Simone Reddington

Over Valentine’s weekend, I flew to Belfast with three of my friends for twenty-four hours of gossip, giggling and exploring.   I have already visited Belfast twice before, but when the plan was suggested in the group chat, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go again with my girlfriends and celebrate Galentine’s.   

We flew from Newcastle at 8:20 and arrived at Belfast International Airport just an hour later.  We caught the direct bus to the city centre from the airport, and it was still mid-morning when we got off the bus in town.  Belfast is one of my favourite cities in the UK as I love how friendly the people are, and how easy it is to navigate your way around.  Our hotel was just around the corner from the city hall and kindly let us check in early.  

The first thing we did was find somewhere to eat.  I was absolutely starving at this point, as I’d been awake since 5am, and we’d started drinking pints in the airport not long after waking up.  We found a cute traditional Irish pub called the Garrick Bar, just around the corner from Belfast City Hall.  I really fancied devouring a traditional Irish breakfast but unfortunately, they didn’t have a breakfast menu. Instead, I settled for a tasty mushroom ciabatta with a side of Irish champ, which is a mashed potato mixed with spring onions.  I did intend to order a coffee at this point, but I didn’t notice the coffee machine until after I’d ordered a pint of delicious Irish cider.  

We then headed to the city’s Titanic Quarter, as we’d booked a visit to the Titanic Belfast museum.  The RMS Titanic ocean-liner, which infamously sank on its maiden voyage, was built in Belfast by ship-building company Harland & Wolff, who still have a shipyard in the city.  Opened in 2012 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the maritime tragedy, Titanic Belfast is an imposing building with eight floors that is home to the Titanic Experience.  The self-guided tour tells the story of the ill-fated ship from her origins in Belfast to her collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, as well as how the disaster is still remembered a century later.  I had already visited the museum before, on a trip organised by my university course in 2023, but I was happy to revisit with my friends who hadn’t been before.  I still found it just as interesting the second time around, and I enjoyed learning more about the tragic events on the ship.   There was also a new exhibition, which told the largely forgotten stories of eight Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic, who hoped to start a new life in America.  Six of these men survived the sinking but were unfortunately banned from entering the United States by the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and were treated awfully by the Western media of the time (a tale that unfortunately sounds just as familiar, one hundred years later).  I believe that this interesting exhibition was introduced as part of the museum’s Lunar New Year celebrations, as our visit was just three days before the Chinese holiday. 

We then made our way back to our hotel to freshen up.  We stopped for a coffee at a cute smoothie bar called Juice Jar, whom I later found out to have various shops across Belfast.  I was desperately in need of caffeine at this point, but my friends all ordered smoothies which looked so good.  Juice Jar also sold delicious-looking sandwiches and acai bowls and, looking back, I really should have ordered something to eat as we didn’t have time for a meal later.   

We had prebooked a bar crawl for the evening, which I was very excited about.  Although I have visited Belfast before, I hadn’t been on a night-out in the city with friends.  Before meeting our guide at the Albert Memorial Clock, we went for a drink at a gorgeous bar on the same street with a live singer that we danced to.  The bar crawl took us to various historic pubs in Belfast, culminating at the Duke of York bar with the famous neon lighting in the street.  I’m pleased that we booked the bar crawl, as it gave us directions for the evening and we met some lovely people from all over the world on our tour. However, it did take us to some of the more expensive bars in the city, and I ended up drinking so many Baby Guiness shots that my memory of the night wasn’t the clearest.  I do know, however, that I had fun and we all made it to the airport at 7am for our flight home in one piece. 

Belfast, I love you and I’m sure I will end up visiting you again at some point in my life.