March 16, 2007: First Day in Belfast

Dr. Goth:
So yes, here we are in Belfast, Ireland. We were the first two people off the plane due to our seat location. Man, I’ve NEVER done that before! Fabulous. We walked down the stairs into the Irish air, a wee bit cold by the way. We found our way through customs, got our passports stamped for entrance to the country, walked down to the baggage area, and waited for a bit for our bags to arrive. There was a nice lady standing near us having a conversation w/Ms. Kitty about how annoying the Brits are by saying that everything is “brilliant!” It was a rather humorous conversation. Finally, our bags roll out, and we head off to find a taxi. Ms. Kitty had looked online to find out the different means of travel to our hotel, but by the time we got there we decided that we were too tired to take a bus, so we took a taxi. Our driver was quite nice, he welcomed us to Ireland, tossed our bags in his car and drove away quickly with us snuggly in the back seat. Our ride to the hotel was about 30 minutes. The Belfast International airport is a wee bit out of town, so we got to see a little of the countryside on our journey. The area was beautiful, small homes, large companies, amazing fields of view. Then, as we were coming down the hill to Belfast, we could see the water, and the sun was just then rising above the city. This was getting WAY cool! I tried to take a photo, but the car was moving so fast that nothing transpired, sorry guys. Besides, no photo could have done justice to the sight before our eyes. We got off the highway, and found our way to the hotel. On the way we passed the two giant ship building cranes, Samson and Goliath, which built the Titanic. We would later find out that the city of Belfast is planning on building a full-scale model of the Titanic for tourism. Cool, can’t wait to go back and see that!

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Belfast. Mind you, the Holiday Inns in Europe are NOTHING like those in the US, these actually are clean and nice. We had a rather uneventful check in and headed to our room. It was quite nice, with wooden blackout blinds covering the windows, a nice shower, large closet area and expensive sodas in the mini fridge (no, we didn’t buy the $4 sodas). We called down to get some linens for the pull out bed, which took a wee bit longer than we liked, but eventually it got done. Then, of course we decided the best thing we should do at 8 am in Belfast is to take a freaken nap! We were both just so exhausted. So the blinds got closed, the blankets turned down and we headed off to dreamland for a bit. Ahhh, rest.

Of course, in a few short hours we had to be back up. Ms. Kitty had to go off to do some lawyering stuff since this really was partly a business trip for her, and I had the immense responsibility to find the Welcome Center, a good coffee shop and a place for lunch tomorrow. So after I pulled myself together, and Ms. Kitty had gone, I grabbed my backpack, my leather jacket and my Lonely Planet guidebook and headed into the streets of Belfast solo. I found the Welcome Center rather easily and it was one of THE best one’s I’ve ever been in. It had tons of maps, walking tour maps, post cards (for those of you who got one, it was from here) other souvenirs AND an internet room! Of course the best part, it was only 1Pound for 15 minutes, which quite frankly is a good deal. I promptly paid my Pound, found a terminal and began checking my email like the computer junkie I am!!! I emailed Dr. Bellydancer, Goddess of Michigan, Mr. Fabulous, Ms. SuperCoolRoommate to let them all know I had arrived safely and all was well. And then I deleted all the junk mail piled up (72 messages since I had left!). After that was all done, I found some nice postcards for folks and then I wandered back out into the streets to look about. I found a marvelous little coffee and muffin shop, where the coffee was REALLY good (in your face Starbuck’s!) and the muffins were quite tasty. As I sat eating my delicious snack and drinking my spectacular coffee, I wrote out my post cards. I’m sure I missed a few folks, I really am sorry! I try my best to remember everyone, take their addresses with me and all that, but sometimes I don’t remember them all. Heck, I even forgot to bring Dr. Bellydancer’s new address! So, after that bit of relaxation, I walked a bit more around the streets, past City Hall, near the Europa Hotel (most bombed hotel in Europe that is still standing), I realized that I was shivering and freezing cold. Ireland in winter really isn’t the best vacation spot. I was also getting rather damp, as the rain is a continuous mist with a bit of drops from time to time. So I headed back to the hotel to dry off and warm up. The streets were rather calm, no clashes or anything. I guess folks decided that making money off tourists was better than fighting. Nice. Back at the hotel, I passed the next hour warming up by drinking the complementary Cadbury drinking chocolate (Yum!) and waiting for Ms. Kitty to get back. I managed to collect info for a possible day trip on Sunday, walking tours of the Titanic, St. Patrick’s Day parade and other stuff. I was told the St. Patrick’s Day parade would not be as grand as the one in NYC (I saw that one about 2 years ago, really cool!), but it will be pretty nice. Funny that the US St. Patrick’s Day parade is thought to be better than the Irish one, at least here in Belfast. I’ll let you know, I have two camera’s with me so I’m sure I’ll get some decent pictures. Yay!

