Belfast. How Many Bacardis Have You Had Victor?

Saturday marked another UCD study abroad trip. This time to Belfast, Northern Ireland. It's only about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride, and we departed UCD at about 8:40 with Dorothy and our bus driver Ian. Stevie, Claire, and I were excited to see this part of the island, and we always take advantage of Dorothy's free trips to do so. We made arrangements to stay the night in Belfast after confirming with Dorothy that we could just stay up in Belfast when the rest of the students went back to campus. The best part about Dorothy's trips is that she always makes sure we are fed properly. This meant that we stopped at the Carrickdale Hotel after about 1 1/2 hour of travel for a full Irish breakfast. We sat with friends from Bentley and loaded up on eggs and ham. We debated the ins and outs of black and white pudding and decided against it.

It was about an hour further to Belfast, and we crossed the border soon after breakfast. Northern Ireland is it's own country... it has its own money (British Sterling Pounds since its still a Commonwealth Nation). However, there is little to no border control and it was basically like crossing from Illinois to Indiana. Another similarity is that people come to N. Ireland to buy their illegal fireworks and then come back. Made me miss America.

Our first stop on our tour was the Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings known as the Stormont Estates. Its an imposing building on the top of a hill with a mile long entry road. We got a tour of the building and learned about the political structure of Northern Ireland. This was also a British command post during WWII and so they painted the whole building black using cow manure & tar so that it wouldn't be a big white target. It was interesting but the sunny skies were beckoning me outside. We had soup and sandwiches for lunch at Stormont and then headed out into the world.

As we left the grounds, we picked up a firey woman named Wendy Hood who would be our tour guide for the city. This woman was passionate about Belfast and had a don't mess with me attitude. When she used the phrase "Okay Cokay" I knew I'd like her. She also later used the phrase "If they don't do what we want, we threaten to blow them up and then they do it".

Our first stop was the Belfast shipyards. For years, Belfast had been the world's leader in ship building. The most famous of these ships was the one and only unsinkable ship, the Titanic. For years, Belfast didn't place much emphasis on this fact. They didn't get caught up in the hype, until Americans started making a huge deal out of the Titanic. Oh Leo. Then Belfast wanted some positive publicity and a piece of the tourist action. Now, Birthplace of the Titanic is one of Belfast's major points. Claire wanted to remind them that the boat sunk after all, but Wendy alluded to the fact that people understood this. Supposedly the people of Belfast came up with T-Shirts with clever slogans like "It Sailed, It Sunk, Get Over It" or "It took Irishmen to build it, but Englishmen to sink it" and "It was alright when it left here". Ah the Irish. All of the boats of the White Star Line were built in Belfast and one remaining ship, the Normanic, has made a return to the harbor. The Normanic was used to transport people from land to the Titanic and is still floating today. Wendy is part of a team that is trying to raise money to restore it since its interior is similar to that of the Titanic. We saw the dry dock where the Titanic was built, which took something like 500 men 6 months to hand dig out. Impressive.

When a bus of chinese tourists arrived, it was our cue to move on. We discussed how well known the Titanic is, and how it is a universal word around the world. That and Coca-Cola. What else does the Titanic & Coca-Cola have in common? They both go down good with ice.

We then took a tour of the downtown area of Belfast, mostly around the city hall area. We stopped in front of city hall where Wendy pointed out "all the goths here". She instructed the bus driver to pull over in front of City Hall.

He told her that it was a no parking zone, and we could see the police just a few feet away. She assured him it was no problem. She also assured the police that it was no big deal when they came to tell us to move. She was ah don't worry, we'll move in a minute. Thank you Wendy. Belfast police by the way are legit. They have like bulletproof vests on and armored cars. While Belfast is peaceful now, the troubles and turmoil were only a few years ago.

