Welcome to Belfast

The train from Dublin to Belfast was gorgeous.  The weather finally turned “Irish”, meaning it was overcast and rainy so that added to the authenticity of the scenery.  We sat at a table facing a nice older Irish man who lives in Belfast and was fascinated with Canada so we chatted the whole way. It was interesting to have a conversation with someone who had a thick Irish accent; a few times I had to ask him to repeat himself.

When we got of the train, we realized we didn’t have the address for the hostel we had booked and there was no wifi in the train station or information desk so we just rode a bus downtown and started walking.  Jan went to ask someone for directions but since Jan is German and even though his English is very good, this guy had a thick Irish accent, which was difficult to understand.  I had to kind of translate English – English, it was strange.  I think this will only get worse in Scotland where the English is very different.

He gave us perfect directions to a hostel, unfortunately it was the wrong hostel and about a 30 min walk in the opposite direction of where were meant to be walking.  Did I mention it was raining, very windy and even hailing?!  We also had no Irish pounds to take the bus.  After this long walk we finally made it to the proper hostel where we were told that our reservations were lost and there are no rooms in Belfast because this week is a very touristy week due to the opening of the Titanic museum and other Titanic festivities.  So the guy at the front desk offered for us to sleep in his room and offered to put up 2 mattresses instead of the shared bed and not charge us, we agreed and went out to the nearby pub.  It was classically Irish, live music, people of all ages all having a good time.  AND the food was cheap so after a long day I treated myself to come yummy pub grub.

We just got back to the hostel and the front desk guy managed to get us into real bed and traded our room to some couples who didn’t mind sleeping together.  Tomorrow we are up bright and early for a day tour to the more northern part of Northern Ireland!