I Love Belfast!

I love Belfast so much, I went there again! This time I brought my flatmate Rose with, and we went there specifically to see the Titanic Exhibit. It was AMAZING. But let me start in chronological order.

We took an early train into Belfast, which took just over two hours. We dropped our backpacks off at the same hostel I stayed at last time, Lagan Backpackers, and then went to eat at Sakura, a Japanese sushi restaurant.

Ryan and I came here a couple of weeks ago because the sushi bar was pretty cheap. The lunch specials worked like this: orange, blue and red plates are £1.90 and green plates are £2, which means they are about $3 and $3.20. Not bad!

While we were eating, we heard a Taylor Swift song come on the radio. We were listening to an American country artist play at a Japanese sushi restaurant in Northern Ireland. Life was great.

Before and after!

We then walked north to town and found ourselves in City Hall. There are free tours of City Hall at 11, 2 and 3, and it was quarter to 2 when we arrived! Perfection.

Here I am sitting at the Journalist's Table at the Council Chambers room, pretending to take notes. Rose was not amused by my antics.

This dresser was scheduled to be on the Titanic but missed the sail date by three days! It is now used to place your drinks on and is valued at 100,000 pounds.

The tour was just under an hour and I thought it was exceptional. And that it was free was a great bonus, too.
We then walked around the city center, stopping at most of the graffiti-ridden spots.

I have never seen so much graffiti in one city! I actually really like it, because most of it is tasteful graffiti.

We wandered north, past the Albert Memorial Clock, which resembled the Big Ben clocktower in London.

We saw some large, orange trucks by the harbor... we walked towards them, only to find out that there were people dressed in orange jumpsuits, giving out free Fanta soda!
#Winning

Rose and I passed this large fish, which the owner of our hostel, Lagan Backpackers, told us was the really, really ugly fish and a disgrace to Belfast.
(I thought it was kind of cute)

By this time we were on Donegall Quay, which is right by the River Lagan.

Our plan was to visit the Titanic Museum and see if we could pick up our tickets for the next morning. We were smart cookies and booked our museum tickets online. The tours were all full, except for at 9 am on Saturday. #winning, again!

We passed the two yellow cranes, which are named Samson and Goliath, after figures in the Bible. They are settled in the shipyard of Harland & Wolff, the same contractors who built the Titanic, as well as the Olympic and Britannic.
Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff. After Harland died, John Andrews became the general manager in 1907.

I didn't take the below picture, but it shows the crane brothers Samson and Goliath.

The guards (yes, there were guards outside the Titanic museum) shooed us away before we could even ask for our tickets. Apparently, there was a huge event going on that night. We walked around to the backside of the museum and saw a huge stage set up!

Rose had heard about MTV coming to the Titanic Museum on Friday night, advertising their event as MTV Presents Titanic Sounds. No, no, Celine Dion wasn't going to be there singing My Heart Will Go On. It was better.
Sean Paul, Rizzle Kicks, Katy B and the handsome Olly Murs were going to be performing! And tickets were only 9 euro!
We tried our best to find tickets online, but we found out about this event on Thursday, and they were all sold out. So, we wandered around the grounds, moping and bitching about how close we are to the concert but don't have tickets, and looking at all the people who were standing in line.

I'll finish the night up in my next blog post. Trust me, you'll want to read it.