Northern Ireland was our port on the morning of Saturday, August 8. The port itself is not particularly attractive. Its main function is as a shipping port, so it is not picturesque and quaint like many of the other ports we’ve visited.
After leaving the ship, we had to board a double-decker bus that took us into downtown Belfast and dropped us near the city center, next to a Starbucks, of all things. It was quite a wild trip riding in the upper level of the bus. The drivers are incredibly adept at driving fast and navigating the narrow streets and roundabouts, while avoiding bikes, cars, and pedestrians.
We just happened to be in Belfast on Saturday of the final weekend of Irish Fest. That made for quite an interesting visit. We got to hear Irish music and to wander around the downtown area. It was, however, very crowded. Apparently, it was the first time in many years that Belfast had hosted that particular festival, so it was very well attended.
We found plenty of opportunities for shopping, of course. Besides the tourist shops, restaurants, hotels, and pubs, we happened upon a department store that reminded me of the old Dayton’s and Marshall Field’s stores from back in the day. While we didn’t really buy anything there, we took advantage of the free bathrooms and were quite thankful for that small blessing. Neither of us is crazy about porta-potties!
We only stayed downtown for a couple of hours. My goal was to find a band that would play a specific kind of Irish musical instrument called the uilleann pipes. They are unique to Ireland and similar to Scottish bagpipes, but smaller. Rather than blowing into them, air is transported through the pipes by a bag under the elbow. At any rate, the only place we could hear them was at a contest at the university. But it was scheduled at a time that was too late to allow us to catch the last bus back to the ship.
We still enjoyed listening to a couple of drum and bagpipes shows, though. It’s interesting to note that the last band we listened to was a guest band from New York City!
I’m thrilled that we got to step on Irish soil and we enjoyed Belfast. However, it would have been nice to get out into the country to enjoy the scenery and history and the charm that I would imagine that Ireland has. The ship offers some excursions, but they always require that you spend most of the day on a bus just to travel to and from the attraction. Ireland would be a wonderful place to visit for a week or more to really get a feel for it.
Tomorrow we are at sea all day, heading back toward Iceland. We’ve really been enjoying the music venues onboard. We especially look forward to the band that plays in the Rolling Stone Lounge in the evenings. They play sets in a mixture of genres. It might be an 80s set followed by a blues set, followed by a punk set, and then a flower child set the next night. They are incredibly good at everything they play, and they draw a crowd every night. I can’t say that I’ve seen a lot of big drinkers on the ship—but there are a lot of folks who love to dance at the Rolling Stone Lounge!
Our next stop is another village in Iceland—on the eastern shore this time.