Northern Ireland Country Antrim- Part II, Belfast

Have you ever noticed that the first time that you visit a place, or start a life somewhere new, that you see it in a totally different light the very first time that your eyes see it? At first, the cracks on the street, the shapes of the buildings and various shapes such as trees all stick out. It’s as if everything is made out of legos and you can see each and every part of it separately. Eventually, though, everything blends together, as if by the stroke of a brush, and this new place starts looking the way that it will now always look in your mind.

It’s a beautiful process.

And it’s one of our favorite things about traveling… observing details with a fresh appreciative eye.

We moved to Belfast 8 months ago and have enjoyed getting to know it and the area better. We have been especially drawn to the history and architecture here, as has been the case for us when traveling through Europe in general.

We've often pondered over the natural connection that we feel to places that have so much visible history. Is it because things aren’t as “new” in the USA? Or is it there a genetic component? Being closer to where our ancestors are from?

These are some of the thoughts that we have been having as we walk to and from work… and we have plenty of time to think, 25 minutes each way 🙂

Which, by the way, has been wonderful. We absolutely love being in a walkable city. Walking not only makes you feel so good and helps you stay in shape, but it’s a great way to clear your head, think, and notice the beauty around you.

We had moved here from a driving city, and being here made us realize that a lot of life seems to be wasted in driving all the time. And that having phone-free, non-driving time both before and after work is rejuvenating in so many ways.

Sometimes we just wander with no direction searching for beautiful buildings. Like the City Hall here in Belfast 🙂 (photo above). It’s an impressive building close to lots of shopping and other historic sites.

It’s funny because if we get “lost” while driving, it would probably be annoying. But getting lost when walking is so different… your senses notice everything around you. Like red bricks.

Belfast’s architecture is full of red bricks! And every time that we go for a walk, we find beautiful details on various buildings that we had not seen before.

Or shops that we had not been to before, getting lost always ends up with us shopping a bit. 🙂

There’s a beautiful shopping center in Belfast called the Victoria Square Shopping Centre. It’s small and manageable, clean and modern, and full of great shops.

One such shop is our new kitchen obsession. Cath Kidston is a kitchen Utopia. We mean, don’t you just want everything?!

Another shop that we love near the Victoria Square is called Avoca. It’s an Irish chain, kind of like Anthropologie, that has great clothes, unique gift items, books, and jewelry, but it also has a cafe inside that serves our favorite scones known to man.… we're serious. Best scones ever!

We will never look at a scone the same after eating an Avoca scone. Their pear almond scone and their berry cinnamon scones are unreal. If you are ever in Ireland or Northern Ireland, you have to buy a scone at Avoca! You can buy them in the front of the store or order them in their cafe… we're getting one as soon as we're married and off this wedding diet! haha

We also don’t think that we will be able to eat a scone without fresh cream, butter, AND jam again. 🙂

If we had to choose, we'd have to say that “tea and scones” and Ormeau Park are our two favorite things about living in Belfast.

Ormeau Park holds a magical place in our heart. In the Fall, the trees are majestic. And in the Spring, there are literally thousands of tulips. The grandness of it all really makes you feel humble to be surrounded by such nature.

We would not be surprised to see a gnome or a fairy pop out from behind a tree or flower in this park. Which we love. 🙂

Here are a few photos that we took of Ormeau Park in the Fall:

And here are even more photos of Ormeau Park from the Spring:

We have literally taken 1000s photos of flowers lately. And now all the trees have their bright green leaves… it all just feels so alive!

And speaking of alive, we can’t forget to mention our favorite Belfast food spots! Food is one of our favorite parts of travel and life (obviously haha).

For a Sunday roast, or fish and chips, we love McCracken’s Cafe Bar, its a modern pub, situated down a small secret alley way.

We actually only found out about this place because our mother asked a police officer where his favorite place to eat was and he enthusiastically said we had to go to McCracken’s.

We have now been more times than we want to admit and have always loved the quality and freshness of the food here.

Another favorite restaurant of ours, as well as a big favorite in this city, is Mournes Seafood Bar. It has the freshest fish, and the creamiest orzo. It’s in a cool part of the city, next to a fun Irish pub called Kelly’s Cellars. This restaurant it is always always packed.

So you need to make sure to make a reservation in advance. It’s really worth it.

