{"id":4332,"date":"2010-06-28T15:06:33","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T20:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/?p=4332"},"modified":"2010-06-28T15:06:33","modified_gmt":"2010-06-28T20:06:33","slug":"belfast-the-troubles-the-crown-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/?p=4332","title":{"rendered":"Belfast: The Troubles & The Crown Bar."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_0137.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0104.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This past Tuesday\u00a0Julie<\/a> and I traveled from Dublin to Belfast via train in a little more than two hours. We basically had one full day to check the city out before heading to the Odyssey Arena<\/a> to see Pearl Jam and Ben Harper. \u00a0Our original plans were to head up north and see the Giant’s Causeway and tour the Bushmills Distillery but after figuring out that would take about 6 hours we passed on it. The hotel was able to arrange a ‘Black Cab<\/a>‘ tour that took us through the more interesting parts of the city.<\/p>\n

The Black Cub tour basically takes you through both neighborhoods in Belfast where most of the events of the ‘Troubles<\/a>‘ took place. \u00a0Our driver would point out what each mural was for, where a bombing took place and the headquarters of the IRA\/UVF. \u00a0It was intense. Five minutes into the drive we had to go through a police checkpoint. \u00a0We drove down Shankill Road\u00a0which is the heart of the Loyalist neighborhood and where a man was shot dead<\/a> in broad daylight last month. \u00a0We drove around both sides of the Peace Wall<\/a>. The driver advised us not to take pictures on the Catholic side but we were able to get out and walk around the Protestant side. \u00a0The driver kept pointing out how things were getting better; for example the new courthouse downtown is made of glass.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0094.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0083.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0103.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0113.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0117.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0122.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0123.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0133.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0138.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0139.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0151.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0166.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Crown Bar<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0186.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once we first got into town and walked around a little bit we headed over to the Crown Bar<\/a> which was about half a block from our hotel. \u00a0The bar is supposed to be the oldest in Belfast. \u00a0The inside has a bunch of small rooms\/booths and half the place is lit with gas lamps, supposedly all the stained glass is what was leftover from the Titanic’s sister ship the Britannic, I’m not sure I buy that.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0067.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0069.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0071.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0073.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0075.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0080.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The rest of Belfast:<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0187.JPG\"<\/p>\n

While at the Crown Bar we learned that our hotel was next to the Europa Hotel<\/a> which happens to be the most bombed hotel in Europe. \u00a0During our cab tour we also got to see the docks where the Titanic was built. \u00a0Our driver said the ship was built by the Irish and was fine when it left Ireland, the problem of course was that it was captained by an Englishmen.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0174.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0175.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0025.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0013.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0033.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0046.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0052.JPG\"<\/a>\"DSC_0008.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over all Belfast was great. \u00a0The best hotel of our entire trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Tuesday\u00a0Julie and I traveled from Dublin to Belfast via train in a little more than two hours. We basically had one full day to check the city out before heading to the Odyssey Arena to see Pearl Jam and Ben Harper. \u00a0Our original plans were to head up north and see the Giant’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10,19],"tags":[50,177,265],"class_list":["post-4332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beer","category-music","category-travel","tag-belfast","tag-honeymoon","tag-northern-ireland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pazIS5-17S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}