Belfast: Game of Thrones, Peace Walls & Cranes

Our first impression of Belfast was quiet, older and a little industrial. At 64°F with 10 mph winds, I was perfectly comfortable in pants and a long-sleeved shirt, although my hands felt like popsicles. According to our local guide, Northern Ireland rarely gets much warmer than the high 60s during summer, which made one of his first bits of trivia especially amusing: modern air conditioning has roots here, along with several other scientific inventions.

Belfast’s shipbuilding history is impossible to miss. Giant Harland & Wolff gantry cranes dominate the skyline, and our guide spent quite a bit of time talking about the industry and, of course, Titanic. We also passed universities and government buildings while getting a quick introduction to the city. Along the way came plenty of Belfast name-dropping too, including C.S. Lewis, Van Morrison and actor Jamie Dornan.

The cruise port offered a complimentary shuttle into downtown, which was a nice option for anyone exploring independently. We had a full excursion planned, though, beginning with about an hour touring Belfast by coach.

And this was where the tone of our day changed completely.

I knew about the Troubles. What I wasn’t prepared for was seeing the physical division between Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods still present today.

Brick walls. Fencing. Wire. Gates separating communities.

We drove through one of those gates after our guide explained that arrangements had been made for it to be opened for our coach. Seeing the walls and gates in person was mind-boggling. Rather than feeling like we were visiting a modern European city, parts of Belfast felt frozen several decades in the past.

The flags were especially difficult for me to understand. Flags identified communities, followed in places by what felt like competing displays from across the street. The physical barriers already made the separation obvious, yet the flags seemed to reinforce who belonged where and which side held which views.

Our guide was a Belfast local, around our age, so this wasn’t ancient history being explained from a textbook. These neighborhoods are his city.

We stopped briefly at the Peace Wall, where visitors have left messages from around the world. Flags representing different countries had been painted onto portions of the wall, and we added our own messages beneath ours.

That stop left me sad more than anything else.

I kept thinking about communities continuing to live divided by walls and gates, and about the violence behind their existence. I’ve read about segregation and conflict, but physically traveling through those barriers felt completely different. I struggled to understand why such extreme separation still exists today.

After such a heavy introduction to Belfast, heading into the Northern Ireland countryside felt like a breath of fresh air.

The city gradually disappeared behind us and gave way to green pastures, open land and relatively flat countryside. During the roughly hour-long drive, our guide spent about half the time sharing Northern Ireland trivia and Game of Thrones tidbits to get everyone ready for our next destination.

One fact I especially loved involved fairy trees. Certain trees traditionally associated with fairies are left standing rather than cut down, sometimes with roads designed around them. After everything we had learned about Belfast that morning, hearing stories rooted in Irish folklore felt like quite the change of subject.

Eventually we arrived at the Game of Thrones Studio Tour.

I was pleasantly surprised by the property itself. Rather than finding some enormous attraction dominating the countryside, the studio complex seemed thoughtfully incorporated into its surroundings.

I was also thrilled Justin was willing to do this excursion with me. Fantasy isn’t usually his thing, and he’s definitely not the fantasy-reader type. Roo and I managed to get him watching House of the Dragon and a few seasons of Game of Thrones, though, so having him interested enough to spend part of our Belfast day doing this together made the experience more fun.

Inside, the tour focused heavily on original costumes and props, behind-the-scenes interviews about set construction and production, and recreations of several recognizable scenes and locations.

Winterfell was easily the highlight for me.

Seeing pieces of that world up close gave me a new appreciation for how much work went into creating the series. There were also a few interactive stations scattered throughout the tour. We played with the Hall of Faces display and watched ourselves get digitally transformed into White Walkers.

The Iron Throne display surprised me for the opposite reason. I expected it to be one of the most impressive things there, but up close I found it a little underwhelming. Rather than appearing like this intimidating mass of forged steel, it looked duller and more plastic-like than I expected.

We had about two hours inside, which felt about right. I intentionally hung back from our group whenever possible so I could photograph displays without crowds of people filling every shot. The strategy worked, but there was a trade-off. By the time I reached the end, I had to speed-shop while Justin got in line for our photo session.

The photos were fun to do, although my solo shot wasn’t a keeper. I had to hurriedly throw on a costume, didn’t particularly like what I ended up wearing, and the final photo wasn’t one I loved. Still, the experience gave us a laugh.

My actual souvenir was much better.

I found a light gray sweatshirt featuring a map of the Game of Thrones lands with gold embroidery. Finding the right size was strangely difficult, and I eventually ended up buying a small, which surprised me. Now I’m slightly terrified to wash it. If it shrinks, Mom or Roo might inherit a Belfast souvenir they weren’t expecting.

By the time we headed back toward the ship, Justin and I had pretty similar feelings about the day.

Belfast itself didn’t leave either of us eager to return. The division between communities was the part that stayed with us most, and we were shocked by how physically visible it still is. I’m glad we saw it because travel isn’t always supposed to show you comfortable or pretty things. Sometimes seeing something firsthand gives context that reading about it never did for me.

But emotionally, it was a heavy city tour.

The Game of Thrones Studio Tour completely changed the second half of our day. Without it, I think we would have returned to the ship feeling thoroughly bummed out. Instead, we finished our Belfast visit wandering through Winterfell, laughing at our White Walker transformations and coming home with a new sweatshirt I’m afraid to put in the dryer.

I later noticed that Game of Thrones Studio excursions were offered from Dublin as well, but I’m glad we chose to visit from Belfast. It gave us two drastically different experiences of Northern Ireland in a single day: one rooted in a difficult reality that I struggled to understand, and another built entirely from fantasy.

I don’t think Belfast is somewhere we’ll purposely return to, but it’s certainly a port I won’t forget.Read more