The first week is gone, and now is almost time to start… wait, I forgot something: why I am here, in the first place!

Well, let’s start again.

Hi everybody! Here it is you beloved Luca that is writing from Belfast, the main city of Ulster.
Since I am between two jobs (I love this, because it seems that I had a salary before and I will one after. The fact is that I did not see the former one and the latter, who knows…), I accepted the kind proposal of a professor to spend a period at the University of Ulster. So, here we are!

Daisy on the sea

First of all, I want to assure you: Ireland is really green. I didn’t spend too much time around, the weather and the work kept me away from that. But, every single piece of land is covered by this greenish-so-irish grass. Even the flower are green! Ok, they are not, but the landscape is amazing anyway.

I will not bother you with my work, I just started to figure out what I can do in such short time and maybe I will later.
But, instead, I can describe you some places around here.

No, I am not living in the clock tower!

Currently, I am living in a small room, inside the Dalriada Student Village (check the map: the construction are so brand new that they are not in the map either!).

View A Week in Belfast in a larger map
The location is great, just 200m away from the sea, the Belfast Lough. It so close, that it is very nice to walk after lunch!

Unfortunately the weather is so-so. Cloudy, mostly, and a bit too cold for my taste. But, we are in the North, and I wear a very warm sweat (thank you mom!). And, if you are lucky enough you can have some cool surprise, like this:

Where does the rainbow end?

Yesterday, was my first attempt to smell the air downtown.
Took the train, just 15 min before arriving in the centre (or close-by). First thing todo: irish breakfast!

No, I am not hungry!

I am not so brave to take the Ulster Fry: “I’ll have a french toast and two pancakes, with maple syrup, please”. I did not realize my mistake until I saw the dish. My stomach is not used to this kind of breakfast, and I just decided to skip the lunch…
Definitively, I was not hungry anymore.

The only solution to digest was have walk.
The path to the City Hall was blessed by International Hope, lost people and market-church.

Hope is International

Beware the lost people!

Can you spot the market sign (this is not a church)?

Finally, I came to the City Hall! Usually it is free to visit, but not on Saturday…

The City Hall of Belfast

St. Anne Cathedral

The inside of St. Anne Cathedral

The french toast was still floating around, while I was walking in the Cathedral’s quarter. The St. Anne Cathedral is nice, even if it is quite new: it was finished in the 80′s. The column you can see in the image is the “Spire of Hope“, a questionable sculpture.
But the inside is very beautiful, and the silence is outstanding: I was hearing the noise of my camera…

Family time at "Belfast Taste and Music"

Today, Sunday, nothing is better than a sunny day at the Botanic Garden. I thought. Bad for me, today was the last day of “Belfast Taste and Music“. Looking at the website it sounds great: admission fee £5, lunch-token 50p (buy 10 for £5). What a great opportunity to catch two birds with one stone! The idea of the lunch-token is that you can taste dishes from many cooks in Belfast. What that is not said in the website is that most of the meal cost around 6-8 token.
This is the classical situation wherein it helps a lot have been studied CSP…
And the portions are awfully small! The music is ok, but this place is mostly for family, with kids.

Roses at the Belfast Botanic Garden

Ok, fair enough, the fair and festival are always a bit “unfair”. Fortunately, the rose garden is awesome, and the flowers are so beautiful…

Other roses at the Belfast Botanic Garden

So far so good. Belfast revealed very nice places. It is not really outstanding, but I barely scratched the surface and there is time to impress me

Thank you and see you next week, destination Giant’s Causeway!