MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019

a day wandering Belfast city… politics, titanic, cs lewis, incredible street art, and a whole lot of game of thrones

This morning I checked out of the Brooks and hopped on a 7:30 am Dublin Coach bus on the way to a very full day in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Even though Northern Ireland is politically part of the UK (I had to head to the ATM asap for £), it shares an open border with the Republic of Ireland, and it’s clear that many people who live in the north consider themselves Irish first and foremost, and continue to hope for a united Ireland.

Luckily my hotel in Belfast was right around the corner from the bus depot, so I was able to swing by and drop my bag off before starting my day in the city. The Fitzwilliam is a beautiful hotel, and as I would soon come to learn on Day 4, some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Incidentally, this is the hotel where the cast and crew of Game of Thrones stayed when they were in town, and I got the receptionist to tell me that I was in Iain Glen/Jorah Mormont’s room. I had to ask. 😄

Given Belfast’s difficult political history, I thought it was best to start the day by educating myself with a Black Taxi Tour. In a now (mostly) peaceful city, it’s a drive around the Shankill and Falls Road neighborhoods of Belfast that were most affected by The Troubles, led by someone who was there to see it firsthand on one side or the other. My driver Gerry met me at the hotel and I hopped in the car (after trying to get in on the wrong side, prompting an amused Gerry to ask if I was planning to drive), and we set out for the northwest side of Belfast.

Gerry is a Republican—someone who hopes for a united Republic of Ireland, incidentally mostly Catholic. He grew up with strong anti-British sentiment in his home, and even though he was able to give an impartial tour now in 2019, I could tell that these are animosities that run deep.

We started on the Loyalist side of town (as in the people fighting to remain part of the United Kingdom and loyal to the Queen, mostly Protestants), where Gerry showed me the murals painted in honor of those who died for the cause. He was being professional and objective, but it’s clear that he was pretty disgusted by this monument to Stevie “Top Gun” McKeag who apparently killed a whole lot of Irish Republicans. (I believe he said it would be to Americans like a monument commemorating the wonderful achievements of Bin Laden.) We spent some time on this side of the peace wall before continuing our drive through the city.

(I felt a little weird about flippantly taking photos of such emotionally charged sites, but Gerry assured me that wanting to learn something and remember a trip is different than glorifying the conflict. So…ok.)

All of the tour cabs...

We crossed over what was a very distinct line (and heavy-duty security gate) and found ourselves in the staunchly Republican part of town. I walked around to view the intense murals… was surprised to see all of the strongly pro-Palestinian sentiment on the Irish Republican side; I didn’t realize there was such an alignment.

On the right side of the first picture below, you can see the back of the peace wall that runs through the city, separating the Republican and Loyalist neighborhoods.

In addition to the peace wall, the “line” that actually separates the two neighborhoods is sad… there are high poles with cameras at the top, and big metal gates, some staffed by police, that close at various times in the early evening to keep the areas separated.

I learned about Eleventh Night, when the Protestant Loyalists light massive bonfires each year on July 11th, to commemorate the victory of Protestant William of Orange over Catholic King James II in the 1600s. Gerry brought up that these bonfires are heavily condemned as promoting violence and sectarianism, as the Irish flag is often burned and anti-Republican sentiment is rampant, yet they’re still allowed to go on. We drove past an area where the pallets and loose wood were starting to be piled up in preparation for the event, as he sighed in frustration.

We eventually came to the Peace Wall itself, and stopped to each sign our names in support of ongoing peace between the communities.

We then took some time to stop at the moving Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden, which commemorates the local Republicans who died fighting for their cause.

Our last stop was at a wall commemorating IRA leader Bobby Sands, who died at age 27 after 66 days of a hunger strike in 1981, squaring off against British PM Margaret Thatcher in protest of Irish prisoners’ conditions.

All in all, this was a fantastic and worthwhile tour that offered a comprehensive look at a conflict that is formally over, but is still an underlying source of tension in parts of Belfast. Gerry was a wonderful guide, and it was great to get to have a frank (and often very funny) conversation with him about Irish politics.

After the tour, Gerry kindly dropped me off in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, where I completely switched gears and found myself right in the middle of Game of Thrones territory. The show was filmed in 10 different countries, but was headquartered in Northern Ireland and specifically Belfast, so it was exciting to be in the midst of it all on what coincidentally happened to be the day the series finale aired. The main production facility was Titanic Studios, and the door there is still open enough to see the giant green screen inside.

