I’ll be honest: before our first trip to Belfast, I had done the kind of obsessive pre-trip research that would embarrass a PhD student. Conflict murals, the Peace Walls, the Troubles, Orange parades. I had basically talked myself into thinking we were heading somewhere genuinely tense. We arrived, walked around the city centre for about […]
Author Archives: Two Scots Abroad
27
Mar
Mar
I turned up in Belfast expecting decent pub grub and left genuinely annoyed at myself for not booking more dinners in advance. The city has Michelin-starred restaurants, a market that deserves half your Saturday, and a deli that has been doing its thing since 1897. I had no idea. Past-me was, frankly, underprepared. Here is […]
26
Mar
Mar
I’ll be honest, I spent way too long agonizing over which part of Belfast to book before our first visit. I read everything, made a spreadsheet (yes, really), and still nearly ended up in entirely the wrong place. So let me save you the faff. Belfast is compact, walkable if you pick a central base, […]
26
Mar
Mar
I turned up to Belfast for the first time in 2001 with almost no idea what I was walking into. I’d done zero research (past-me was confidently underprepared), assumed it would feel like a smaller Dublin, and left two days later having barely scratched the surface of a city that genuinely surprised me at every […]
26
Mar
Mar
Glasgow has a funny reputation. Some people expect a rough, industrial city where it rains sideways and everyone shouts “aye pal” every five seconds. Others think it’s just a cheaper stop before heading to Edinburgh. Honestly? Both assumptions miss the point completely. The first time I wandered into Glasgow, I expected a quick overnight stop. […]