Ireland 22-30 Oct Day 2

After a hearty breakfast (eggs, toast, tomato, sausage and back bacon and etc), we set off to Belfast.  It was a long drive, about 4 hours but we had stop in between to allow us to go wee wee and take pic and etc.

Belfast near history is very interesting.  I was a teenager when the IRA was fighting in Belfast.  Of course, I knew very little about what was going on but it was a major quarrel between the Catholics and the Protestant.  It was a long drawn situation and of course I had little understanding of what was actually going on in Belfast.

Now I know there is the Republic of Ireland who are predominately Catholic and the Northern Ireland which is still part of UK and they are the Royalist - as in Royal to the Queen and predominately Protestant.  The IRA fought to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland; also the Catholics in Northern Ireland found themselves to be discriminated and that started a host of protests which later turned violent.  To cut the story short, after years of unrest, 3rd party was called in to mediate a truce and today, two groups of people decided to live peaceful together.  This is my version of the conflict; hope it's correctly written.

After lunch, the group headed off with the optional tour of the city of Belfast and a visit to Titanic Experience. The city tour included a visit to Queen's University Belfast which has a strong tie to Queen's University Kingston, my alma mater. 

We made a few stop around the city for pics including the city hall and the leaning clock tower.

Last stop was to The Titanic Experience. This place opened on March 2012 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of Titanic.  The building is a state of the art and designed to look like a ship.  It was a very awesome place and I can't help but shed a few tears there.  From glory to shame.  I can imagine the dismay, disappointment, shocked and sadness over the sinking of the Titanic. 

For dinner, I was on my own and I went to this restaurant call Flame which seems like a very popular place.  I ordered a veg soup and it was good and for the main, I ordered a Smoked Pork Loin.  It was so so salty and there was no way I could even eat it.  I told the waiter that I will have it packed and I will give it to the homeless man outside.  The restaurant decided not to charge me for it and I left the restaurant just paying 5 Pound for my soup. I decided to give the meal and my last 5 Pound to the homeless guy who probably needs money to buy a drink after eating the meal.

 

Overnight stay was at Jurys Inn Belfast.