Saturday exploration

Heh. 

Guess who washed Viv's school uniform and white shirt?

Luckily it was only one shirt that turned pink. 

In honor of my laundry mishap, let's break out the pink coat:

Today was the day for our Belfast Bus tour!

We took the regular bus up to City Centre, where we saw this statue outside the Europa Bus Centre/Great Victoria  Street Rail Station. Don't ask. I haven't the foggiest idea about what it is, who made it, when it was erected, or its relevance. But I like it. So there's that. 

#NotAProfessionalArtCritic

 

We go in and see a sort of shop sort of stand where bus tour are sold. There was some shadiness.

"Oh, I lost the key to the till so I need cash."

Mmm-hmmm. 

"Oh, it's x price."

Mmmmm-hmmmm. Not according to the sign. 

So I said, "this seems a bit too complicated, which must be overwhelming to explain to customers. I'll go down the street."

She ended up walking us to the formal shop where I could pay with a card and it cost the advertised price. 

My eyebrow remains arched about that lass. 

We had a lovely conversation with the person who sold us the tour tickets - he's in Belfast studying engineering on scholarship- and then a nice man working there showed us the way to the bus stop. Yay! We skipped and sang because of course we did. But we weren't ostentatious about it because we don't want to sully the Lehighton name. 

 

Look! This is the opera house! While I was in Lehighton many months ago, I bought tickets to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 

 

Europa Hotel. If you visit, you'll stay with me, though, instead of having a swank pad. I mean, I doubt if you stay at the Europa you get the glory that is Vivi jumping on your bed in the morning. 

 

I took this picture   mostly because I think the building is lovely, but also because I was setting up lighting to take pictures of tourists for them and I want their photographic memories to be ah-maze-ing. Clearly I had them move to better light. 

 

The bus is here! The bus is here!  

We sat on top. Outside. Of course we did. It was Viv's Choice  day. Brrrr. 

 

I like this cab. At some point, I want to do a cab tour because #awesome. 

 

But the bus IS super fun!

 

All the places we went. Here are the stops in order:

 

This is a place that no longer is embedded in my memory and I can't remember why I took the picture. Now you know how it feels to be in your 40s. You're welcome. 

 

Seriously. The hills.  Not The Hills, an old show on MTV where a girl decided not to go to PARIS for VOGUE, but hills that look like a sleeping giant, ergo Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. (Though you can't tell the giant in this picture because I'm all thumbs and too excited to look at things so I was late getting my phone unlocked to take a picture. Sorry.)

 

No. This one is worse. 

Use this as a good reason to go get chocolate. I let you down. You need chocolate. 

 

Oh, COME ON, Marchetti! What are you doing! Now is when I'd introduce you to Belfast cursing, but let's leave it at, "just focus the {*{>|*{€[€+_•+€}%\ camera, Marchetti."

 

Redemption! In focus! It's a beautiful installation with hilarious nicknames - look them up if you want to know them. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Now for some seriousness. This is the part of the tour that took us through areas that were very much affected by The Troubles. So many people died. The guide said their wall is taller than the Berlin Wall and has been in place longer -- look. It's still there. 

It was a sobering part of the tour. Children were killed. Babies were killed. Age doesn't take away the horror of losing a loved one, but it is especially sad to see a future of possibilities wiped out before being given a chance to flourish. 

 

 
             
 

It's good for Vivi to see reality in the world. Later in the day, we got lost (of course we did) and I couldn't connect to Google maps. We were not in a great neighborhood. I don't know the neighborhoods enough to say which are safe and which aren't, but I do know what it felt like being very aware of surroundings in the '70s walking through Manhattan. There was one moment where I looked at Viv and said, "stay with me.  Look at the sun. Where is it?" She pointed to it and I asked if it was morning or evening. She said evening. I said, "where does the sun rise and set?" She answered. I asked her to point to the west and she pointed to the sun so I said, "let's walk south." And we did. 

She needs to know that we can go anywhere in the world, but no matter where we go, we have to have our wits about us...even at seven years old. 

Sorry! I digress!

 

A jail... 

 

...across from a courthouse.     They're connected by a tunnel. Convenient. 

 

I can't believe it! I got the wifi to work!

 

That's me smiling at my phone. 

 

Not Big Ben, but awesome nonetheless. 

 

 

Titanic shipyards. It's pretty awesome.   It's being built up and by 2020 or 2025 will be a something-something-something size city in all of something. 

I know. I failed you again. What I got out of it was this: if you want an investment property, this is the place to get it. 

 

Stormont gates.  

 

Gatehouse.  Loooooooong driveway. (I totally thought I took a video of driving up to it. It was meant to be very dramatic. It's only dramatically disappointing.) but here's a video that's second 

 

 

An art installation of huge masks. When we drove by on the way to Stormont, they looked lonely, sitting on the grass without anyone to play with. But on he way back, playmates found them!

We got off the tour bus at St. George's Market -- it's every farmers marketer's dream!

 

 Live music:

 

If I ever think about cooking whilst I'm here, I'll gather spices at this stand. 

 

Viv bought pretty crystals. 

 

This is just a cool assortment of objects. 

 

I'm going to need that falafel. 

 

Eggs for sale! Get your eggs here!

On the walk from St George's Market to Something Familiar, we saw some cool sights:

 

 

And a community garden!

Then I found Botanic Garden and there was an ice cream truck. Coincidence? Maybe. 

 

We pondered this for a while and agree we both love it. 

 

"Take a picture of my face !"

I probably shouldn't encourage it. 

 

We were ridiculously close to home, but this kid loves taking the bus. When it was in sight, she jumped up and down and hooted. We got on and everyone was laughing and tematking  they'd never seen someone so excited to take a bus. £2 well spent.