27 Sept Belfast Hop on Hop off City Sightseeing Tour

Belfast has had many famous inhabitants including the author of Gulliver's travels. There was a time when it had the world's biggest ship building industry and the world's largest producer of linen. In 1911 it was enjoying a huge industrial boom. The Titanic was built in Belfast for the White Star Line and was launched May 31, 2011 with 100,000 people in attendance. It went to Southampton to begin its maiden voyage in 1912 and the rest is history. But as the Irish like to say - it was fine wheln it left Belfast.
Just today Harland & Wolff, the Belfast-based shipbuilder that produced the Titanic, has collapsed into administration. Receivership. Wow. In its heyday it employed 20,000 people.
The current population is about 350,000. About the same as 1901.
The Troubles is a phrase used to describe the 30 year conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1969 until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Hard to believe. Complicated. In 1971 Belfast's population shrank by over 100,000 - they moved away for stability. Supposedly today everything is Hunky Dory, Catholics and Protestants holding hands and singing koombyya - still there are residents who would prefer to belong to the EU and would prefer not to be part of the UK. Loyalists and Republicans.
We took the Hop on Bus from Belfast.Coty Hall at 10 am.

Today started out sunny, rained, cleared, rained - off and on all day there were sunny periods. It is really green here and we are told the climate is influenced by the Gulf stream. A cold winter's night could be plus 1 C and a midsummer's day 19 C. Very temperate, a bit windy. The guides on the buses are hilarious, love the accent!
Hard to believe these pleasant, good humoured people were involved in a thirty year conflict.
Bobby Sands died in prison after a 66 day hunger strike in 1981. He had just been elected to Parliament. Nine more 'political' prisoners went on to die from participating in the hunger strike. 100,000 people lined the streets of Belfast for Bobby Sands funeral procession to pay their respects to a martyr. a convicted member of the IRA. He was 27. This mural on the side of the Sinn Fein building is the most photographed mural in Belfast. I find the whole thing depressing and disturbing.

Yes we walked by the the murals, we saw the big cement wall protecting the Royal Judicial Hall, we went into the Titanic building that is suppose to look like a ship or (from above) a star - White Star Lines - but the locals call it the Iceberg. I must read The Wreck of the Titan - strangely prophetic but written decades before the Titanic tragedy.
We went to Nero Coffee Shop across from City Hall and chatted with Simon who has lived in Belfast since he was 16 - imagine meeting an immigrant to Belfast from Hong Kong who knew about Canada's homeless problem and the horror of East Hastings in Vancouver. Why he asked. Why indeed. He has relatives in Vancouver, he has been there. Now that I am old random people chat with me. I like it
We went to the big indoor market which is open Fri Sat and Sun and is suppose to be the best indoor market in the UK. There is fish, produce, baking, meals, souvenirs, linen, Irish sweaters, a musician, a lot of people. What is a 'bap'? Some kind of Irish bun. Actually a Belfast bap is a large crusty white bread roll that originates from Belfast and was invented during the great famine. Breakfast sandwiches are made with bap. There are lots of sausages and sausage rolls.
We rode around on the double decker bus off and on all day. There are redheads here I thought but you don't see one every minute. Since we were waiting at the bus stop and it was after four the street was full of people - to pass the time I counted redheads and there was one passing by at least once a minute. I will have to try this in Calgary!