The day didn't go too well in the morning. I was all geared up to be at the Public Records Office (PRONI) at 9.00am when they opened, in the expectation that I would be looking at family history documents for the day.
When we walked past the car we found we had been given a £100 parking ticket. It is inside a gated complex in the spot assigned to the unit, but we think because it has a 'visitor' rather than 'resident' disk the parking bureaucrats decided we were fair game. Noticed other cars 3 times during the day got tickets, so they do regularly patrol. After a panicked phone call to the host she raced back and swapped the visitor for resident. We're hoping that's the end of THAT saga.
Then I went to PRONI, registered, had my photo taken, got a visitor pass, ordered the items I had found searching the catalogue back in Australia, collected them when they arrived and sat down to peruse. The first lot was supposed to be a big bundle, one letter arrived. The second lot was supposed to be another big bundle, which it was, but not of documents about our family. After a custodial person went to look again it appears that the documents have vanished, wrongly numbered, or something. So came from Australia to Belfast to do family history research and pfffftttt. Seriously peeved. I did find one document, though, and it's pretty cool to see your great-grandfather's signature on a real piece of paper.
So cold we have at least 3 layers of clothing on, plus scarves.
Given that the rest of the day was now free, I met up with the others and we went into the city and walked all over. Lots to see in this interesting city. First up, there's a dome on top of a shopping centre with lookouts across the city. "They" walked down those stairs on the central spiral - me ... that's why lifts were invented.
Lots of old buildings, arcades, flowers etc.
There's a fabulous National Trust-listed pub (Crown Liquor Saloon) with amazing decoration. Really hard to photograph as we were there late afternoon and of course there were people everywhere. Intricate glazed tiles, ornate carving, mosaic floors etc. There are wooden 'snugs' (booths) with 3 different lots of artwork styles (the 'Matches' below).
Lots of great street art, I only found a fraction of it. Particularly like the first one which is an amazing piece of art, but the clever bit I couldn't see because of a parked car (until I turned the corner) has a black and white caricature 'painting over' the artwork with white paint.
And finally, to the Big Fish. It looked a bit twee when we saw it from a distance, but when you get up close there are individual ceramic pieces with bits of the history printed on them. Must have been a major effort and quite impressive.
Weather is really starting to get depressing, and the forecast is not good for the next few days either. We were lucky today that it was only spitting rain but I'm thanking my lucky stars I threw in a pair of jeans, a scarf and a rain/wind jacket at the last minute when packing.
When we walked past the car we found we had been given a £100 parking ticket. It is inside a gated complex in the spot assigned to the unit, but we think because it has a 'visitor' rather than 'resident' disk the parking bureaucrats decided we were fair game. Noticed other cars 3 times during the day got tickets, so they do regularly patrol. After a panicked phone call to the host she raced back and swapped the visitor for resident. We're hoping that's the end of THAT saga.
Then I went to PRONI, registered, had my photo taken, got a visitor pass, ordered the items I had found searching the catalogue back in Australia, collected them when they arrived and sat down to peruse. The first lot was supposed to be a big bundle, one letter arrived. The second lot was supposed to be another big bundle, which it was, but not of documents about our family. After a custodial person went to look again it appears that the documents have vanished, wrongly numbered, or something. So came from Australia to Belfast to do family history research and pfffftttt. Seriously peeved. I did find one document, though, and it's pretty cool to see your great-grandfather's signature on a real piece of paper.
So cold we have at least 3 layers of clothing on, plus scarves.
Given that the rest of the day was now free, I met up with the others and we went into the city and walked all over. Lots to see in this interesting city. First up, there's a dome on top of a shopping centre with lookouts across the city. "They" walked down those stairs on the central spiral - me ... that's why lifts were invented.
Lots of old buildings, arcades, flowers etc.
Lots of great street art, I only found a fraction of it. Particularly like the first one which is an amazing piece of art, but the clever bit I couldn't see because of a parked car (until I turned the corner) has a black and white caricature 'painting over' the artwork with white paint.
And finally, to the Big Fish. It looked a bit twee when we saw it from a distance, but when you get up close there are individual ceramic pieces with bits of the history printed on them. Must have been a major effort and quite impressive.
Weather is really starting to get depressing, and the forecast is not good for the next few days either. We were lucky today that it was only spitting rain but I'm thanking my lucky stars I threw in a pair of jeans, a scarf and a rain/wind jacket at the last minute when packing.
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