Tag: Northern Ireland
Last Couple of Days in Beautiful Northern Ireland!
The next morning started with a bit of rain and a bit of sun- I guess it is typical of Irish weather.. my daughter is longing to get back to the hot and humid weather back home.. I think I can wait for another few days.. As we got ready for the day, I was looking online to find a good breakfast place close to our hotel… well, I found a really funky, bohemian cafe called Harlem. We walked in there and the vibe immediately made me happy. I could smell the delicious espresso smell… we sat down onto unmatched chairs and ate the most delicious breakfast consisting of a cinnamon scone and a bacon sandwich! I can’t speak enough of the yummy butter I have been consuming!
We lingered there for a while and walked back to the hotel to catch our hop on hop off bus to get the Crumlin prison tour- my daughter was very keen on it. Luckily it poured like crazy as we were indoors… after a few hours we came outside and it was beginning to clear up. We caught the bus back to city center and made our way to city hall where they were setting up for a movie in the park! We bought an apple and cinnamon crepe and sat down for some lovely black and white, silent short films. As I was watching, I started to look at dinner options close by and came up with a restaurant called Home which was very highly rated, apparently they serve farm to table with sustainable ingredients. We had walked past many times but didn’t really pay attention… but there menu seemed very simple but really good! I got very excited as we walked over. As we approached, we saw a sign saying they were closed for a private party but will reopen at 7:30, that was in half an hour. We decided to walk around because that burger on their menu was really calling me plus I loved their ambiance… After walking around, we came in and asked for a table .. but were told they were fully booked! What?? How about tomorrow evening, I asked.. thinking we had a whole day tour of the countryside but would be back around 7 or so… I was told they were fully booked but that I should try to just walk in tomorrow. Hmm, I didn’t like the sound of that.. In the meantime, he recommended a few other places in the area for dinner. We ended up at a place called Allotment. The guy was really nice and welcomed us in.. by that time the restaurant was getting crowded so we sat down and decided to order. I asked for a glass of wine and found out they were BYO.. what?? I have never ever been to a place in Europe that is a BYO.. anyway, he suggested we order and he can give me directions to a liquor store around the corner. I ordered a rib eye steak for myself with chilie fries.. I know what you are thinking- she is really indulging! Well, yes I am .. and why not, I work hard enough when I am home..
Anyway, I bought a yummy cabernet to go with my steak and settled down to eat my steak which was delicious!
The wine was yummy as well.. but I felt we needed to have dessert to complete the meal, so I ordered the sticky toffee pudding and my daughter indulged in a mess, which is a mixture of whipped cream, meringues and fresh strawberries.. yum!
It was a great meal but I was still thinking of the other place we couldn’t get into…so I went back to our hotel and asked the concierge to try. Once I got back to our room, I went online to the restaurant’s website and tried to reserve online. The next morning I got a message from the restaurant saying they had a reservations for us at 8 PM.. yay, persistence paid off!
The next morning was super early with a quick cappuccino and scone. We got onto a coach bus and made our way to the Northern Ireland countryside including the Giant’s Causeway. The weather really cooperated and we had an amazing sunny day for our excursion and the countryside was absolutely gorgeous- a great reason to come to Ireland!!!
We got back around 7:45, just in time for our reservations. We quickly ran to our room to freshen up and walked over to the restaurant.. a good reason to find a hotel with a great location that is walking distance to a lot of good eateries. Trip Advisor is what I use to find fabulous restaurants! We got there exactly at 8 and were seated right away. All I wanted was the burger- so we ordered right away as we were starving. I washed it down with a yummy Rose and it was a lovely meal. The burger was enveloped with a delicious Irish cheddar, there were sautéed onions at the bottom and a corn and jalapeño relish on the side. The burger was juicy and delicious! 
After a perfect burger, I thought some dessert was in order.. so we ordered the buttermilk panna cotta, which was topped with strawberries and delicious as well! Overall a great day… we are off to Dublin tomorrow. It was been lovely visiting Belfast, great attractions, yummy food and super friendly people! What more could you ask for??? Will report back from Dublin!
All About Titanic In Belfast!
I didn’t realize how prevalent the Titanic was here in Belfast.. the reference is everywhere. It was a big ship and a big deal and my daughter is obsessed with it… one of the big reasons we are here. We woke up and went down for breakfast. I usually like to stay at a place where breakfast is included. This hotel was not including the meal so we paid for it and showed up at their restaurant downstairs. They were serving a full Irish breakfast which is what I wanted to have. That part was yummy- the sausage, bacon.. I didn’t indulge in the blood pudding- wasn’t in the mood.
