Two free tours in Belfast, and one that was totally worth the money

In Belfast: no riots yet. The city has really cleaned up recently (helped along by the really tall "Peace Wall" and the armored police cars), so according to my guidebook, it's no longer one of the four "B"s for tourists to avoid: Beruit, Bosnia, Bagdad... And Belfast. ;)

Today was a history day for us in Belfast. For all that this city has really only been around for a couple centuries, there has been a lot going on... And lots of tours covering it.

Originally, on the itinerary we were supposed to do the Giant's causeway tour (supposedly very spectacular and highly recommended), but it's a full day thing, so we scratched that plan. There are also things like black cab tours that cover both the Catholic and Protestant quarters of the city, detailing The Troubles (AKA the riots) in a fairly unbiased way... There are even walking tours with former UVF members (jailed for terrorist activities) to be had.

In the end, it was a price thing: our hostel roommates were leaving, but their hop on, hop off tour bus tickets were still good for another day, so they generously gave us their tickets. The open-top bus tour gave us a good assessment of the city, giving us a view of the murals, churches, etc. We learned the mythic origins of the bleeding severed hand on the Ulster coat of arms, too! The tour was great, and it was free (for us), so, bonus!

In the afternoon, we went for a paid tour - a Titanic boat tour! The Titanic and her sister ships, the Olympic and the Gigantic (renamed the Brittanic after the Titanic sank) were all built in the Belfast shipyards. The Belfast(-ers? -ians? -ites? What do you call someone from Belfast?) are very defensve about it; "She was fine when she left here" and "it was an Englishman who sank her" are the most common remarks.  

But yeah, I learned a lot and want to do a more detailed history post on it when I get back and have a keyboard. Maybe this, too, will be a picture post! :)

We went for a third tour in the afternoon - free guided tour of City Hall. The reason it's free is because it cost a ridiculous amount of money to build in the first place, and the councillors decided it wasn't really politik to have Belfastians pay to look around a building that THEY, the taxpayer, paid for. And now it's not just free for Belfastites, but for us foreigners, too. 

It's a beautiful, symbolism-steeped building that deserves a picture post of it's own. :) I am also totally stealing this one quote from our tourguide the next time I find myself giving a tour to a big group of people: "I am a frail and delicate little flower and don't want to strain my voice, so you'll have to follow closely." It may not have the same effect coming out of my mouth, though. He was a fifty-year old, burly man who had a tendency to speak like Eyeore when sarcastic. It was great.

Worries about wastage, and thoughts on pastureland

Ack, I'm upset - this notepad option totally just ate my post. I'll retype that bit about William if Orange, the park, and his horse later. Wait, that's like the whole story; there's a small triangle of grass (each side is like seven metres long) about a block away from my hostel in Belfas that has been preserved because apparently the Protestant William of Orange grazed his horse there on the way south, where he went on to defeat the catholic King James II atthe Battle of the Boyne, still remembered either with fondness or with loathing, depending on who you are.

I'm uncertain of my Internet access for the next few days, so I thought I'd explain my itinerary here. I should have helped Erin plan a bit more, I think, because honestly I'm not that fussed about the schedule for the next five days, with a few exceptions. I'd rathe spend a few extra days in Belfast or Inverness or something, but with hostels so busy, and bookigs being what they are, we're kind of locked in.

Tomorrow, we're flying to Stornoway in the Isle of Harris. We cancelled our tour of the countryside because it was so expensive, so it's essentially a long stopover so we can get up at six am the next day to catch a ferry from the tiny town of Tarbert to get to the Isle of Skye.

I'm actually looking forward to Skye. We'll be having a really long personal day tour with Ian Fellows, who has been of a huge help to Erin in planning things... Plus, there's biking and maybe even kayaking to be had.

I just don't want to spend FOUR days there. Two, maybe. But with the stopover in stornoway it becomes five... Which is a long time. It's a lot of hassle to get there, and... yeah. I suspect that the schedule is like that because of ferry/bus schedules? 

I guess it'll be a few days of zen relaxation in the countryside before the final stretch, composed of all big cities? :P 

We're not meeting up with Kelsey and Erin until Inverness, after we leave Skye.

Blah, at least I like nature. And I'm sure I'll have fun, but I just can't help but feel that while "wasting" time going someplace I never would have considered going to on my own that I'm missing out on something else somewhere else.