Belfast Baby!

I was most excited about studying abroad so I would finally have the chance to explore new cities that, until now, had always seemed so far away. Well yesterday myself and my new friend Rana, also on exchange from the States, decided to take the train into Belfast, Northern Ireland's capital.

There was definitely a TON of stuff to see and do in Belfast. But, since I am still a tourist at heart, I thought it best if we got the true "tourist-y" stuff out of the way first! So about 20 minutes after getting off the train and hailing a taxi we found ourselves in the center of the city waiting in line for Northern Ireland's version of London's "Eye." The spectacular views of the city were totally worth the £6.50! Here are some pictures from our ride...


There were statues of some famous "Ulster Men" all around this awesome building that serves as City Hall.

Of course the classic "myspace" pic...


Some more views of City Hall...





Some views of the busy town below...



If you look closely you can see cranes in the background of both these pictures. They're left over from Belfast's glory days as one of the world's premiere ship builders. Their most famous masterpiece sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic when she hit an ice berg.


As the people of Belfast proudly say, the Titanic "was fine when she left here!"

I'm not quite sure what this building is but check out the clock on the upper-left hand corner of the building!


After our ride we walked around for a bit looking at the statues and admiring the architecture.




We decided to go all out for lunch and hit up McDonald's for a classy meal of cheeseburgers and mcnuggets with "chips," or french fries for those of us native to the other side of the Atlantic. Back home, the food at McDonald's is greasy and gross but over here it is actually pretty good! It is really fresh and the meat is delicious since the UK has restrictions on the standard of meat it allows into the country. And yes, as John Travolta reports in Pulp Fiction, over here people do LOVE to smother their "chips" in mayonnaise. I'm not sure that is a custom I'll attempt to experience.


After lunch we walked around for a bit trying to decide what to do and what to see.


This is Albert's Tower and NO my photography skills aren't that bad, the tower really does lean to the left. Which is why we photographed it from the right... ;-)


Ireland's unofficial motto...


One of my favorite childhood authors was C.S. Lewis. Thanks to my mom and Scholastic's monthly book orders I read his most popular work, The Chronicles of Narnia, when I was in grade school. Now as a Lit. major, I consult his literary criticisms quite frequently when writing papers or doing research. So when I discovered that not only was he from Ulster but that there was also a statue of him in Belfast I HAD to find it!


The statue is of C.S. Lewis (the C.S. stands for Clive Staples, even his name rocks!) opening his infamous wardrobe and entering Narnia. Needless to say, the dorky girl sitting on the chair is ecstatic. :-)


After all my dorkiness, Rana and I decided to visit the Belfast Castle. It was absolutely gorgeous. Our tourist ambitions were slightly thwarted by a wedding though, and we were only able to see parts of the castle.


The castle's luscious gardens are a huge attraction.


Apparently there is a myth about a "castle cat." It is believed that ever since the castle was first built a white cat has roamed the grounds so there are seven contributions to this feline throughout the gardens.



A view from the back...


As I said before, our tour was very limited because of the wedding crap, er... "celebration" taking place but here is a peak of the cellar...


One last glimpse!


After our trip to the castle we went back into the main part of Belfast and had dinner and a movie! We saw Revolutionary Road and then stopped at a local pizzeria for some pepperoni pie! The pizza was really good and so was the movie but is is definitely NOT a "feel good" film to say the least. Then we got on a train and headed back to Portstewart.

My first trip to Belfast was awesome and I can't wait to go back! :-)