I ordered a cappuccino which was super hot and very delicious. What I didn’t like was the lack of fresh fruit- there wasn’t any.. there was some form of fruit salad but it looked very sorry.. so I didn’t have any. A far cry from the lavish breakfast we had in Athens.. that was scrumptious. We decided we will venture out tomorrow and try some other place.
A while later we got on to a hop on hop off bus and made our way to the titanic quarter on the other side of River Lagan. We got off by the museum and walked over the titanic dock as well as the pump house. It was all very fascinating knowing what all happened in that area. Most fascinating was the museum. We got on a cable car tour that took us through the bottom of the shipyard where the ship came together and we saw under what horrible conditions the workers worked everyday. After a few hours we took a break and went to the titanic cafe and ate a delicious piece of cake and a glass of Rose. After hanging out for a while we made our way back to tour bus and sat and saw the rest of the city while resting our feet.
After a couple of hours we made our way back to the hotel. While in the bus I started to look for a dinner place for us to go. My criteria was close proximity to our hotel so we don’t have to venture out too far at night. We end up using Trip Advisor to find good restaurants according to our location. I came up with a place called Ginger Bistro. It turned out it was about two minutes from our hotel and it was rated number 5 on Trip Advisor… so we made reservations and made our way there. I started with a glass of prosecco and shared a plate of fried squid with homemade chili sauce and garlic mayonnaise- it was delicious!!!!
My daughter ordered fish and chips and I ordered escalope of chicken with merqueuz sausage cherry tomato and butter bean casserole with rocket and garlic butter. I usually don’t order chicken when I am out but the waiter highly recommended it and he was right! It was yummy- the chicken was perfectly cooked on top of a mixture of the butter beans and the rocket or arugula was a great addition. It all came together with the merguez sausage. I washed it all down with a delicious glass of Rose.
My daughter ordered the lava chocolate cake and I was debating what to get when I remembered reading about one of their desserts- it was champagne jelly, poached pears with rich vanilla custard and baby meringues- wow, it was delicious! The pears with the custard were unbelievable and the jelly made it unbelievable. The baby meringues brought a yummy sweetness and texture. Needless to say I was a happy camper and started thinking, how are we going to top this one tomorrow!!!
Belfast, Here We Are!
The trip to Belfast and Dublin began with a flight delay.. well that is nothing new if you frequently fly on United! Some maintenance issues lead to a two hour delay! Once we got on the plane, it was fine.. well, kind of. As we were waiting for the door to close, I was happy to have the seat next to me completely empty! Well, not so fast.. right before the door closed, a young guy walked in muttering away and not looking very happy. As he plopped next to me, I could smell the alcohol on him.. oh no, I thought.. this is going to be fun. Well, I learnt a lesson- don’t judge a book by it’s cover. The guy ended up very sweet and nice- he was from Belfast.
Since then the experience has been absolutely lovely. I really appreciate friendly, helpful people and the Irish truly are.We easily got to our hotel, unpacked and ventured out. We were quite hungry but by the time we started walking, it was 2 pm and our choices for lunch became quite slim. We walked around quite a bit before ending up in a cafe and ordering a scone, cappuccino and hot chocolate topped with yummy, fresh whipped cream for my daughter. The caffeine did us good and we continued walking around. As we sat by river Lagan, it started raining all of a sudden.. a few minutes before that we were enjoying a very sunny day. We ran for shelter and waited for it to do turn to a drizzle before we headed back to our hotel for a couple of hours before we ventured out for dinner.
Dinner happened to be right across our hotel. My daughter wanted fish and chips and the concierge suggested the pub across the street. I enjoyed a glass of Rose and a yummy burger on a traditional bap or a large soft roll. The food was yummy and beef patty was better than usual. We ended the evening with a sticky toffee pudding drizzled with butterscotch sauce with ice cream and whipped cream. The dessert was good but it was more of a sticky toffee cake not a pudding.
We headed right back to the hotel as we were quite tired and jet lagged. Off to bed to get ready for a full day tomorrow!
You are probably missing the food photos.. well, I had a technical difficulty.. I guess it was the lack of sleep!! Anyway, pictures starting tomorrow…