The next morning, I was up and out before my traveling companions. For some reason, I have a hard time staying in bed on this trip. So much to see! Unfortunately, most of Belfast was still asleep in this area.
However, I did find one spot open. It reminded me of trendy places in Austin, healthy food and alcohol. Breakfast was ham & cheese criossant, which was delicious. And a cup of coffee.
The outside of the deli where I ate. I walked around for a bit, enjoying the cool morning. Eventually I wandered back towards Filthy McNasty’s to meet up with the other folks and get started on touring Belfast.
KL and RHL! Time to get walking. We’re going to take a bus tour recommended by the locals to see as much as of Belfast as we can in one day.
Belfast’s Capital House. Very pretty.
There’s the buses! We’re going on an open-top one. I’ve never been on one of these before and I’m really looking forward to it. And I won’t lie…I’m really looking forward to less walking today.
Top of the bus!
The Albert Memorial Clock. Gotta remember that Northern Ireland is still part of the UK.
The shipping yard where the Titanic was built.
The Titanic Museum.
A church that has to rent out rooms/space to help pay the bills.
The bus tour took us up to the Belfast Castle. The view they have of the city and the harbor is beautiful.
The Castle was ok. Not as impressive as other castle’s I’ve seen.
The trees though…wow.
Our first taste of beech trees. They’re so awesome.
Crumlin Road Courthouse. I think it caught on fire recently and they’ve left it to sit since. I would love to go wandering around in there.
Belfast is known for the wall murals everywhere. This one was supposed to cover (and protect) Bill Clinton’s signature.
There’s still tension in Northern Ireland, though it feels like Belfast is a little more UK.
All of these murals are along the ‘Peace Wall’ that separates the Nationalist and the Unionist neighborhoods.
That’s where we were last night!
We hopped off the bus and decided to do a late lunch at a weekend market that we passed by. First we had to walk through a mall.
…and past a party bus.
Hey! I can bring my Grandpa to Belfast! They have his beer (one of the only beers he drinks).
Here we go! Turned out to be an amazing indoors market.
It was definitely a neat place. After this, we headed back to take a nap before dinner. I find myself taking less pictures – I think it’s because I’ve gotten lazy. I see KL taking so many and think ‘I’ll just look at his blog later’. Probably not the best of ideas.
So our evening plan is to hit up Kelly’s Cellars, which some locals told us had traditional music – people just show up with instruments and jam out together.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Turned out to be an awesome little bar.
Good music, good drinks. Time to find somewhere to eat. And then maybe check out the nightlife. I know I’m a little chilled and feeling a little worn out by this point, but there’s so much we still need to see and do!
Yes, KL spotted this first. Gorgeous though. And powerful. In between this and the Cathedral Quarter (where we will spend the night drinking) we had street food in another place that reminded me of Austin. Nice to know we can find home anywhere, right?
I think we’re all feeling a bit on the tired side – we checked out this one, the Duke of York, which was a great little spot.
And then decided to head back to the hotel and sleep. RHL blended in nicely in this alley.
The Capital Building again! Look how awesome these lights are! Why can’t they do cool stuff like this to our buildings?
