The next day we drove up the Antrim Coast to the Giant's Causeway because it's a "area of outstanding natural beauty" and boy, they weren't lying, not that I captured it very well in my photos.
There were also lots of gorgeous wee fishing villages that we drove through on the way. We had fish and chips in an Irish pub, which was similar to Irish pubs everywhere except that here they just call them pubs and it's not only the staff with accents.
When we got to the causeway it was crawling with tourists:
But still awesome.
That evening we planned to go into town for dinner but instead we made about 7 litres of Pimm's cup in our hotel room and eventually got takeaways from a place called "Thai-tanic".
The next morning we went to pretty much the world's lamest castle.
Apparently the original 12th century one was burnt down in the 1700s and so they built this one in the mid-19th century (that's practically brand new by UK standards) and remodelled the strange, empty series of rooms that function as a visitor centre in the 1970s.
Good scones, though.
Then we went on one of the open-topped buses that are a mainstay of tourist destinations everywhere. Here the guys handing out flyers were super-competitive at making you go on their one. I think we went for the right one in the end, they gave us a discount and the guy selling the tickets shared his fudge with us.
Their parliament is pretty fancy, apparently it got covered in manure during WW2 so the bombers wouldn't spot it at night.
We also went around the neighbourhoods where The Troubles happened and past all the barbed-wire covered fences, murals etc. It was pretty interesting but felt a bit strange that this is now a tourist attraction, given that it's only recent history and that these people still live here.
Didn't stop me taking photos, I hate to say.
Because we were visiting soon after the twelfth of July in the Unionist, Protestant pro-UK neighbourhoods there was miles and miles of Union Jack bunting everywhere, which looks quite fun and festive but you have to keep reminding yourself that it's actually a strong political statement. I didn't get a photo but this one gives you the idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shankill_july.JPG
I don't remember what this building is, but it has a tree growing out of a window. I love modern ruins but some dude has bought it and is going to turn it into a flash hotel.
Despite the religious violence thing, Belfast is a really awesome city with a great feel to the town centre and I'd love to go back. If you live there, you have pretty much no choice but to live in a house that looks like this, though:
