Dancing in the streets

On the way to Belfast our tour guide begins a discussion of "The Troubles," which he also refers to at times as "The Recent Unpleasantness." (You can hear the capital letters in his voice.)

The problems between the Catholics and Protestants reach back centuries, and in many ways, have little to do with religion. When the English took control of Ireland, the vagaries of their leaders' religious preferences were bound to throw the Emerald Isle into turmoil, and they've never fully recovered.

Less than a month had passed since a nationalist march in Belfast turned violent, and a march was scheduled for the day after we arrived. We were to have quite a bit of free time in the city, but our guide, Sean, advised that we talk to him about which areas of the city we should avoid in case trouble would break out again. He repeated the warning several times.

Our lodging for two nights was the Belfast Hilton, yet another hotel way above our usual standards. I should mention that the materials we received before the trip pointed out, almost apologetically, that the rooms in Irish hotels tended to be smaller than American rooms, and something else I read indicated that we'd probably be sleeping in double beds. We did have one room that was outfitted with two double beds, but the rest of the time we enjoyed king-size and queen-sized beds. Strangely, one room we were assigned had a queen-size bed and a single bed.

Belfast City Hall at night.

One more thing about the beds. None of them had a top sheet. You would have a sheet covering the mattress and a duvet. Weird. OK, enough about beds.

After we checked in, settled in our room and enjoyed the view overlooking the river, we went back to the lobby to find out where the nearest ATM was. We ran into the concierge, who asked if our guide had told us about the events that evening. Sharon thought he was talking about the march, and when she brought it up, he seemed confused. We asked what he was referring to, and he told us that it was Culture Night in Belfast, an annual event in which all kinds of activities would be going in the heart of the city.

The concierge bundled off, so we asked the desk attendant about an ATM and about the Culture Night event, and she gave us a brochure about the events. The nearest ATM turned out to be at an arena next door to the hotel. Strangely, the lobby area appears to stay open, even when no events are scheduled.

A quartet stood outside the arena, singing barbershop and four-part gospel songs -- a teaser for the Culture Night events. We listened for a while before returning to the hotel for dinner. I'll discuss food in another post.

Armed with a map, we headed out to capture some culture. Unfortunately, it was already dark, which messes with our ability to figure out where we're going. This is almost always a problem with me, but not so much, usually, with Sharon. We did find City Hall, which was lit quite nicely, and heard music coming from several of the pubs.

Just as we were about to give up, we saw a bunch of musicians carrying their instruments. We followed for a bit, and then I drew close to them and asked if they were going to set up somewhere. One of the guys told us they had just finished playing and said, "The action's back there," pointing us in the way we should go.

We came upon a drum band that had drawn quite a crowd and stopped to listen for a bit. A couple of young women carrying shopping bags came up, stopped to listen, then dropped their bags and began to dance. An older guy with an mp3 player and headphones came up and started dancing as well, occasionally saying something to the women, who pretty much blew him off. As the women warmed up, they shucked the jackets they wore and carried on. They noticed that I was recording them but didn't seem to care.

Now that we were more or less properly oriented, we went looking for more entertainment and managed to find what seemed to be a central area. A band was winding up its set, and we heard their last two songs. Nearby a group of BMX riders performed tricks on ramps.

Returning to the hotel proved quite easy now that we had some landmarks to work with. We'd spent a couple of hours wandering about and enjoying the sights, and plopped gratefully on our duvet-covered beds, looking forward to the next day, when we'd have the opportunity to explore in the daytime.