All of Belfast

Day 1:
Black Taxi Tour. We took a cab ride around Belfast. Our cabbie told us a lot of interesting stories about their not so distant history. We learned about the Protestant vs Catholic fights during the troubles. There were a lot of interesting people and very, very sad stories. We saw a lot of murals and memorials honoring those whom had passed.

King William III

The Black Cab that took us around

Day 2-3:

Amanda fell very ill. She stayed in bed for two days and Callie took care of her and got to read Mila 18 for a few days. 

Day 4:

Making a come back from her sick days, we decided to have an easy afternoon stroll.  We found ourselves walking through a beautiful Botanic Gardens that lead to a very interesting museum.

The museum, while not as good as HMNS, still held a lot of interesting artifacts. And you could touch some of them! It was a very fascinating, relaxing day. Which was perfect for weaning Amanda back into tourist mode.

 Day 4: Walking around Belfast we realized that there was going to be a festival. The Orange March. When we first arrived we heard very mixed reviews about the safety of participating in the festival. And after the Black Cab Tour we decided this was going to be a weekend we should stay indoors for. But it was still cool to see them building up giant blocks to burn for the bonfires around the city.

                   

Day 5:

With the festival quickly approaching we decided to squeeze in one more museum. The Titanic Museum! We ended up getting lost in the city for three hours trying to find it though. Thank God we had each other, a map, and a new friend. Eventually we found our way, but it put quite a damper on our excitement for the museum. At the end we got ice cream and the correct way was a short twenty minute walk back to our hostel!