Now that I’ve written about the tragic side of Belfast (the Titanic and the Troubles) in my last post, I’ll share some more of the “lighter” stuff we did.

After our Troubles tour in the morning, we were all hungry and so decided to check out St George’s Market, which is an awesome indoor farmers market, with produce, fish, crafts, food stalls, and performers (though the main guy while we were there was a not-so-great “singer” doing a lot of Barry Manilow type covers). Oh well! 🙂 The market was still really fun and bustling! Im fact, it all best indoor market award in 2014 for all of the UK! There was no lack of choices of food, from falafel to Indian, Mexican to Greek, sausages, baked goods, and pretty much every cuisine you can think of. So we all were able to find something yummy, and once we found a table among the crowds, we sat and enjoyed our meal.

We walked back to our hotel up a Main Street, passing the impressive City Hall building on our way.

The hotel we were staying at was the Europa Hotel, which was the most bombed hotel in the world (during the Troubles) but never closed its doors during the conflict. We learned from our guide that most of the media stayed here during the Troubles, so bombing it was a way to try to capture the attention of the world via the media. Bill Clinton also stayed here while working on peace negotiations during the conflict. Clinton seems to be really admired in Belfast and really credited for helping end the violence. Our guide talked about how people were really impressed that Clinton came out into the neighborhoods that had seen the most violence and got out in the streets talking to people — they felt he really cared and connected with the people. When we first pulled up to the hotel, it looked a built old and kind of like Communist bloc housing from the outside, but inside it’s quite nice.

Across from the hotel was a famous Belfast pub called the Crown Bar. It’s beautiful and ornately decorated with brass fixtures and gaslight lamps and has these cool little booths (almost like little rooms with doors) called snugs. It also felt the impact of the Troubles and wasn’t directly bombed, but sustained damage from bombs of the Europa across the street. In spite of this, it remained open and continues to be a favorite spot of both locals and tourists. Jeff and I managed to sneak off to grab a quick drink there before dinner, and it’s a great little cozy place to grab a pint.

One of the absolute highlights of the weekend was getting to see Van Morrison in concert with my dad!! My parents had booked their trip to Dublin and we had been talking about doing a trip up to Belfast when not more than a few days later my dad heard Van was going to be playing a show there the weekend we had been thinking of visiting! It was definitely meant to be! Van is one of my dad’s and my all time favorite musicians, and to get to see him in his hometown of Belfast was one of the coolest things imaginable!

We knew it was going to be a small, intimate venue, and in fact he was actually playing in the Hotel Europa (part of the reason we decided to stay there). We ended up being in the second row and had an incredible view of Van and his band. He played a full 90 minute set and was full of energy the whole time. Unlike some of the older musicians we’ve seen in concert, he has definitely not lost his voice over the years — he can still sing with the best of them. He played a mix of blues, gospel, rock — including some of his classics like Brown Eyed Girl, Moondance, Gloria, Days Like This — and even took a few requests from the audience. Between saxophone, harmonica, and guitar, he played so many different instruments throughout the show. It was really one of the coolest experiences, and so fun to share with my dad!

After the amazing concert, we got up the next morning for our final outing in Belfast before hitting the road back to Dublin. It was a visit to the children’s/science museum called W5 (stands for the 5 w’s: who, what, where, when, why). It’s situated in the Titanic Quarter (close to the Titanic museum) and is part of the new revitalization projects in the city. So it’s an excellent brand new children’s museum with several floors of discovery and fun for kids of all ages! We stayed in the youngest kids’ area which the boys both loved! There were so many different hands on things to do — cars, construction, pretend grocery store and cafe, and more!

So all in all, it was a packed and wonderful weekend exploring and experiencing the many sides of Belfast! So glad we could have this adventure with my parents!

One more picture from the weekend! The boys and grandpa in their Irish hats. Too cute not to share!