In the second to last episode, the city of King’s Landing is burned and destroyed…. but since that setting was filmed in Dubrovnik for the first seven seasons, and it would be frowned upon to burn down Dubrovnik, they built a model city in a lot across from the Titanic Studios, which is still standing. Pretty cool to see the post-fire domes and little bits of designed set peeking out from between the structures and green screen.

The Game of Thrones Touring Expedition happened to be in Belfast while I was there, and I hadn’t yet started watching the show when it was in NYC a few years ago, so I decided to take some time to walk through the displays, including some unique to the Belfast stop of the tour. (Specifically the really big props like dragon skulls and tombs… makes sense that they wouldn’t try to drag those on the road.)

The exhibition takes you through various vignettes that represent the different settings of the show, with fun little photo ops in between the costumes and props from the show.

They had a few photo ops scattered throughout, so I had to take advantage.

After walking through the exhibit, I headed out to grab a bite to eat and passed the first of six stained glass windows that had just been unveiled in Belfast. Per Tourism Ireland, who commissioned the art: Called “Glass of Thrones,” and designed by an illustrator and painted by an artist in Bangor, Co. Down, each window is a nod to a main house or group on the series and forms a new Game Of Thrones trail, leading fans across the city from City Hall to Titanic Studios where much of the show has been produced.

“The strength of the relationship between Northern Ireland and Game of Thrones should not be underestimated. The series filmed at 49 locations in Northern Ireland, employed 12,986 extras from Northern Ireland over the years, and worked with 2,000 Northern Ireland crew members throughout the show's eight seasons.”

This first window I saw (the fifth window unveiled) centers around the White Walkers.

I then stopped into an adorable cafe called Paper Cup and had a particularly great toasted ham & cheese on a croissant.

After lunch, I headed over to Belfast’s newest and arguably most popular attraction: Titanic Belfast.

This unique museum/experience is state-of-the-art in every way, from the use of holograms of people telling you the story in their own words, to an actual ride that gives you a visceral sense of the shipyards, to the building itself, a clearly striking piece of architecture that mimics the prow of the ship.

If this is an example of museums in the future, sign me up. Thanks to the interactive and engaging galleries, I feel like came away with a thorough understanding of all elements of the RMS Titanic and its place in Belfast’s history.

This drizzly photo was taken before I went in; the sunny photo on the left was taken when I came out. I learned quickly that Belfast weather can change on a dime.

I realized I didn’t get a great photo of the interior of the building, so here’s a photo looking down at the main lobby that I took from Wikipedia.

Had to take a photo of this vendor in the lobby who looked like he walked right out of the show. He probably did.

The experience is divided into several sections that cover the Titanic story from pioneering and hopeful start to tragic finish and beyond. The first gallery recreates scenes from Belfast at the time of Titanic's construction in 1909–11. It illustrates the city's major industries before leading through an original set of gates from the Harland and Wolff shipyard into an interactive floor presenting Titanic's construction plans, along with original drawings and scale models of the ship.

The next section is all about the building of the RMS Titanic, the highlight being a short ride to learn more about the shipbuilding process. The vehicle goes through a recreation of the shipyard, and a life-size replica of the gigantic Titanic rudder.

Learning about rivets

Once we learned about the building of the ship, we got a closer look at its official launch. They’ve created a windowed room that looks out over Belfast harbor, including a great view of the two giant yellow Harland & Wolff cranes (nicknamed Samson & Goliath) that dominate the skyline of this part of the city as a reminder of its industrial past. The floor of this space as well as a large table give details about the port of Belfast and the routes for local ships.

We then got a detailed look at the design of the ship, from the overall shape and layout to the decor and accommodations for the different economic classes. The museum did a great job of utilizing talking holograms and immersive video footage to really make you feel like you were on the ship. This was probably my favorite part.

Of course we all know how this ends, and at this point the museum took a much darker turn as the Titanic faced the disaster of an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

Even though everyone knows the story of this tragedy (and have seen the romanticized movie), it really humanized everything and put things into perspective to read and hear actual comments from survivors of the disaster. It’s hard to fathom how much despair they must have felt when the knew the ship was sinking.

The next section focused on the myths & legends surrounding Titanic, and the different depictions in the media.

Finally, the last parts of the museum featured an immersive look at ocean exploration and the ruins of Titanic, followed by details about modern maritime culture in Belfast.

All said, this was a fantastic interactive experience that I think is worth the trip to Belfast alone. I learned a ton about Titanic, but was most impressed by the creativity in how the information was presented in the first place. This is a truly first-rate way to teach history.

