Titanic, ice cream and other thoughts

Today, we went to the Brand New Titanic museum, just opened here in Belfast. It was great! They were very focused on making sure we had the whole story of the building of the ship here in Belfast, to the sinking itself. Definitely worth the time we spent there. I did like that the urban legends were taken apart during our visit. Like the one about the ship being cursed by a mummy being onboard. And the one about how third class was locked out from survival. The crew was simply so unprepared for the ship to actually sink that it was pure chaos and whoever actually survived was just plain lucky, no matter what class they were traveling in. Third class definitely bore the brunt of the deaths, but the idea that they were locked in maliciously appears to not be true. Belfast was sunny and warm today. Slightly different from the rest of our trip. After the museum, we just kind of wandered around. Then sat at City Hall and people-watched. Before we went to the Titanic museum, we went into City Hall. It was beautiful. I got up onto the second floor while Mom and Dad got kicked out since we weren't supposed to be up there in the first place. For those of you who have never traveled, playing dumb tourist card is a great advantage. As for me, I think they must have thought that I was supposed to be up there since I was all alone and not flashing my camera about. Belfast is a really lovely city. It's not completely touristy, which is nice. But they definitely have the potential to become something really special now that the city is relatively quiet. The horrid situation due to the politics and divisions because of political beliefs have definitely settled down. They are still there for some people, but it's definitely getting better. I had a great time exploring this interesting city and would definitely recommend it. We're off to Dublin soon, then early train to Galway tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, we're on the downswing of the vacation and soon be back to real life. I'm sure by this coming weekend, I'll be ready to be done with the living out of a suitcase thing.... Cheers to you all and we'll blog again soon!!