No, I didn't get killed. Or maimed. Or anything. Belfast was a lot nicer than I expected, plus it seemed really cheap compared to London. My hostel was about 83 times better for about 2/3 the price. It wasn't in the city center, but luckily, Belfast is so small that I could walk to the city center in about 10 minutes. I only had to use the bus once the entire time, and that's because Belfast Castle is on the side of a mountain.
The first day I wandered around Belfast looking at the random sites. Unfortunately, there isn't really THAT much to see there, and both the city hall and the Ulster Museum were closed for renovation. The bonus: almost everything is free! I saw the city hall, St. Anne's Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral (Church?), the Prince Albert clock tower (which apparently leans to one side, but I didn't really notice it), and the river. I also saw a bus on fire. I wasn't sure if that was really what I was seeing, but everyone who was walking stopped to watch it, so it definitely was. I also saw the fire trucks come to put out. Luckily it looked like all the passengers had safely gotten out. Didn't make me too eager to ride a city bus, though.
After lunch I went to Belfast Castle which I incidentally did have to take a bus to get to. Fortunately it did not catch fire. I walked around the castle for a little bit, but it wasn't really a castle, more like a very large house. It's pretty much just a place where they have weddings and stuff now, but on the top floor was a visitors' center with a history of the castle and the area. Afterwards I hiked up to the top of Cavehill, also called Napoleon's Nose (if you look at it from far away, it really does look like a face with a nose). It was a lot harder of a hike than I thought it would be. I had been planning to do the whole route, but I was assuming that the times they told you for the routes weren't accurate, since a lot of times they say it takes a lot longer for the out-of-shape tourists. I guess they don't get too many tourists there though. It was a good hike though, and the view from the top was amazing! There were some serious cliffs up there too, so I tried not to get too close to the edge. Later, in the evening, I walked down to the Queen's University Belfast campus and the botanic gardens. Nothing too interesting, but it was nice. Would have been nicer if it had been warmer out.
The second day I went on a tour up to the Giant's Causeway in the very northern part of Northern Ireland. We also made stops at Carrickfergus Castle (kind of ugly), Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (fishermen originally built the rope bridge so that they could get to a small island which had better access to salmon), and Bushmills brewery (honestly, why did we stop there?). Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant's Causeway were really awesome. There's not much I can say about them. I'll just upload a bunch of pictures, but of course they won't do them justice. The day was really really good, with perfect weather. The only downer was the bus driver/tour guide, who was without a doubt the worst tour guide I have ever had in my life. He did not shut up the ENTIRE ride up to Giant's Causeway. And that includes several stops. I would highly recommend going to Giant's Causeway, but I do NOT recommend taking the Mini Coach tour from Belfast. I would have rather had no info from him than his constant yammering.
The next day I left early in the morning to go to Glasgow. I took a boat from Belfast to Stranraer, and the boat was soo awesome. It was pretty much like a mall. It had an arcade, mini movie theaters, restaurants, coffee shops. I couldn't believe it, mostly because it was so cheap (23 pounds for the boat ride and my rail ticket from Stranraer to Glasgow). I guess booking ahead of time really is a good idea! The boat ride was pretty cool, and I ended up in Glasgow by 12:30. But that's for the next post...
Carrick-a-Rede:
Giant's Causeway:
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