Not really feeling Belfast to be honest.
Maybe it was the contrast with hot, sunny, exciting Paris, because it’s certainly been cold and grey here. At least it isn’t raining.
We are staying in one of an entire block of charmless red brick terrace houses. In fact there are red brick buildings everywhere in Belfast. Our location is good, in spite of my complaints to Simon who booked it through Booking.com. We are pretty central, near the river and conference centre, the university, the city centre, and the main night life.
We flew into George Best airport. George was born in Belfast in 1946 and is a local hero, one of the most famous footballers in the world, ever, although his heyday was in the late 60s. One of my most famous quotes ever came from him. When asked where his lost millions went: “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds, and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”
Once again there was a big queue for taxis, so we decided to take the train. And, because nothing is ever straightforward for the first timer, we ended up taking the bus. After settling in, we went out to find some dinner. It’s no wonder you can find an Irish pub in every city in the world – they are great. Everyone goes to them and they are warm, welcoming places, full of people having loud, mostly good humoured, discussions. A very different vibe to anywhere we went to in France. Some of them seem to get away without serving food of any sort, which seems dangerous, but the place we went to that first night had quite a good menu. You ordered and paid online by scanning a QR code on your table, which was a nifty and fairly painless procedure which I hope to see more of. No more trying to elbow your way through a scrum at the bar.
Yesterday was the first day of our conference. The main thing I can tell you is that there is a huge amount of collective trauma in the UK healthcare workforce as a result of COVID. Once again, huge ups and big gratitude to Jacinda.
We also managed to find time to do a little shopping, when I bought a pair of navy ankle boots that I am on the verge of regretting already. I also bought a very poofy navy dress that was on sale, betting on the hippy style that was big in the European summer will be coming down to us soon. Victoria Square is a big local shopping mall that in our opinion was quite overrated
We also went to the Titanic Belfast, a much vaunted local highlight. It was named “World’s leading tourist attraction” at the prestigious World Travel Awards in 2016. Locals are extremely proud of the Titanic, which puzzles me a little. Yes, it was a huge undertaking to build, but isn’t the whole point that it was fatally flawed? I found the museum a bit tedious, even if it did have a rollercoaster trip through a pretend shipyard at one point, but maybe that was because I was a bit hangry by the end.
When we were buying the tickets, the man in the booth asked us if any of us were over 60, to qualify for the senior discount. He didn’t look any of us in the eye while asking this, but when Simon said an affronted “No!” He shrugged but looked quite dubious. He asked us where we were from, and when we told him, he asked if we’d seen our King who was currently in town. We said no, but I asked him curiously, “Isn’t he your King too?” Which he vehemently denied. “No! I’m Irish!”
We spent the evening in the Cathedral Quarter, the nightlife/entertainment district which is certainly impressive. It’s an area that is packed with bars, pubs and eateries and is lots of fun. No matter where you want to eat or drink, you’ll find something you like there. Recommended .