Thursday 5th September – Sunday 8th September 2019

When meeting someone, I know within the first 5 minutes whether I like them or not. I do the same thing with cities. Judge mental fuck I know. But it’ll help you understand how within 5 minutes of getting off the train in Belfast, I knew this was my kinda city!! While waiting for Kyles to finish work, thought I’d leg it around to the botanic gardens, just a casual stroll along the river… see why I liked it so quickly??

About half way into stomping down the river way, low and behold, Kylie was going to be back at the hotel in 15 minutes… the hotel which was 5 minutes away from where I was 20 minutes ago! All good, get those steps up and work off the gin that would inevitably be consumed later…

Finally joining Kyles at her accommodation, I was well and truly pooped, as was she but we were both of the mind that if we sat down we’d never get back up so instead it was a freshen up and hit the town scenario, for a quiet one of course… Quiet was redefined that night to a delicious dinner at a fancy restaurant followed by epic dance moves to an equally as epic Irish band. Cotton Eye Joe cranked in a pub in Belfast and not a person stood still… or they weren’t standing still in our eyes due to the gins we were drinking?!? Being with Kyles, you always meet people, she’s the friendly one, I’m the grumpy sheep. We met some dude that looked like Grey Worm from Game of Thrones, a British boxer, a lightweight one by the looks of him… met a gorgeous couple from Scotland who were having a weekend away from the kids, that chick could rip up the dance floor!! And we met other people, this chick and those dudes, hell knows who they are, also managed to get an awesome pic of the band…

Throughout the night as my camera roll tells me, we found the most stunning street art on random walls and alleyways, Belfast was quickly getting into my top 10 of places I love, and the Cathedral Quarter where we partied one of the best!! And kudos for the best pub in the town being called The Thirsty Goat!!

Needless to say Friday was a little slow, well for me anyway, Kyles had to get up and work but my planned day of “see all the things” turned into sleep and annoy Kylie. We did manage to fit in an afternoon tour of the Crumlin Gaol… now me being a bogan Aussie kept pronouncing it as it looks but apparently you say it like “jail”, whateves, not my fault they can’t spell…

To alleviate the amount of nothingness done in the previous 10 hours, we decided to walk to the JAIL and by god, I’m glad we did, we literally stumbled across the most amazing, beautiful church I’ve ever seen in my life, lost for words… photos don’t do it justice!

So finally making it to the JAIL after a coffee and taxi ride, we were at Belfast’s number one tourist attraction. Eh, it was kinda interesting. The room where they hang people, hidden behind a bookcase, opened in dramatic fashion by the tour guide, was interesting but mostly confronting. Can’t imagine how it’d feel to stare at the noose to soon be around your neck. Sure the dudes (all men) were murderers but still, no matter how horrible your morals are, surely this would suck arse… anyhoo, there was a section of of the jail we couldn’t see because it’s reserved for weddings… morbid much??

The really cool part of the tour, in addition to the helicopter, was the tunnel from the jail to the court house, looked eerie, felt even stranger when hearing the stories about people walking the tunnel to their fate…

After having a “quiet” one the night before, we attempted to do a quiet one for reals. Wandering the streets and taking in even more beautiful murals, we stumbled into a Whiskey shop (of course!) and Kyles being the friendly chick she is got us recommendations for dinner. The Cloth Ear it was, the Irish certainly know how to name their pubs! By god, the deliciousness of their beef and Irish ale pie was drool worthy, so so delicious, surely this was what the dudes at the jail ordered for their last meal??

As delicious as it was, I do remember Noel saying that the real Irish don’t put beer in their food, they drink it… so maaaybe, it was a tourist trap meal but who cares, tasted AMAZING!! Also what came back to me during the day, the good ol’ Irish lingo!! “What’s the craic? is the Aussie equivalent of “whats happening?”, and the best one, eejit, wander what it means??? Say idiot with an Irish accent… there you go!!!

Believe it or not, we did somehow have an early night?!? Knowing we were about to embark on an epic day trip around Northern Ireland was pretty much the only reason to justify being in bed by 10pm on a Friday night in Belfast.

Our For The Throne trip around Northern Ireland is worthy of its own long winded, over explained blog post so check that out… I’m gonna skip ahead to Sunday afternoon once we got back from Winterfell…

After dropping off the hire car, we had six and a half hours to see and do everything in Belfast… easy peasey! First stop, the Titanic museum, Belfast is after all the place they built the unsinkable ship and used to be the hub of ship building in Europe. The oldest shipbuilding company in the city went into receivership only a few days ago, pretty darn sad…

So here’s where I be a complete AH and say I wasn’t a massive fan of the Titanic museum. Like it was interesting reading about the history of shipbuilding in Belfast and going on the cool carriage ride but when it came to the Titanic info, to be honest, most of it I’d already read about. And here’s my confession why, I may have been a little obsessed with the movie when it came out and Googled everything and anything about the Titanic. And I’m really good at remembering useless facts. The one thing which made the visit worth it, an immersive tour of the ship, three screens – left, right and front, taking you through a tour of the decks of Titanic, that was pretty wow.

Titanic museum done and dusted, Kyles and I who are nothing if not efficient decided the hop on hop off bus was the best way to take in Belfast in the remaining 5 hours before we begrudgingly went back to London. Our hoppin tour took us past Parliament House, the Opera House and possibly a second Parliament House?!? Which is interesting because I swear the hoppin tour guide said Northern Ireland don’t actually have a government at the moment! So here’s what I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know before going to Ireland, well kinda knew but not really, Ireland isn’t one country, there’s the Republic of Ireland which is the southern half, where Dublin resides, its own country, own government, own citizens. Then there’s Northern Ireland which falls under British Empire rule. Maybe it was just me that didn’t know that… also didn’t know that Northern Ireland had a massive wall built to separate the Nationalists and Unionists, who are they you say?? Trust me, Google was my bestie on this trip!! The Nationalists are a political movement, who are mostly Catholic, who say that the Irish people are a nation and want the creation of a sovereign Irish nation-state on the island of Ireland, including both the republic and Northern Ireland. On the other hand, Unionists, who are Protestant, favour the continuation of a political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. The wall is supposedly a peace wall, built in 1969 following The Troubles, to minimize violence between the nationalists and unionists. If like me you don’t know what The Troubles were, do a Holly and make Google your best friend, really interesting reads. The song by U2 Sunday Bloody Sunday is named after the worst day in the three decade war which was The Troubles. Also some good doco’s on YouTube about it. Wish I knew more about the history of Ireland before I visited so I could have really understood the murals and sentiment of the different areas.

But a lesson to be learnt, walls don’t achieve anything, when have they ever in history??? Build bridges not walls, yeah, I’m with you on that one. The area where part of the old wall once stood is full of incredible murals and strongly political messages that hail back to the The Troubles. The wall itself is covered with what some would call graffiti, I’m calling it wall art, with people writing their own personal messages. To be honest, neither Kyles or I could think of anything to write befitting of the significance of the wall… and we didn’t have a texta.

After taking the time to reflect on the the importance of where we were standing, we quite literally had to leg it through a questionable neighborhood to jump on the last hoppin bus, which took us on our last grand tour of Belfast, and by gosh, she’s a pretty city!!!!

When you’re in love with a city and have had an epic time with a bestie, leaving is always sad, but thinking about our Ireland adventure makes me smile, so many good memories. You know what else makes me smile?? Guinness! Proud to say I ❤️ Ireland and I ❤️ Guinness, it especially goes down mighty well when your plane is delayed by 2 hours, thanks Jetstar, I mean easyJet, not my fault their logo looks exactly the same…