Black Taxi Belfast

We haven't had access to the internet lately, so we are catching up on our posts. Hopefully, we didn't lose too many of you. Belfast was great!! We booked a "Black Taxi Tour" - a neutral tour of the troubles - that took us around to all of the Belfast murals. We had the opportunity to stop in the Sinn Fein's Belfast headquarters and giftshop. We tried to buy a few postcards, but they didn't have enough change for a twenty. We then walked around the city, visited St. Anne's Cathedral, and the historic Cathedral quarter of Belfast. We talked with the hostel owner Arnie for a while about how Belfast has turned the corner with all the fighting. It was amazing seeing the huge peace wall - dividing the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods - and hearing that is still locked at night and weekends. It is also advisable not discuss anything about it unless you are in close company.





We decided to go out for some traditional Irish music at a place that we heard was a local Republican pub. The pub was closed for some reason that night, so we went to the tourist pub. The band was pretty good, but could have played some more lively music. Arnie, our gracious host, entertained us with his travel stories and the best routes to take along the Causeway Coast - our next day's journey