don juan's reckless daughter: tour diary: fast trip to Belfast

Now a post that is a little more about the photos than it is a travel guide since we were only in Belfast about 24hours. We left Dublin and hopped on a train headed to Northern Ireland - the tour was full of these early morning lobby calls which was neither my, nor "the Brit's" cup of tea but we managed to make all of our trains and planes!

After dropping our bags in our very colorful hotel room (we're talking primary colored decor ever-y-where!) we walked over to a place we had passed by earlier which looked promising called Harlem Cafe (34 Bedford St Belfast BT2 7). We ended up absolutely loving it.

^outside!

^inside! vOur table, filled with seashells.

They had amazing veggie-friendly breakfasts (as well as carnivore-friendly ones), good coffee, comfy atmosphere and great music. It's a wonder we were able to peel our still somewhat jet-lagged bums from those chairs when it came time to go.

We explored a bit in the downtown shopping district and walked past City Hall on our way back to the hotel. The city was absolutely bustling with people, though I didn't do the best job of documenting that.

I'm not sure what I expected of Belfast, honestly...but I found the people and the city itself very pleasant and welcoming. I suppose most of what we Americans know about Northern Ireland involves it's rather turbulent not too distant past but there were no signs of that whole mess to be seen - at least not where we were.

Then it was suddenly already time for sound check...

We played a sorta divey but awesome venue called Spring & Airbrake. So many great bands/artists have played there which made it all the more special!