There were a few additional related things to explore that were associated with the museum, like touring the SS Nomadic, a walking tour of the harbor, the nearby hotel which was the original drawing offices of Harland & Wolff, and more. I’m looking forward to a return visit!

After leaving Titanic Belfast, I walked back to the city center via the Lagan Weir, a walkway over the Lagan River that also works to control water levels and clean up the river.

On my way, I passed by the next two Glass of Thrones windows.

On the other side of the river on Donegal Quay, I stopped to take a look at the Big Fish, aka the Salmon of Knowledge, a 1999 sculpture by John Kindness that tells the story of Belfast in its blue scales.

Attempting to take a selfie on a windy day

Now back on the west side of the Lagan River, I kept up the overall theme of my trip by stopping into the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting local young musicians and the growing Northern Ireland music scene. In addition to being a working rehearsal, performance, and recording venue, they have a permanent exhibit set up that pays homage to the history of music in Belfast and Northern Ireland, particularly the rock/punk scene.

The Cathedral Quarter in Belfast is a trendy neighborhood known in part for its great street art, which did not disappoint! I spent some time walking around to enjoy the wide variety of painting styles… I love that artists have taken over so much space, from walls to trash bins.

Art in progress!

St. Ann's Cathedral, the namesake of the Cathedral Quarter

I wanted to check out a couple of shops in the area, so wandered back towards the city center to Studio Souk…. which I could not find because there is no store sign. I went into what looked like a cool store anyway, and it turned out to be the store I was looking for in the first place. (Why do they have no sign??) Anyway, it was worth the find — three floors of handmade art and crafts from local artists. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Belfast!

I am very fond of my new little fairy by artist Elaine Taylor

The other place I visited was Victoria Square, which is a regular shopping mall, but with a free glass atrium, “The Dome,” that offers a nice aerial view of the city.

I had a little bit of extra time, so decided to hop on a bus to the East side of the city and CS Lewis Square, a public park and sculpture garden dedicated to Belfast-born CS Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia. I loved the unique metal sculptures of all of the characters, and there was plenty of nice street art in the area. There’s also what’s supposed to be a great visitor’s center and cafe on the site (FYI), but unfortunately I got there after it had closed for the day.

After seeing all of the characters, I took a bus back to the city center and went back to my hotel to formally check in and get ready for a night out.

Beautiful room at the Fitzwilliam!

Tonight’s itinerary was one that I was looking forward to the most on the trip, even though it’s pretty out of my comfort zone to show up at a pub by myself. It was a total coincidence that my one day in Belfast happened to be the finale night of the epic show that was headquartered there and means so much to the city, but it was clearly meant to be.

The tour company GoT Direwolves was hosting an “I Drink and I Know Things” Game of Thrones night at Pug Uglys, a pub that was a five minute walk from my hotel. Trivia, themed food & drink, two of the dog actors who played the direwolves in the show on site to meet and pet, and ultimately a live screening of the series finale when it aired in the UK that night… I couldn’t pass it up.

The people of Ireland are notoriously nice, so I had nothing to worry about when it came to joining a trivia team, as a lovely woman named Kerri waved me over almost immediately. And I lucked out, because this was her and her friends’ third time at this trivia night, and she was determined to win 1st place. Did not hurt that we had a guy at our table who played Tormund’s bodyguard on the show. And so… we won!

Trivia and themed drinks are fun, but the real reason I showed up (other than the episode) is to meet the Northern Inuit Dogs Odin & Thor, who played direwolf puppies Summer and Grey Wind on the show. They were as adorable as expected, and I got some good ear scratches in and Summer’s official paw-tograph! ❤️

Finally it was time for what everyone was waiting for… the premiere of the final episode of the series. It had aired at 9pm EST / 2am UK time the night before, so some people had seen it, but most of us were seeing it for the first time as it aired live at 9pm on Sky.

Snippets of the Prince of Dorne’s impromptu Q&A

There were a few cast and crew members at the bar… Eric at my table who was one of the Free Folk, Toby Osmond, the last Prince of Dorne who was at the table next to me, Grey Worm’s body double and Tyrion’s stand-in, and a few people who worked on the production and SFX. After the episode aired (to big cheers when anyone in the room was on screen), one of the hosts brought the Prince of Dorne up to answer people’s questions.

After a round of celebratory White Walker Whiskey shots courtesy of Dorne (and his 2nd place team), and a truly memorable evening, I called it a night and headed back to my hotel to get a good night’s sleep before another big day in Northern Ireland tomorrow.