Belfast, Northern Ireland

My chef was in a good mood yesterday when he said everybody in the pastry kitchen could get off early. Anyway, it wasn’t that busy in the ship with all of our passengers going out to see Belfast.  I could’ve jumped for joy. I almost did. I really really wanted to go out and see Ireland. It’s one of those countries that you read about so often you already have a picture of it in your head.

Supposedly, it was going to be me and two of the pastry guys I work with. However, my friend Ian went awol on us (he was too tired to go out I guess and he knew I’d try to talk him into it) so it was just me and my other friend Randy. He’s really cool to drag along every time I go offshore because he doesn’t mind taking my photos (heehee) and he collects magnets as well so we’re pretty much on the same wavelength.      

It’s about a 10 minute bus ride from the dock to Donegall place, the central area of Belfast because that’s where their city hall and much of their commercial area is located. Our first stop was the tourist desk because we wanted to get a map of the city. We wound up staying there for almost thirty minutes. Strategically, right beside their info desk was a big store where you can buy souvenirs including our prerequisite magnets. I got a stained glass one with the map of Ireland and Randy got this hilarious magnet that said, “Titanic: Built by Irishmen, Sunk by an Englishman.” I told him he could give it to the captain of our ship as a gift. He’s English. Lol. Maybe in return, he’ll get a one way ticket back to the Philippines.

Aside from the magnets, I got myself a shirt and I bought my brother a Guinness baseball hat which, like my sister’s, I might wind up using one of these days. I don’t think he’ll mind. Hehehe.

Then I thought you couldn’t visit Ireland without going to a genuine Irish pub, right? So we started wandering around looking for what looked like the real deal. It took a while and we wouldn’t have found this gem of a place if we hadn’t bumped into Denis. He’s the Chef de Cuisine of the Pinnacle Grill, the ship’s fine dining restaurant and the place that I do pastries for. He’s a great guy from Mexico, really easygoing. Anyway, he was also trying to locate a pub which a person had pointed him to. White’s is supposedly the oldest tavern in Belfast. It’s the first establishment in the city to get a liquor license in—get this—the year 1630. Whoah. If there ever was a place in Belfast to have a pint of Guinness, this would be THE place to go to. Can you imagine all the stuff that may have occurred in this place? Being there was just plain awesome.

And if you’re in a pub in Ireland, I guess the best thing to order from the tap is a pint of Guinness. It’s what Randy and I got, while Denis had a pint of Smithwicks, one of their local beer, I guess. I liked the taste of the Guinness. It was creamy and not too tannic. If I added a couple of tablespoons of sugar, maybe I could’ve finished the entire glass. Alas, Denis and Randy winded up drinking most of it. Not that they were too bummed about that though.  After a few sips, I was also feeling a bit hungry and I didn’t want to have too much beer on an empty stomach so we ordered some pub food. The only thing on their menu which sounded Irish was the White’s Boxty, everything else was French onion soup or burgers. Jeez, nothing that I really couldn’t eat anywhere else. The Boxty (i have no idea where that name came from) turned out to be a plate of mashed potato with sautéed mushrooms and chives. It was okay, I guess. My chef and I were joking that it came fresh from a box of instant mashed potatoes.

After the pub, there was just enough time to catch the bus to the docks because we were leaving Belfast at 5 that afternoon. Overall, maybe we were out of the ship for about 3 hours but it was such a nice day to see a bit of Belfast, Ireland and hang out with some really nice people. Its days like these when I realize why I love this job so much. Maybe the 13 hour days can really suck sometimes, but having this chance to see a bit of the world makes it all worthwhile.  

the buildings here are lovely :)