We made a few stops to take pictures, but for the most part drove on straight to Belfast. On arriving, we successfully navigated this dense and entirely confusing city to find parking and our hotel for the night: the Malone Lodge Hotel. (More on that in a moment)
Our room wasn't ready, so we left the car and walked into the city central. The weather was absolutely amazing today--warm and sunny. For the first time, I wished I'd worn those shorts I packed!
Walking through Belfast was educational. Not as grim a city as Portrush, but very business-like. Lots of history here too--for example, the Titanic was built here, among other ships.
Our hotel was right next to Queen's College, which gave our area of South Belfast a nice vibe. We briefly checked it out as we walked downtown, and found the front area of the campus to be gorgeous.
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| The drydock where the Titanic was built. |
We took a taxi a far as my loose change could take us, and then walked the rest of the way back. Our room was ready, so we started unpacking. Neither of us was super impressed with our hotel. The Wifi doesn't work (they advertised it), we had no soap in the rooms (we had to ask for some), and the rate doesn't include breakfast. I don't think we'd stay here again.
We went to dinner at Villa Italia, a chintzy Italian joint off of University Road. This is the kind of place with plastic grape vines tacked up all over the place. The saving grace was our waitress, a college student at Queens. She was kind and fun to chat with. For a review of Villa Italia, see here.
After dinner, we walked unsteadily back, hung out in the lobby for a while, then crashed. Tomorrow: Dublin!
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