The North remembers: In Northern Ireland, 'Game of Thrones' leaves a lasting legacy
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The Europa Hotel was once known as the most bombed hotel in Europe, but on a Friday morning in April, it's bustling with tourists and weekenders enjoying a hearty breakfast buffet. Almost no one recognizes Conleth Hill, the actor who plays Varys, the bald eunuch and royal adviser whose cunning enabled him to survive nearly eight seasons on one of TV's bloodiest shows, "Game of Thrones," without ever lifting a sword.
The anonymity (aided by the reappearance of his thick, silver hair) doesn't appear to faze him. Here he's just another local who lives an hour away in Ballycastle, the seaside town where he grew up, another customer who is indulging in a gut-busting breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, potato bread and white pudding. (In a minor act of heresy, he has opted to skip the traditional black pudding, a concoction whose ingredients include pork blood and oats.)
"Don't be judging!" says the actor, who enjoys the comforts of home - or most of them.
He's had ample opportunity to do so on "Game of Thrones," which will reach its highly anticipated conclusion on HBO - or "haich-BO," as the locals say it - on Sunday. Roughly 75% of the series was filmed on soundstages
