that was a movie moment.

Tomorrow it’s off to Derry/ Londonderry and the 1st day of Ulster orientation .

Belfast Day 1

January 19, 2019

Landed at George Best Belfast City Airport after taking two flights, Atlanta to London to Belfast, and hailed a taxi from the airport to my hostel. Getting to Belfast from the London/Heathrow airport was a time especially since this is the 1st time I’m flying alone. If you can imagine a chicken running around with its head cut off while simultaneously sweating then you have a perfect image of what I looked like in that airport. I was worried about missing my connecting flight to Belfast since my flight from Atlanta was delayed by 30 minutes and I still had to go through the UK Border and Visa line.

But, I got here in one piece.

Alaina (my roommate from Agnes) and I decided to stay in Belfast for two days since orientation for Ulster didn’t start until the 21st. We stayed at Global Village Belfast which was a new experience–it’s kind of like dorm living. There was no elevator and of course I had the room that was on the top floor–up 4 flights of stairs.

Out of sheer pride and stubbornness, I refused help like an idiot and dragged carried my carry-on, check-in suitcase, and bookbag up the stairs. I settled in and went off in search of a UK sim card.

I walked to the city center, of course getting slightly turned around along the way. It was pretty cool seeing all the shops and hearing the local Belfast dialect. By the time I had walked back to the hostel and set up my phone, Alaina had was there. We honestly had no plan or course of action, and at this point it was like 4pm or 5pm. We just walked around in search of dinner which took longer than what most people take because we both refuse to make a decision.

We ended up going to Maggie May’s which was pretty good. I had traditional fish and chips with a side of mashed peas. From there we just walked around Belfast, getting a sense of the place and the people. Belfast is poppin’ on a Saturday night. Women in heels on cobblestones sidewalks, music bumping from a lounge, and a man walking by with a whole bottle of Smirnoff Vodka already half way finished. People watching is the best.

And that’s all folks.