Day 6 Belfast, Ireland

First stop, Giant's Causeway on the coast of Belfast. It is where a volcano erupted and when the lava cooled it left cubical blocks. The reason it is called Giant's Causeway is because in the 1600's there was a debate if it was created by men using picks and chisels, nature or by a giant. Of course, after years gone by it was determined to be volcanic. I didn't know what the causeway was until I got there. When I heard it was cooled lava, I was expecting smooth area like I have seen in Hawaii. I walked, instead of taking the shuttle, to enjoy the sunshine, sea breeze and smell of salt in the air. The view of the coast was beautiful. I know that I say everything I have seen is beautiful, but I can't get over it. Everywhere we went WAS beautiful!

When I looked down at the lava it reminded me of the wooden toy that you hammer the pegs down, flip over and repeat. Even though the toy had round pegs and these were not it still gave me that idea. There was a path that you could walk along the lava to see the blocks up close. You were able to climb the hill of them to see the view from above. I admired the ocean view more than anything.

Below is the link about Giant's Causeway:

http://www.giantscausewayofficialguide.com/

In 2012, the Titanic Museum opened. This was a surprise stop for us since it was not on the itinerary. As we were driving to downtown Belfast to the museum we went by a few buildings that had murals painted on them. One of them represented that history when Nationalist and Loyalist were fighting against each other. The other building honored C.S. Lewis and the book of Narnia. After seeing the building representing the fight against two groups of people our tour guide had the coach driver take us along a road where the peace wall was built during that time. This was the wall that kept them separate. On one side the housing/neighborhood was more modern where as the other side was not. The wall was half cement and the top half was a fence making it hard to climb over.

The museum was built as a shape of the star to represent the ship company, White Star, that built Titanic. If you fly above the building you can see the star shape. This was the best well-done museum I ever been too. You start by going through a level of the building which gives you an idea of what it was like living and working in that time period. The next level you would learn about the shipyard and the building of the Titanic. In the center of the building they had a ride that you could go on to see/feel what it was like working on certain areas of the ship. For an example, when we went by the boiler room there was hot air blowing on us as we watched a video of workers. After the ride was over we continued to the launch of the ship. They had displays of what the rooms looked like on the ship with holograms of servants/maids in the room. There was always a recording going on as we read quotes or information on the walls along with pictures. Then we hit the tragedy room, hitting the iceberg. You can hear the Morse code beeping as you read quotes saying we are sinking, we hit an ice berg, we are going down. It made me shiver to think of the fear that was running through their minds. The way the museum was set up made you get an idea of how it was like living back then, the excitement of Titanic being built and departing the port. It made it more effective or personal once you got to the level about the ship sinking. 

The last level was of the wreckage being found. That was the last ship that White Star built besides a wooden boat that is on display outside the museum. You could feel your emotions while walking through this museum and that has only happened to me one other place, Hiroshima Peace Museum in Japan.

Link to Titanic Museum:

http://titanicbelfast.com/