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.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Lindsey and I went to Belfast in Northern Ireland over reading week. Since Belfast is technically in the UK, I still haven't been out of the country, but that is going to change in April. Major trip planned for April.

So we flew RyanAir from London to Belfast, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had read some bad news about RyanAir, but it worked out well other than the fact that we had to sit for an hour while our plane's wings were de-iced. However, there still is some weird shenanigans with RyanAir, but maybe it's the clients rather than the company. Read this story about a RyanAir customer who ate his winning ticket because he got so frustrated. It is hilarious.

Anyway, we made it to Belfast without incident.

Once we were there, we checked into our hostel, which was AMAZING. It was basically like a hotel. And we had movie night with a cute guy who worked there from New Zealand aka a Kiwi.

On our first day, we just wandered around the city center. The city hall building is really cool, and the inside has a lot of marble. Plus, the cool ferris wheel next to it is awesome.

Belfast architecture was really interesting. There is a lot of older buildings next to really modern ones, but the new ones have things that incorporate the more traditional ones, like color. The reason is basically the bombings. Belfast was heavily bombed during WWII and then by the IRA during 'The Troubles' from 1969-1994.

We also went into a pub called Crown Liquor Saloon, which dates back to the 18th century. It has these really cool wooden nooks.

Day One was mainly us wandering around the city center. But Lindsey and I reached a new measurement of hunger while walking around before stopping in a cool little cafe. Some guy was walking down the street eating a sandwich, and we both wanted to just take a bite out of it and keep walking. Luckily, we found The Streat a couple minutes later, and I had amazing chicken soup and a Brie BLT.

Much more to come about my few days in Belfast as well as new things about life in London.