We arrived nice and early in Belfast and as usual I started the day looking at the port from the vantage point of an elliptical machine in the gym. It's not the most picturesque port, as the windows were looking straight out at a massive pile of coal.
As an English person I wasn't sure what to expect in Belfast - the Northern Irish don't love us, and I'm not saying I blame them since I'm anti-colonialism myself and would take a 'zero-interference' approach to all countries. That being said, I was a bit worried about not being too welcome here. However the guides on our tour were friendly anyway. I was a little surprised that our city tour included driving through the Loyalist & nationalist areas of west Belfast - and a bit saddened by the visible evidence of how entrenched both sides still are. In the city centre there were some beautiful Victorian buildings, mainly civic buildings such as the slightly over the top City Hall that wouldn't have looked out of place in Manhattan.
We also went to the Titanic Experience in the ship yards area - a massive interactive exhibition / museum dedicated to the design & building of the Titanic and, of course, the sinking and the investigation into what went wrong. It was well done, expansive, and very interesting - but like Dublin's Guinness Storehouse it was rather too busy to really do it credit, and there were far too many bored children for comfort.
All in all I wasn�t that keen on Belfast and wouldn�t go back � but it was certainly an experience!
Food today:
Breakfast: buffet stuff
Lunch: buffet
Dinner: Vitello tonnatu
Followed by seafood pasta
And then shrimp with 'a pot pourri' of vegetables.
And finally a white chocolate semi-freddo mousse
AARRGH crappy camera phone � flash on or off, they�re all rubbish!!!
I did eat bread as well as pasta since it seemed a waste not to when in an Italian restaurant.
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