Finding a great breakfast place in Belfast was a bit harder for us, to be honest. We had found many great cafes or coffee shops with pastries and tea, but we couldn’t find a great Full Irish Breakfast or Ulster Fry, as they call it here, and we had honestly almost given up.

Until we tried Le Petite Ormeau. Leave it to a French place to have our favorite Irish breakfast haha. This restaurant is certainly a hidden gem. Everything is top-notch in taste and quality. We suggest going as soon as they open, as it fills up quickly, especially on the weekend.

They have great warm Belgian waffles as well… you know the kind with little bits of sugar inside…yum! We had the pleasure of ordering a waffle covered in a fried egg and crispy bacon. Drool. And our fiance ordered their Full Irish Breakfast:

We didn’t go out to bars all that often when we were here, but there were two spots that were our go-tos. Brewbot was our go-to beer spot. They have a fun beer tasting tray where you can taste 4 or 8 of their beers, which come from all over the world. We also highly suggest their meat and cheese plate. Delish!

Our other favorite bar is Duke of York.

We highly recommend walking around the cathedral quarter, and stopping by the Duke of York. If you GoogleMap the directions, it will take you to the back of the bar, which is not an entrance but don’t give up! Walk around the corner and you’ll see a beautiful street full of lights and wall art, and you’ll find the entrance there.

All of the furniture in Duke of York are antiques and a lot of it, if not all, is Guinness related. It is a beautiful collection which results in a beautiful bar where one should enjoy a Guinness. This is a must if you are in Ireland. You just have to. 🙂

If Guinness is not your thing though, Magners Apple Cider and Baileys does the trick. 🙂

They even have live music on the weekends, which is really fun!

We've either brought all our guests here or recommended that they visit when they come here. And it never disappoints!

When we're on the “making recommendations” roll, we feel like we need to suggest the Titanic Museum. It is a must-see.

We were told by multiple people how impressed they were with it, and finally recently went to see it myself… and we have to agree with them. It’s impressive!

At first we were like why is this ticket £17.5?! ($25). And then we started the tour… and understood why, we mean wow! This museum is incredibly well done. From the high-tech, beautifully presented facts and photos regarding the history of Belfast…which includes interactive quizzes, maps and videos. To the ride (yes there is a RIDE) and the video of the underwater exploration of the Titanic, which makes you feel like you have a front row seat to the underwater ruins, this museum is beyond impressive.

You also get to see what the rooms in the titanic looked like, get to touch samples of the carpets, and even get to read a sample menu of what people ate on the boat! Wow. We left feeling completely satisfied that our money and, more importantly, our time, was well spent.

One more touristy must-see that we did recently and am SO HAPPY that we did it… is going to Belfast Castle and doing the CaveHill hike that surrounds it.

We mean if you want to hike through a magical fairy-forest next to a magical castle on the water, which leads to mysterious caves and Irish hills full of yellow flowers and cows grazing, then this hike and excursion is a must-do for you!

The castle serves food and tea as well. Plus the mountain-top views are just breathtaking…we're going to do this again when our fiance and mother come to visit soon, we can’t wait!

The Cave Hill Hike, in the Cave Hill Country Park is a good workout while you are at it…

Our friend, who was much more positive than us about our abilities, was convinced that we could do the 4.5 mile hike in less than 2 hours. The visitor’s information said that this hike should take 2.5 hours.

But after the first uphill steep part of the trek we said NO WAY.

We started complaining and saying there was no way we would finish it in 2.5 hours (we were being dramatic).

But then we got out of the forest, reached one of the caves, and looked down at the ocean below and our heart just flooded with happiness.

We ended up doing the hike in 1 hour and 50 minutes! And we stopped two times!

The whole thing was great and we can’t recommend it enough.We were happy to have our butt kicked before the wedding, to breathe in the fresh air, and to have these views permanently marked in our brain. 🙂

Well, that was a long post!

We'll end this post by saying that this experience, and moving to Northern Ireland has been wonderful. Traveling and experiencing different places is one of our favorite things in life and has made us really become more confident in our adult self.

The tough part was that we were missing our fiancé… we have had a piece of our heart missing from our life for the past 8 months! Which, we are happy to say, will no longer continue once we are married. We aren’t 100% sure where we will be, but we know it will be together… which means another move is in order!

You never know what is behind the next door. 🙂