A friend suggested travelling to Belfast to watch the Irish Indoor Championships last week.
Four of us agreed to head up North early Saturday, do a quick 10 miler around the city and maybe hit the C'ship Sat afternoon but spend Sunday in the arena altogether.
Being a soft, insular Dub I was a bit trepidatious heading up there. I'd never been there before (except for driving through sometime shortly after the 1995 ceasefire on our way to a weekend in Portrush). But the lads assured me that we'd be okay (they found it funny that the previous year they brought up a different friend who also had the same concerns, they've definitely decided its a Dub rather than 26 county thing!!
We headed up early and got our bearings. Belfast isnt a beautiful city but it definitely has 'something', I reminded my friend he had told me B'fast was beautiful, he laughingly denied this, insisting he had described it as 'lovely'. We saw the Europa Hotel (famously the most bombed hotel in Europe, but as hotels in Europe are not in the habit of getting themselves bombed there probably wasnt much competition).
After dropping our bags we headed out for a wander (only 2 of us were there at this stage). I found myself holding my tongue to avoid my obvious accent being broadcast, but I quickly got over this silliness (the City Centre, I read in a internet guide is seen as a neutral zone, but there are definitely places where I might not feel too comfortable).
On the arrival of the third amigo (the fourth was injured and not joining for the run part of the day) we headed out. We left the hotel on Castle Street, headed down to the Botanical Gardens, then over to Ormeau Park for 2 loops and back to the Hotel.
I didnt have the Garmin but drew up the route (not fully accurate, specially on distance) on Mapmyrun, we got through 15.7km so was happy for that
After changing we headed to a local pub for a bowl of stew & a couple of gentles.
The lads headed back to the hotel for a rest & I headed back to the city to buy pressies for the wife & kids.
Tip: Don't buy pressies while tipsy drunk, i went waaaay over budget (they have both a Disney Store and a Forbidden Planet - yikes). The proverbial straw was the last pressie bought - i was only vaguely aware of Molten Brown as a brand name, but i ended up buying bath lotion that in sufficient quantities would pay off the National Debt.
Anyway, after not spending quite all the money i had the four of us went out for pints (original plan, food then pints, but food ended up being a take away pizza).
We did a mini pub crawl of Belfast, The Crown (beautiful Victorian pub), The Bot (loud and made me feel OLD), The Crown again, The Carrick (nice range of world beers), ending up in Kellys Cellars (relaxing to be in a pub with Gaeilge on the walls, maybe the trepidation hadn't fully left me after all). I finished up with a wonderfully calorifically greasily satisfyingly stuffingly MacDonalds meal - if you need to be drunk to appreciate something it might be something you don't really want!
During the evening one of the lads received a text that his daughter was sick (not seriously) so ew agreed we'd head back on the early bus.
So, the lads Indoor Championships Weekend - we got in a ten miler (almost) quite a bit of beer, quite a lot of calories, but no athletics.....ah well, enjoyable weekend all round.
Four of us agreed to head up North early Saturday, do a quick 10 miler around the city and maybe hit the C'ship Sat afternoon but spend Sunday in the arena altogether.
Being a soft, insular Dub I was a bit trepidatious heading up there. I'd never been there before (except for driving through sometime shortly after the 1995 ceasefire on our way to a weekend in Portrush). But the lads assured me that we'd be okay (they found it funny that the previous year they brought up a different friend who also had the same concerns, they've definitely decided its a Dub rather than 26 county thing!!
We headed up early and got our bearings. Belfast isnt a beautiful city but it definitely has 'something', I reminded my friend he had told me B'fast was beautiful, he laughingly denied this, insisting he had described it as 'lovely'. We saw the Europa Hotel (famously the most bombed hotel in Europe, but as hotels in Europe are not in the habit of getting themselves bombed there probably wasnt much competition).
After dropping our bags we headed out for a wander (only 2 of us were there at this stage). I found myself holding my tongue to avoid my obvious accent being broadcast, but I quickly got over this silliness (the City Centre, I read in a internet guide is seen as a neutral zone, but there are definitely places where I might not feel too comfortable).
On the arrival of the third amigo (the fourth was injured and not joining for the run part of the day) we headed out. We left the hotel on Castle Street, headed down to the Botanical Gardens, then over to Ormeau Park for 2 loops and back to the Hotel.
I didnt have the Garmin but drew up the route (not fully accurate, specially on distance) on Mapmyrun, we got through 15.7km so was happy for that
After changing we headed to a local pub for a bowl of stew & a couple of gentles.
The lads headed back to the hotel for a rest & I headed back to the city to buy pressies for the wife & kids.
Tip: Don't buy pressies while tipsy drunk, i went waaaay over budget (they have both a Disney Store and a Forbidden Planet - yikes). The proverbial straw was the last pressie bought - i was only vaguely aware of Molten Brown as a brand name, but i ended up buying bath lotion that in sufficient quantities would pay off the National Debt.
Anyway, after not spending quite all the money i had the four of us went out for pints (original plan, food then pints, but food ended up being a take away pizza).
We did a mini pub crawl of Belfast, The Crown (beautiful Victorian pub), The Bot (loud and made me feel OLD), The Crown again, The Carrick (nice range of world beers), ending up in Kellys Cellars (relaxing to be in a pub with Gaeilge on the walls, maybe the trepidation hadn't fully left me after all). I finished up with a wonderfully calorifically greasily satisfyingly stuffingly MacDonalds meal - if you need to be drunk to appreciate something it might be something you don't really want!
During the evening one of the lads received a text that his daughter was sick (not seriously) so ew agreed we'd head back on the early bus.
So, the lads Indoor Championships Weekend - we got in a ten miler (almost) quite a bit of beer, quite a lot of calories, but no athletics.....ah well, enjoyable weekend all round.
No comments:
Post a Comment