Tall Ships Belfast Northern Ireland

Written August 15 evening time: I have to pay for internet at this place so I’m writing it ahead of time so its done. I also can’t upload photos so I’m waiting until I get back online to do that. I can’t believe this hostel won’t allow internet. Wifi should be free if you’re sitting in the lobby. Plus it gets people sitting around.

Anyways. Where to begin. I am currently sitting in my dorm room in Belfast. Its about 10:30pm. I’ve closed the window but can hear the people outside like its still open. Amazing. I don’t even know where the sound is coming from the street outside seems dead really.

I had quite a day today! I got up and put my clothes on and got ready and then decided that the sun was supposed to be out I’ll put shorts on. I was surprised when I left the hostel at around 7:15 am and it was pouring rain. I’m guessing at some point someone in our dorm room shut the windows and curtains so I had no idea how to dress... I had to walk to the bus station to catch a bus up to Belfast at 8am. It was raining. I have no rain coat, no real warm clothes and two bags that don’t shed water. So in Europe what does a person do that early in the morning?? Hope and pray that something is open!! I finally found a store that sold umbrellas so I bought one and headed back out onto the street. It was about a 30 minute walk and my bags were getting heavier with every drop of water they absorbed!

The bus station was a piece of cake. I got on the bus and was happy to have my own seat until we got to the airport (one of the stops) and all the seats filled up…so a really nice really large German woman sat next to me. She was really sweet but it was hard to sit next to her because she was kinda pinching my flab with her flab. Not fun! When she got off I got a guy with a nervous twitch instead. That was fun too. It poured rain almost the whole way to Belfast but the sun came out once I arrived so I was glad for that. I had another walk to the hostel I found so I didn’t want to do it in the rain again.

After I dropped my bag off at the hostel I walked toward the City Hall where the shuttle buses were leaving from and realized it was only a little bit beyond that to the quay’s where the ships were so I walked. Belfast is a terrific city! I really like it here! The old stuff is pretty neat and some of it has been converted too so it’s a church becomes a shopping center, it’s a little weird but it works. I walked to the tall ships which wasn’t easy. I guess they say 100,000 people show up to this event and it believe them it was amazing! The ships were awesome! You can walk right up to them almost and they have all sorts of stuff set up for people to eat and drink and play. I walked up one side of the ships and then took a shuttle bus to the other dock to see the rest. They had the ships split between 2 quays both packed with people but they were across the water from each other so you could see almost the whole group at any one time. The crews of the ships were in full dress uniforms and the ships were in great shape. I didn’t get a chance to talk to any of them but in the brochure all of their information is available. It was worth it I think but I would have liked to have Tony with me since his ship Tenacious was there! Also his old ship the Stavros S Niarchos. I guess the Tenacious will sail to Dublin and pick him up on Thursday of this coming week. At least I got to see it first hand.

Man, what a chore! So many people!!! You should have seen the police presence there too. We’re talking regular patrol police, mob police, riot police, all sorts and they were everywhere, always walking through the crowds. It gives you a feeling of being both secure and insecure since they were all very serious about their tasks. But I approached them at times here and there to ask directions and they were all very friendly, very approachable. So that was encouraging!

I went back to the hostel after that and changed into my walking shoes and checked into my room (to make sure I really had one) and then set out again for some lunch and sightseeing. I basically walked around in circles and then headed for the ships again just to see if the lines had eased but they were closing the ships to visitors when I got there. The sun had come out nicely though so it was really a pretty night for it!

I decided not to stay for the fireworks I had about a 2 mile walk and didn’t want to do that at night. Call me chicken but it didn’t seem like a good idea. I had a nice walk back to the hostel. The city shuts down early just like in the UK so I window shopped.

I missed dinner time at the café and had not found a market to shop at so I went out looking for dinner instead.

This hostel I was at is kinda lame. The dining area is in a whole separate place and is pretty unfeeling so you don’t want to go hang out there which is too bad because that is the fun of hostels mostly. So far Barcelonas hostel has been best for that. Anyways I decided to eat a place called Benedicts. It’s a huge place. Has a bar and night club in the bottom portion and a restaurant upstairs. It’s a hotel on the other side. I ate a yummy dinner and had an ICE COLD LAGER BEER! Coldest beer I’d had in, well, since I left the states! I had a dessert that is worth mentioning because it was so good. They call it Banoffee it was served with cream and a couple chocolate swizzles. This thing was basically a graham cracker crust with a yummy soft caramel type pie filling. Oh so good. They call it Banoffee because of the one banana slice that exists on top. It was so good! I washed it down with an Irish Coffee. In Ireland they still call it Irish Coffee. It was really good. One of the waiters was from Florida. He met is wife in New York City and they got married in Ireland. He had his bachelor party in Galway he said it’s a nice place.

After that hearty meal I went back to the hostel talked to Tony on the phone for a bit and then went to bed. I ended up in a room with only 1 other roommate instead of 3 others. I was showered and in bed before he even got in.

The back of the hostel shares an echo-y corridor outside a really busy bar/restaurant and since my closed windows were as effective as open ones I laid awake listening to the Saturday night mayhem. Luckily they kick them all out around 11-12ish.

It is now Sunday morning. I got up early and walked to the bus station and am now headed back to Dublin bus station. I’m going to buy an Irish Explorer pass and head out to Galway first and then who knows where from there. I had enough pound coin to buy a coffee this morning so that should keep me for a bit. It’s a long trip between the two cities. But the weirdest part is that it’s as long on the train as it is on the bus. Weird!

There is a girl on this bus who has the volume on her cell phone keys turned up and she is typing like a maniac and we can all hear every beep. I am ready to chuck it out the window! She doesn’t even have it on the word fill in setting so she is typing three times as much. Argh!!

So, I think I’ve got everything in here. I should hope its 2 pages long in my word document. I really hope I find Wifi soon or you’ll be ready for days.

Like I said to Galway today. I pass through a town called Tullamore, which is the town from one of my favorite movies Waking Ned Devine. I don’t think its the same place but the town name is so that is enough for me.

I had a hard time cutting and pasting so who knows how this all turned out. There is another blog coming because I've gone a whole new day since writing this.....

K