The police yelling at Wendy

We toured around the city and by Queen's University. We then went to once turmoil area of Belfast. And now for your short history of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the IRA. For years, Ireland as a whole was occupied by English settlers. The crown took over Ireland for strategic and monetary reasons, and once occupied they took power and never let go. After years of oppression and mistreatment by the British, the native Irish wanted a Republic for the people and of the people. The original Irish settlers were Catholic--converted by St. Patrick back in the 1400s or so. However, the British settlers were Protestant and therefore a clash of both political and religious views. The British settled heavily in the North, in a town named Derry. In the early 1900s, the people of Ireland were more desperately seeking Home Rule of their country. After the Easter Rising of 1916, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) gained momentum after several leaders of the Easter Rising were executed at the Kilmanhiam Gaol. However, the population in the North and a group of Unionists believed that a continued relationship with Britain was in the best interest of the people of the county of Ulster. These Ulster Unionists claimed they would never end their loyalty to the crown and therefore were against home rule. Thus when the Republic of Ireland was formed, these 6 counties stayed loyal to the crown and formed the country of Northern Ireland, a British commonwealth nation. However, not everyone was happy about this. Many believed that Ireland should be one. These people made up the IRA. However noble their cause or ideals were, their tactics were seen as terrorist like. For 30 years, the city of Belfast was divided, protestant vs. catholic, unionist vs. nationalist. This conflict plagued the city, and left the people in fear. Car bombs were common. A wall was erected to separate the different parts of the city. People were imprisoned. Hunger strikers protested and 10 died due to starvation. While peace has been in Belfast since 1998, the scars are still fresh and murals line the streets depicting the troubles. We drove by all these things including a cemetery where Wendy told us that the hatred was so high that a wall was created beneath the ground so that Protestant and Catholics were not buried next to each other. It was amazing to see how a place could have so much hate. We even passed a school that had bullet holes in it. Shooting at children, really? While I understand the IRA's mission, I do not understand their means. How would war and violence and terror unite a country.

That marked the end of our tour, and the three of us and Wendy got off the bus at the City Hall building. Wendy gave us directions to our hostel and we headed that way. After about 10-15 minute walk, we found the Lagan Backpackers Hostel. We rang the bell and met hostel owner/runner William. William quickly won me over when he told us to go get settled and then come back so he could give us the information. He told us not to worry about paying until tomorrow, which was good because none of us had taken out pounds from the ATM. We found our room, 10, and then went back downstairs where William gave us a full out explanation of the city, where to go, where not to go, where to eat, coupons for the place to eat. He gave us his cell phone number in case we got lost and sent us on our way. What a gem. The city of Belfast is not very big so we had no problems navigating it, especially with Williams map full of notes. We tried to go up in the lookout tower at the Victoria Mall but it closed at 6 and it was already 6:30. Everything closes so early in Europe...or at least in Ireland. Hungry, we decided to head to the restaurant William suggested, Laverty's.

Saturdays in Ireland usually means pubs are full of people watching sports: rugby, soccer, Gaelic football, hurling, you name it, there's probably a game on. Therefore, Laverty's was booming and it was difficult to find a table. We asked a waiter for a suggestion and he pointed us in the direction of a long table with a large booth that was halfway occupied by three older men. We took our seats at the other end nonchalantly. Within 3 minutes of sitting down, these men began a conversation with us. The first question: Where you from? Obvious our accents aren't Irish, especially Northern Irish who have even thicker brogues. When we told them Chicago, they burst into song..."Chicago...Chicago". Should have been an indicator of the evening ahead of us. Claire was situated right next to the eldest looking man, who looked somewhat like a drunken Santa Clause. We soon found out his name to be Victor. Victor offered us three Diet Cokes and we took them sort of skeptically. He then reassured us, saying that he got them free with his Bacardis. And he just likes the Bacardi. (Turns out it is cheaper to buy bacardi & coke then just plain bacardi... Victor knows the system) Alright. Claire whispered "Do you think they're roofied?" and I laughed. Victor didn't look like a premeditating, roofying kind of guy. However, he did start off his conversation with Claire by saying "I'm a born again virgin". Well thanks for that information Victor.

