Belfast a City in Transition

In Dublin, we board a train at Connelly Station for the quick 2 hour trip to Belfast.  We leave Ireland and are going to Northern Ireland which it's part of the United Kindom.     For many Irish it's not by choice,  many in the country are not happy about this.   When we entered the suburbs of Belfast you started to see the Union Jack, identifying loyalist enclaves/neighborhoods that support the crown.

When you got off the train you could feel something in the air.  If you know the history of this place you can understand the underlining tension.  Even though a peace treaty between Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Army, and the British Government has existed since 2005 you could still see armored police cars driving around the city.  We saw news stories of adolescent gang violence across Northern Ireland. Even with all this, we felt safe in the city even though it seemed divided in many ways.  Many establishments pride themselves on once being part of the Irish Nationalist Movement.

We're here to go to Downpatrick, where St. Patrick is buried and to see the Titanic Center in the harbor area, Belfast was more of a mystery to us.  We are in Belfast a very short time just two full days, but I'm very impressed by this place, it lacks the tourist elements that was in Dublin, which to me is a good thing.

The cathedral quarter is where all the churches from all the different denominations are which I find kind of odd, it was on a beautiful tree lined street.  It's hard to imagine this place during all the conflict.  The center of town is dominated Albert Memorial Clock one of Belfast's best-loved landmarks.  It is unofficially their own leaning tower, being that it is 1.3 meters off center at the top.

One thing I noticed things to seem to be cheaper here. In Ireland, we used the Euro and now the British Pound in Northern Ireland.  There is a strong union influence here in Belfast with union murals all over the city.

I recommend a trip to Belfast to anyone.  There is a unique feeling here that can't be missed. The city is booming with construction cranes everywhere, they seem to be transitioning into one of the most modern cities in Europe.