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| Europa hotel in Belfast |
Life is slowing me down but I found a reason for going
abroad again this time to Belfast, not very far but still over the sea to
another not so foreign land. The beautiful city of
Belfast torn by war was also the place my
husband went for his business. Last time I got any where near Belfast was in
1995 when I and my husband caught a train from Dublin to Belfast and stayed
inside the Belfast train station to meet my husband’s friend. All throughout the
troubled times my husband often use to tell me that he stayed in the most
bombed hotel in the world during his business trips: The Europa, five star hotel in
Belfast. I went to see The Europa. Though the
title has been taken away by a hotel in Beirut
(my host in
Belfast
told me, but Wikipedia disagree), my visit to the hotel and in fact to the
rest of the city was very interesting. With a helping hand from my host (5W
member) we travelled via the train to the city centre. The train station I was
in 1995 had a good face lift but I could not but notice that there were lots of
sad looking faces travelling through it. The hotel Europa had been given a face
lift too and seemed it never went through any bad times, it
was business as usual.
The city of
Belfast is small,
beautiful and had undergone considerable expansion and regeneration around the
main
Victoria
square with lots of interesting architecture to admire. The city main shipping
industry well known for building RMS Titanic is now part of history in newly
built Titanic Exhibition Centre in the heart of
Belfast. The Giant Causeway just outside the
city is another extraordinary sight to visit along a deserted rocky coastline.
Sadly,
Belfast
has not shaken off its past and the visitors to this beautiful city and its
landscapes are very few. When I was there in November during the start of the
festive season (Xmas market and lights etc..)
trouble started in the centre of the town over the use of the British
flag and I was lucky to escape the horror which followed my departure from the
city. I saw it all unfolding, minute by minute on my TV at home.
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