I ♥ Belfast

After the political tour on my third day in Belfast, Lindsey and I decided to get rush tickets to The Sound of Music, which was at the Royal Opera House. We were able to get tickets, and oh, how I love a good musical.

The woman who played Maria had a fantastic voice. All of the children were great, as well. The actor who played Friedrich von Trapp was sick, and the company didn't have time to get an understudy. So the manager told us before it started that the children had rehearsed for a couple of hours, and there was going to be just six children instead of seven. In Tim Gunn's vernacular, It was a Make It Work moment. And they did make it work even though some of the choreography was a little off. Anyway, one of the first lines Captain von Trapp has is something like, "I have seven children who need a nanny." And right after he said that, he paused, looked at the audience, and without breaking character, he said, "No, I don't. I have six children." It was quite funny, and the epitome of the show must go on even after someone says something ridiculous. He made up for that mistake when he sang 'Edelweiss.' Oh my god, his voice was amazing.

Anyway, The Sound of Music was lovely. But a girl sitting behind me apparently thought she was part of the musical. She literally sang along with every song. Honestly, I paid money to hear the paid actors to sing. A couple sitting next to me kept letting out frustrated sighs every time she started.

After The Sound of Music, I had the greatest food Ireland has to offer. Champ. We had baked potatoes and split Champ. I'm glad I didn't discover Champ until my last night; otherwise, I would have eaten it for every meal. Champ is a variation of mashed potatoes mixed with scallions and cheese and other wonderful things.

We went to Fibber Magees again that night. Lindsey and I both got Guinness, which is the only beer I've ever tasted and actually liked - it tastes a lot like coffee, surprisingly. And other than a hammered old man relentlessly hitting on Lindsey until we could move away from the bar, it was fun. A more contemporary band played that night. They played an Irish rock song that sounded really familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. And  of course, they played U2's 'One.'

I can't wait to  go back to Ireland in June and read some James Joyce, eat some Champ, and drink some Guinness. Nothing but fond memories and awesome photos from Belfast. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any post cards because it really isn't a tourist attraction, which was a little sad, but I loved the fact that I got to go there before it becomes a commercial and tourist enterprise. Now I'm looking for another excuse to go back to Belfast in the future and to stay in the same hostel.

Belfast Castle and live Irish music

Day Two in Belfast was cool - literally and figuratively. Lindsey and I borrowed a couple of bikes from the guy who owned our hostel and we biked around Belfast.

We decided to go to Belfast Castle, which unfortunately is up a rather large hill. But we did make it to the top and wandered around inside for a bit, then walked around the garden area. There is something about a white cat myth or something. Basically, the story goes that a white cat is always in residence at the castle for luck. And the gardens have nine cats worked into it through mosaics, statues and topiaries. We found eight, but not the actual living white cat. It was cold out, so the cat was probably hiding inside. The view from the castle is amazing. You can see all the way down to the coast, plus all of the city of Belfast.

And the bike ride down was fun, too. But it was freezing, so we had to stop in a shop and buy some gloves. We then rode along the bike paths on the river up to the botanical gardens. It was too cold to wander around outside too much, so we went to the Ulster museum.

The museum was really cool. We were most interested in the Irish history section, though. It went back to before the Irish potato famine up through contemporary times. It was interesting to be able to trace the political unrest through the decades. I found the contemporary Belfast history the most interesting. It was nice to be able to see a timeline of all the events of The Troubles laid out, and to be able to read a neutral account of what happened between the unionists and the nationalists.

Our hostel owner suggested a pub for us called Fibber Magee's in the city center. The pub has live music every night, and on this night is was traditional Irish music. All three guys in the band were really good, but one was amazing. He played like three different instruments. He was fantastic with all of them, especially the fiddle and the tin whistle. Fibber Magee's was connected to a pub called Robinson's, but the Fibber Magee's side is not right off the main road.

I enjoyed the second day in Belfast. Since it's not really a touristy city, we were able to just explore on our own without being bombarded with stupid little tourist shops and what not.