Trooper in Blue. Claire & the man, the myth, the legend:Victor

It was loud in this bar, and it was difficult to hear/understand them partially because of their accents and partially because I think the Bacardi was impeding their speech. Most of the time, I smiled and nodded like I had any clue of what they were saying. I did not. We ordered our food from a very handsome looking waiter (he left earlier or I was going to try to bring him home for myself/Lindsay). A man looking lost found his way near our table, so I offered him a seat hoping that he would deter some of the attention off of us from the Three Musketeers.

Stevie & Spaussie

Turns out he is a Spanish Australian who was born in the Canary Island, grew up in Wollongong, Australia, and in the past year has lived in both Berlin and Liverpool. He is currently teaching English or Spanish in Liverpool. Spanish I think. I gave him my best freshmen year spanish phrases. I had a really interesting conversation with this Spaussie (we never caught his name.) We talked about how the United States educational system has a very ethnocentric style of teaching. Basically we learn about the USA and that's it. Whereas in other countries, you learn about everywhere. He actually made an interesting analogy about how Americans focus on the nuts and bolts and everyone else focuses on the whole car. Specialization is definitely our style of learning, I'm guessing it dates back to Adam Smith and the industrial revolution. Specialization and Standardization. I think at this point Albert and Trooper (Victor's friends) were getting mad that I had diverted my attention from them and began to shout my name from across the table. BRITTANY ! BRITTANY! They ofcourse did the standard Britney Spears reference. Everytime in Ireland, everytime. Trooper took it one step further and told me not to shave my head. On the ball that Trooper, on the ball. I went back to my conversation with the Spassie, and then I heard it. The most magical sound of the evening. From across the table, Tropper and Albert had their hands in the ear, waving them side to side, singing "AND THE BRITNEY SONG WAS ON....SO I PUT MY HANDS UP, THEY'RE PLAYING MY SONG, AND THE BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAY". In the middle of this Belfast pub, these Irish men were acappellaly singing Miley Cyrus and doing the hand motions. What else could I do but join in. This must have happened at least 10 times throughout the evening and every time I laughed in disbelief. Since Albert & Trooper were obviously trying to get my attention, I tried to shift my conversation to them. But it was so hard to hear/understand them. I confessed to the Spaussie that I was just smiling and nodding. I did however catch the part where Albert was talking about how that morning he had watched Friends, the one were Ross was selling the cookies. He did a good overview of the episode, but I still didn't understand why he was randomly talking about it. But who really needs a reason to reference Friends.

At this point, we had eaten our delish meals. I had a chicken quesadilla. When we asked for more ketchup, the waiter (a new one, not the handsome one) told us he'd bring us the American one. He brought back the holder with nothing but Heinz ketchup packets stuffed in. Wonderful. When we went to pay, we found out that our waiter had spent 3 years in Chicago off and on. He has family all around the US and spent most of his time in Park Ridge area working at The Abbey. Making friends wherever we go. Another highlight was that after the Rugby game, Harry Potter was on for a brief moment. Until the bartender realized. We told him that we liked the HP and he just laughed.

Victor kept passing us diet cokes. The table was filled with them. Victor was busy mixing his drinks. Which was more like mixing one glass of Bacardi with another, and adding a drop of coke for coloring. At this point, Claire turns to Victor and goes "How Many Bacardis Have You Had Victor?". Claire was busy getting his life story, which was hard since we could only understand about 40% of what he was saying. Turns out he comes to Laverty's every Friday (and occasionally on Saturdays for the matches) and has done so in the last 9 years since his love of 27 years died. We also found out that he was 64. While Claire got Victor's life story, I was still talking to the Spaussie. Albert thought I was bored and so he tried to come "save me". I was actually listening to the myth of the Giant's Causeway but Albert was having none of that. So he put his arm around me and tried to tell me about how it was caused by volcanoes. Thanks Albert.

The girls & Victor

Around this time, Spaussie's friend showed up. Another Spaniard from Madrid, Claire told me his name was Manuel, it was actually Claudio. Too many diet cokes for Claire.

