Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

Saturday was the last trip sanctioned by the school that I will be attending. We had the great opportunity to be with our history teacher, Marnie, and of course a fan favorite, Dorothy, and venture up into the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom, to a part known as Northern Ireland. In our travels we learned many interesting things, and I shall reveal them as I go along.

The trip started out like any other, we were late to the bus stop, of course. We had waited for Lexi and Morgan, not realizing that they had retrieved their caffeinated beverages and already clamored aboard the bus down the street. But we all got on all right, without Garrett and Mike who did not make it out of bed, leaving Alex the only man to accompany us. But no worries. I sat with my friend Mary and we chatted for a bit then plugged into our respective MP3 players and dozed off. About an hour in, we stopped at a hotel just outside the border and had a full Irish breakfast. We had a bowl of cornflakes to start with some toast and jam. Followed by coffee or tea and orange juice. Then came the main course with an egg on top of a slice of ciabatta bread, a potato pancake type thing, two pieces of sausage, two thick slices of bacon, white pudding and of course black pudding, and a roasted tomato. I tried everything on my plate (except the tomato) and really enjoyed the black and white puddings. The bacon is a different cut, but still juicy, and the potato pancake was not what I was used to but definitely good. It wasn't an overly large meal, but we all left quite full and happy.

We then drove further north and just over the border saw advertizments for exchanging money and purchasing fireworks, I equated it much to driving into New Hampshire for the first time. There was a ton of beautiful farmland and seeing as I had just had two cups of coffee, I got to see alot of it. about an hour later, we began seeing city buildings in the distance, we were almost to the capital, Belfast. Driving through the city and straight on towards the Parliament Buildings, most fondly referred to by the locals as Stormont. (Stormint *hand motion* haha anyone who doesn't understand can ask me to explain later)

We first came to entrance at the bottom of the hill, only to discover that it was a walking public access only. So around to the side we went. The view of the Parliament Buildings was amazing. So much greenery surrounding an enormous white marble structure. Our teacher had told us that it was created to make a statement and boy did it make a statement!

The bus was parked and we all stumbled off, eager to stretch our legs and explore this new country. We passed through a quick security and received a ticket to give at the main entrance. So we got an excellent view as we climbed to the top to reach the main building called Parliament Buildings.
Stepping inside, we signed in and proceeded to the Great Hall. It was breath-taking. The ceiling was magnificent, hung with 5 chandeliers, the one in the middle being the biggest. There were reds and blues and silvers, the floor was identical in symmetry and laid with a simple tile floor in tans and grays. There was a grand staircase at the end of the hall, with a statue in the middle, depicting the first head of Parliament of Northern Ireland. A few fun facts that we learned about the structure and the hall itself:
-Ceiling and floor are identical in symmetry
-It is exactly one mile from the statue at the top of the stairs to the entrance gate at the bottom of the hill (see picture below of Mile Road)
-The building was originally one of three to be built under the name of the Parliament Buildings, but during a restructuring to stop the hemorrhaging of money, the English scrapped the other two buildings so the main one remains under the original plural name
-There is a castle on site called "Stormont Castle" and often people refer to the area as Stormont instead of Parliament Buildings; the castle now houses the Northern Irish Executive Branch of government
-The building was used by the RNAF during WWII and painted black with a mixture of tar and cow manure in order to hide it from air raids
-The statue in the hall is an exact replica of the man it represents
-If you fold the building in half, it would lay perfectly
-House of Lords is on the right, House of Commons on the left
This is me standing on the steps and behind me is The Prince's Road aka Mile Road.

After a quick soup and sandwich lunch inside the Parliament Buildings, it was time for a bus tour of the actual city of Belfast, very exciting. We picked up the tour guide at the gates when we were leaving and she was a very nice older woman who was very entertaining with lots of little facts and quips about the city. The first place we went past was the naval architecture school where Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic had attended. The first part of the tour was devoted to this fascinating and mysterious ship. We drove past the working shipyards and saw two of the largest cranes in the world, Goliath and Sampson (pun intended). Then we were able to drive to the site where the Titanic was built.The Titanic Dry Dock, this was where the stern of the ship would have sat while it was being built or worked upon. It was quite large, I guess I never really understood how big that ship was. The tour guide had some interesting things to say about the history of shipbuilding in Belfast and quotes on T-shirts about the Titanic. "It sailed, it sank, get over it." "It took 500 Irishmen to build and one Englishman to sink" And Belfast holds the record for number of pins put into a ship in a day. With a five man crew, working a 9 hour shift, getting paid by the bolt, how many do you think they could do? Just think about it. (Answer at the bottom)

After the history of ship building, we drove around the city looking at all the architecture and such. We saw the capital building and the tourist ferris wheel. There were a ton of people out, due to the fact that it was a sunny day. The tour guide told us that every St. Patrick's Day, the statue of Queen Victoria gets covered in green and white shirts, scarves, etc. The city had an interesting dynamic. So many shops on all the streets, it was like being in a small town while having the wide expanse and variety of living in the city, it was an interesting feel.

One of my favorite buildings was Queen's University. So big and old and beautiful, classic Tudor style, brilliant. After this brief jaunt, we began our tour of the real nitty gritty Belfast; the Catholics and Protestants living together. We ventured into one of the most troubled parts of the city, soldiers had only been evacuated 5 years ago. There were several murals depicting fights and martyrs for both sides. One of the most interesting things was the road which had the wall running down the middle in order to separate the Catholics from the Protestants. The houses are right next to each other, only separated by several walls and fences, enabling the people to somewhat live in peace. The tour guide told us that there is a stronger movement in republican unity than there was even 10 years ago. A survey was filled out and 45% of people living in Northern Ireland would like to become part of the Republic of Ireland now. And interesting turn of events. I always hated what the IRA was doing, until I discovered that there were fighting for a united Ireland. Now I still don't like what they're doing but I think their politics are right on...speaking from an outsider at least. You know what they say, "One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist."

And so after that disturbing look into the underbelly of Belfast, the tour guide left us to venture home again. We stopped to have dinner at the same hotel again, a delicious lasagna, salad, chips, and of course a pint of Smithwick's for me. After that was back to Dublin, admiring the view as we went I was strongly reminded again of home in all it's beauty.

(The answer to how many rivets they will put in: over 11,000)