Belfast

Belfast! 

I went on a trip to Belfast and it was pretty darn great. Here’s a list of my favorite things about this city in Northern Ireland. 🙂

1. City Hall

City Hall was absolutely beautiful. The architecture was incredible and added so much character to the town as a whole for me. 

While the following pictures don’t do it justice, I hope they give you a glimmer of the grandeur of the building. 

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Even though we were too early for a tour of the upstairs, there was plenty going on downstairs to keep us occupied. With 16 different rooms filled with the history of Belfast and city hall, we actually spent a good amount of time there. 

Other than freaking out slightly when I realized the Titanic was built in Belfast, my favorite room out of all 16 was a reflection room dedicated to the writings of people affected by the war that went on there just over 20 years ago. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from that room.

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2. Murals!

Belfast has a ton of awesome murals. The friends I went with and I all went out looking for murals specifically around Falls Road and Shankill Road. 

Here are a few of the ones we found. 

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While they were lovely, they were much more politically rooted than I was expecting. Closer to the city center though we found more abstract art, which is what I was hoping to see. The murals there flourished into the sorts of things the Arizona girl in me is accustomed to coming across in downtown Phoenix. 

If you’ve been to Portland as well, the artwork closer to the heart of Belfast reminded me of murals I’ve also seen in that beautiful city. 

Here are some of the murals we came across on our way to and from the city center.

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3. Tollymore Forest Park

I traveled to this place as a part of a Game of Thrones tour (which if you didn’t read about you totally should and can here.) *shameless plug* 

But when I tell you that it was lovely, it was so flipping lovely. 

This was hands-down my favorite thing about Belfast. The scenery there was absolutely incredible. There were so many different kinds of trees I could hardly wrap my brain around it. 

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I mean, c’mon. Just look at this place. 

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And a bonus, two Game of Thrones scenes were filmed here, which is always a welcome factoid and hopefully further proves to you how wonderful of a place it is. (That is if you needed any more evidence.)

The forest was overwhelmingly grand and the creeks were absolutely breathtaking. There were also several man-made structures and paths that made me feel like I was nearing the location of a friendly sorcerer’s castle. 

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They even had a small cafe cart set up in the parking lot. As you can tell –  I really liked this park. 

A few logistical things: 

My friends and I bought our tickets to Belfast through Aircoach. A round trip ticket from Dublin to Belfast was only 20 euros. (That’s $22.47 for all my U.S. friends.)

The bus was very comfortable and clean. It was on time and there were many time slots for us to choose between when it came to booking our tickets. I would definitely use Aircoach again. 

It took us about two hours and 20 minutes to travel from the city center in Dublin to Belfast. 

Here is a map as well to show you where the two cities are in relation to one another. 

Secondly, the five of us stayed at Two Two Six Belfast. You can learn more about booking with them here.

I wanted to mention it because our place was also one of my favorite things about Belfast. It was cute, clean, safe and the perfect space for all five of us to share. With two king beds and one twin in the same room facing each other, we were able to both easily and comfortably stay up late talking, which made the trip very fun. 

One thing I wish we would have had more time to do while there is check out the shipyard where the RMS Titanic was built.  (So if you ever do that, please tell me how it is.)

Lastly, while I am so grateful for my trip to Belfast, I’m not sure it’s a place I’d want to go back unless I were checking out the Titanic shipyard or taking a different Game of Thrones tour. The city, much to my disappointment, was significantly more dirty than Dublin and also didn’t feel nearly as safe. As long as you stay in a group, though, I’m sure it’s fine. With that being said, the city is definitely rich with history and contains what is quite possibly the most beautiful park I’ve ever been.