Us & Claudio

She was continuing to listen to Victor's life story, and one of the other guys in the bar walked by and yelled across the room "Victor is that your new wife?". Ah a little bit of an age difference. Claire laughed and said no, we're just BFF. She must have made some comment about sending Victor a Christmas Card because a moment later he was digging in his wallet to give Claire his business card. A legit business card, laminated and everything, with a picture of Victor on it, in what looked to be this very pub, smoking a cigar.

Claire commented about the cigar. Victor then reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small stogy for Claire. Yep, Claire Fisher, Miss Musical Theater, Classic Movies, Classy lady is a fan of cigars. Trooper leaned over and tried to light it, falling over Victor, while Spassie was yelling "you can't smoke that in here". True statement, Ireland is smokefree. (Reason #2084 I love Ireland). So Claire and Victor go outside to smoke their cigars, and I accompany them to document the event and because we never let a soldier wander alone. What a moment, standing in the beer garden in Northern Ireland while Claire smoked a cigar with a 64 year old Northern Irish man. Priceless.

We went back in to find Stevie and Albert in a deep conversation about tattoos. Albert had tattoos on his arm but he was trying to convince Stevie NOT to get one. He wrote "THIS IS IT" on her receipt and he told her that if she needed a reminder of this, this is it, write it on a receipt and not on yourself. Then he told her that if she got one, to get it somewhere where you could hide it. Life lessons we were learning here.

The Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game came on and therefore we lost Spaussie & Claudio to the game. Spassie was for Barcelona and Claudio for Real Madrid so there was a lot of trash talking back and forth and lots of yelling and cursing in Spanish. Hanging out at an Irish pub with soccer hooligans, check that one of the list. We were just enjoying the music, a good selection of American hits like "You're so Vain" and "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and "Hotel California". But when RESPECT came on, the three of us busted it out. Everyone in our general vicinity turned to look at us, America representing. I am also pretty sure the Spaussie got video of it. Ridiculousness for sure. Soon, Victor and Trooper and Albert bid us farewell and went to get Chinese. But we sang Miley one last time before they left.

We walked a little more soccer and then decided it was time to leave. Laverty's had been good to us. We headed in the direction of the Crown, Belfast's oldest pub to just check it out since everything inside is original and dating back at least 100 years. The Crown was busy and we didn't feel like sitting anymore so we headed towards our hostel. The streets were lively and we saw lots of bachelorette parties and one guy who claimed to be going swimming with a ginger haired dolphin. Yea, we weren't sure either.

We got back to the hostel and changed into our PJs. Two girls were in our room asleep so we went downstairs to chat for a while, still alive with energy from all the laughing. We wanted the WIFI code so we sent Claire next door to the main reception area to get it. She comes back and tells us that William wants us to come hang out with some of the other hostel stayers and have some whiskey. Feeling very adventurous, we decide why not and head over. William answers the door in his tshirt, shorts, socks and sandals and grabs us some mugs as we join the crowd. There were 2 girls from Dublin, 2 guys from South Africa, a trainee and William all sitting around drinking Powers Whiskey mixed with a little bit of Coke to "make it drinkable". We sat around and drank our whiskey out of our coffee mugs as William told jokes that began with "An Irish guy walks into a pub..." which were kind of hard to understand due once again to the mixture of heavily accents and alcohol effects. I remember thinking what a life this is. How ridiculous. Sipping whiskey in our hostel lobby with our South African owner in Belfast. The rest of the crowd heads out after a bit, and we sit and talk about random things with William. We discussed my career path and how he found accountants to be heartless and soulless. Well thank you. He did say that accounting is a great background for everything. One point for me. We sat there for a while, he topped up our whiskey, and made random conversation. At one point, William excused himself to yell at a girl staying at the hostel for bringing a guy back with her. The rules are pretty simple. I'm pretty sure he had 2. No smoking, no guests. He escorted the guy out and told us that he doesn't care what we do on our free time but it's a security issue to have random people in the hostel. I can understand and appreciate that. He also commented that the guy was just plain ugly. Like real ugly. William sent his trainee via taxi to the local liquor store to get another bottle of whiskey. We were exhausted however so we headed to bed, leaving William with his bottle of whiskey.

Most random evening ever. I think so.