Monday, July 08, 2019

Best of the Rest of Belfast part 1

I had about 36 hours in Belfast around Barry Town's Europa League game with Cliftonville FC. Here's what I got up to on day 1.

First Belfast selfie: Outside City Hall when the taxi dropped us off.


After an Ulster Breakfast (veggie version), I went to the Botanic Gardens.


The Palm House is pretty old, and has an impressive array of plants inside. (You can see the early sunshine had disappeared at this point.)


The rose garden was spectacular visually and olifactorally.


And the Tropical Ravine House has a waterfall inside.


Next to the Botanic Gardens is the Ulster Museum. I felt at home as soon as I walked in.


The dragons were part of a special Game of Thrones exhibition. It was mostly filmed in Northern Ireland and everyone is cashing in on fantasy nerd tourists.


I found the section on the Troubles very interesting. It brought back memories of the 6 o'clock news coming on after Neighbours during the 1980s. If the first story was Belfast or Northern Ireland, it was undoubtedly another atrocity.

My favourite exhibit that I saw was labelled as possibly the most dangerous toy ever sold, which was shipped to customers with radioactive isotopes inside. (Including Polonium, which Russia uses to kill ex-citizens it doesn't like!)


The instructions were humorous too.


After the museum, we walked past Queen Anne's University.


I went and met my friends Bryan and Elaine for lunch. Then on the way to my hotel I saw the Titanic Memorial on the other side of City Hall.


It was a nice hotel. There was a mint on my pillow.


I was knackered, having been up since 3.45am. So I rested for a couple of hours, charged up my phone and when I left it was time to go to the game!

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