Ms. Kitty finally arrives, and we prepare to go to dinner with a ton of lawyers. A rather frightening thought actually, but I will survive, I’m sure. We get directions to the restaurant, a Spanish tapas place (why not Irish…. I’ll tell you that later!), and head out in, yes, the rain. We do eventually find the place after taking a wrong turn on the right street, and people are all around. I met some nice folks from Wales, France, Ireland, England and the US. Most folks stared at me with the deer in the headlights look when I told them what I do for a living. Not like I’m not used to that by now. Needless to say a few actually wanted to know more, or talk about US politics or advice as to where to visit in the US. My advice, skip the center of the country, the coasts are way better (I’m a marine scientist so I’m biased!). The dinner was quite good and they managed to have lots of veggie options with the mass amounts of red wine that I consumed. I wasn’t “hug happy” but I was pretty happy. Once dinner was over, we headed over to a bar, and by headed I mean we literally walked like 500 feet to the bar across the sidewalk. It was pretty cool, here I bought my first Guinness in Ireland! Yay! Ms. Kitty and I rather enjoyed the drinks. Before we left, I did have a chance to use the ladies room, where I had the odd encounter with one of the French male lawyers coming OUT of the ladies room. I pointed to the ladies sign, he didn’t seem to care. I heard the women inside laughing at him, apparently he was primping in front of the mirror for a while, while the women were staring at him. Yes, he was from France.

And of course, the night is not over. After a few drinks we walk a bit down the street to the dance club, called Ollie’s. I have another drink. Now its 11:00 pm Ireland time, here I’m in a dark, gothic-looking club with red velvet walls and black velvet chairs, low lights with candles on the tables and a separate dance floor area. This SHOULD be a good club by all rights, yet the bastards are playing the wrong music, really crappy music. What a shame. Of course I’m not even dressed right, I’m in jeans and a black sweater with a black leather jacket and black leather lace up shoes. No heels, no little skirt to flip about in. Damn. I would have loved to scare these folks with some cool attire. But of course, what fun would that be without the crew of Ms. SuperCoolRoommate, Mr. Fabulous, and Ms & Mr. Puddles? (Oh goddess, too drunk to come up with better names!) By the way, no one is even f*cking dancing! I don’t blame them, I mean really, who wants to dance to Beyonce and Justin Timberlake? Kinda scary that they are all crazy for this music here. Hello? You want good music, spin some Depeche Mode, Cruxshadows or The Cure! And the few who are dancing look like “crappy white men dancers” out there. Sad really, you’d think the Europeans could dance, sigh. But what do I do? Sit and drink another Guinness, what else!

Now we’re back at the hotel room. I had to take yet another shower to get rid of the horrible smell of cigarettes all in my hair and clothes! All over me! ICK! I forgot how smoking in Europe is so common. Yet I was told tonight by a young Welshman that as of June, bans on smoking go into effect all over Europe! Yay, I’ll come back then. So, then, we left the club around 1:15 am, yes folks, I said 1:15 am, I actually stayed awake that long. On our way walking back I started shaking cold, very horribly. It sometimes happens, I get too cold too quickly. So after trying to track down a taxi, which isn’t nearly that easy here, we found one for hire that would take us back to the hotel. I was so cold by this point that my teeth were chattering, but luckily Ms. Kitty was taking good care of me and got me back to the hotel to warm up. The taxi driver said he liked to talk to the “Yanks,” as he called us. I hadn’t heard that term since my Grampa told me about his travels in Europe. He asked if any of us had any Irish blood, I was the only one, he asked where. Doh! Too drunk to think, I just say “Galway” since I can’t remember if it’s Galway, or Cork right now. I told him I was third generation US American and that for some reason my family left this beautiful island. He replied, “I wish my family had left.” I wasn’t expecting that kind of comment. He had said it without joking. I would have like to talk to him more, but alas our ride was over and we were at the hotel. Funny, in fact all night I had been mistaken for an Irish-born girl. The accent comes too easy for me. I feel as though I’m insulting them, but I don’t realize I’ve said it with the lilt until it’s already out of my mouth. For all those in Belfast who thought I was mocking them, I’m sorry. I apologize, I really wasn’t. Okay, now to bed, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and it should be quite a memory, yes, quite!