Day three is where our planned activities began. First, we had a train ride to Belfast. Technically, this meant we left the country as Northern Ireland is a different country than Ireland. This was news to me as I always thought Ireland was just Ireland and that Northern Ireland referred to the northern part of Ireland. As for the train ride, I did not have high hopes. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it! I think our entire group did. Since there were six of us, we had to split the group into two—a group of four and a group of two, which wasn’t ideal. I wanted to try to have the most European experience possible, so I ordered tea on the train. I will be sticking to coffee in the future as the tea was a little… okay, maybe way too strong for my liking. The highlight of the train ride, though, was the views. We were lucky enough to be on the side of the train overlooking the sea. Our time on the train was filled with oohs and awws which made the tips go by quickly.
In Belfast, one of our first activities was to visit the Titanic museum. It was a neat experience that we all came away from knowing more than we did when we arrived. That said, it’s a large museum and takes a lot of time if you’re going to really stop for everything. It’s also a lot of reading, so if you’re going to make this stop, know that ahead of time. Since there were other people also in the museum, I found myself getting overwhelmed trying to read when a group was forming around the same thing as me also trying to read it. Personally, the last section of the museum was my favorite, which was a mix of information about how movies portray the tragedy compared to what really happened.
Outside the museum, we lucked out and found a random artist walking by who outdid himself on our daily group picture. We thought he did a great job of fitting the museum sign in the background, but also taking the picture from an interesting angle.
We did our best to walk as much as we could while we were on this trip. Day three was no exception, but it was different from other days in that it seemed like it rained the entire time we were in Belfast. There were points where the rain would let up, but we spent a lot of time walking in the rain. If you’re heading to Ireland, a rain jacket is a must-have. I was glad that I invested in a good rain jacket that did what it was supposed to (repel the rain) while also being comfortable. Having said this about the rain, I would strongly suggest not bringing an umbrella. Belfast (and Ireland more generally) is a windy place. If we would have used umbrellas, we would have blown right back to the U.S.
For supper, we ate at The Cubby Cherub, a restaurant that we have a hard time describing, but modestly classy, quaint, and bougie are all words that come to mind from our group. We had some great food and great dessert. Being out of the rain for a bit was also a nice touch! If you ever make a stop here, their carbonara was incredible, and I dream of having their lemon cake again.
On our walk back to the apartment, we were able to see the Belfast City Hall, which looked amazing when it was lit up on this rainy evening.
