The North’s largest city by some distance, with a inhabitants of some 270,000 in the interior city rising to 600,000 throughout its wider metropolitan space, Belfast has a pace and bustle you’ll find nowhere else in Northern Ireland. For a lot of, nonetheless, the city will always be remembered as the main target of the Troublesthat dominated Northern Eire’s politics for almost three decades from the late Sixties and scarred so many lives. Certainly, because the North continues to return to terms with the aftermath of the peace process, instigated by the 1998 Good Friday Settlement, the city remains in some ways on a knife’s edge, always expecting some new predicament to emerge.
In look Belfast closely resembles Liverpool, Glasgow or every other industrial port throughout the water, and, similarly, its largely defunct docklands– in which, famously, the Titanic was constructed – are undergoing large redevelopment. Although the city centre is still characterized by numerous elegant Victorian buildings, there’s been an enormous transformation here, too, not least within the higher prosperity of the shopping streets leading northwards from the hub of Belfast life, Donegall Square. Yet financial improvement is just not mirrored in each aspect of Belfast life. Some areas of the city display apparent financial decline, most notably North Belfast and the as soon as-thriving so-called Golden Mile (now little more than a silver two hundred yards at every end). On week-nights the city centre can resemble a ghost town, though there’s little question that Belfast continues to thrive culturally. Theatre and the visual arts are flourishing, and there are many places to catch the city’s booming traditional-music scene.
A few days are sufficient to get a really feel for the city, though it is an effective base from which to visit virtually anyplace else within the North. Within the city centre, concentrate on the glories resulting from the Industrial Revolution – grandiose architecture and magnificent Victorian pubs – and the rejuvenated area from Ann Street to Donegall Street now known because the Cathedral quarter. To the south lies Queen’s University and the extensive collections of the Ulster Museum, set within the grounds of the Botanic Gardens. A climb up Cave Hill, a few miles to the north, rewards you with marvellous views of the city spread out around the curve of its natural harbour, Belfast Lough. The River Lagan flows towards Belfast Lough alongside the jap side of the city centre and presents riverside walks, and can be the main target for probably the most radical development in the previous couple of years, the Laganside, targeted on the Waterfront Hall and the Odyssey Complex throughout the water. In East Belfast, across the river past the good cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, lies suburbia and really little of curiosity apart from Stormont, the former Northern Irish parliament and residential to the trendy Assembly. The city’s as soon as-formidable security presence and fortifications at the moment are virtually invisible, however the iron blockade known because the Peace Line still bisects the Catholic and Protestant communities of West Belfast, a grim physical reminder of the city’s and country’s sectarian divisions – and there are certain flashpoints such because the Quick Strand in East Belfast and North Belfast’s Ardoyne area that it is still inadvisable to visit.
Belfast has a broad range of accommodation, especially at the top finish of the market. Nonetheless, there’s still a relative dearth of price range places. A lot of the city’s accommodation is concentrated round Great Victoria Street and south of the centre within the university quarter, particularly on and round Botanic Avenue and in the network of streets running between the Malone and Lisburn roads. Many hotels and guesthouses are geared towards business travellers and so incessantly provide significant reductions for weekend breaks; most hotels provide free wi-fi.
Eating out in Belfast is very much a movable feast with new places popping up and others vanishing or relocating. There are plenty of options for meals throughout the day in the centre and at the southern end of the Golden Mile, ranging from new cafés (many of which within the city centre stay open until 8.30pm on Thurs nights) to traditional pubs (which typically only serve lunch however in some cases proceed providing meals until 9pm).
Many of the city’s well-established restaurants are round Donegall Square or in the university area. Bear in mind that they are often totally booked on Friday and Saturday evenings, so reserving a table’s essential unless you’re prepared to eat early. There is a truthful selection of cuisine, from trendy Irish and European, with French and Italian especially popular, to a smattering of Indian and East Asian restaurants. Standards are generally high and infrequently exceptionally good value for money. The selection is limited for vegetarians however many places include veggie options on their menus.
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