One of my good friends, whom I met through an acting course in Cutty Sark in London, is from Northern Ireland and as we became closer and closer, he invited us time and time again to his place in Belfast. Finally gathering funds and courage, we went across. Being 17 at the time meant that I was limited to what I could do whilst I was there, although I had a fantastic time anyway.

Flying into Belfast, we soon made our way to Bangor where we caught up with our friends and went for a pint by the seaside. Arriving late at night meant we couldn’t see much but appreciating the price of pints was one thing we did notice. We spent most of our time throughout our trip at our friend’s house and exploring the views of Bangor. On a day trip to Bangor we found out how picturesque and petite this beautiful seaside town is where we had homemade sandwiches, went on fairground rides and pints in a beer garden.

Unfortunately the only time we went to Belfast was for a night out, which was for my friend and his identical twins birthday. With its cobbled streets and dark alleyways, Belfast seemed a place I would have loved to explore in the day, as well as the night. We started in Yellow, which is in the gay area focused around Union Street. After being empty for a while we moved on to a club which was extremely popular and was renowned for its welcoming “Titty The Tranny”. Having no interest in us girls or the gay twin, she smothered kisses all over the straight twin much to his bemusement. What a welcoming!

After a hilarious night out we went to an entertainment centre called “The Odyssey” where I found out that was where the Odyssey giants played as well as many other activities and events took place. However, when we were there we found stumbling drunken friends leaving the nightclub Box and heading to the kebab shop (which was conveniently located in the same place). There we saw someone totter down a staircase they were so drunk and land in a pile at the bottom of the staircase much to our shock. He soon got up and brushed it off casually. It seemed he must have done it before, or was made of rubber (or drank a lot of vodka) to not feel that!

Although my time here was limited and I feel that I cannot thoroughly give you good travelling tips on the place, I did want to share with you my experiences and to urge you to not be afraid of Belfast, but rather go and venture and explore just like you would to Dublin. It is a city that has a lot more than meets the eye.