Turkey Day and Belfast Weekend

Well, the previous weekend's plans mostly fell apart. I didn't go to Dublin or play basketball. I also missed the kenpo class. These all turned out to be blessings in disguise, since I had quite a bit of homework to do over the weekend.

Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely wonderful. I cooked a turkey (7 pounds), gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and corn (and we had some apple crumble tart for dessert). I was serving eight that night: myself, Thomas, Arlette, and Hawkins, as well as Thomas's friend Thomas and his girlfriend Nicoli, Ita (a friend of the flat), and Cecilia (another friend of Thomas). Fortunately, Other Thomas used to work as a chef - he was a great help in the kitchen and made sure I didn't make too many mistakes. I also learned several awesome tricks from him, such as the proper way to chop onions without losing fingers.
We didn't eat dinner until around 7:30. This delay (the original plan was to eat at 6:30) was mostly due to our oven, which is conveniently devoid of any temperature markings - you basically guess and hope for the best. In the end, only the top half of the rolls were burnt - everything else came out nicely. The food comas lasted hours and I'm just today finishing up the leftovers.

Friday afternoon, Arlette and I joined the International Club on the Belfast trip. Belfast was a fantastic city. They had just put out all the Christmas lights as well. Since it was after Thanksgiving, I was in full-throttle Christmas spirit. These mixed together well.

Victoria Square is one of the shopping malls around the city center. Although it had more lights, the other main mall, Castle Court, had a much more Christmas-y vibe. Castle Court had a store called The Christmas Store (selling decorations, trees, candles, etc.) and another that had all those amazing old-fashioned toys (no batteries anywhere). In the center of the city, City Hall was all decked out for the holidays.


City Hall, with and without daylight. A traditional European Christmas market was being held here. We had dinner there Friday and Saturday nights (Polish sausage and churros, then raclette and fudge. Mulled wine to drink both nights.) After dinner, we went around to different pubs. Saturday night, Arlette and I went to the Crown Pub, the oldest pub still standing in Belfast. Great craic.

Saturday morning / afternoon, I went on a walk around the city. I had lots of fun stumbling across monuments and such. I wandered into a farmer's market, watched dogs playing in Ormeau Park, watched students playing at Queen's University, and walked through Ulster Museum.

I took some nice pictures as well.

This one was taken at 2:30 in the afternoon. We don't get much sun up here these days.

The old customs house. I saw this Sunday when I took a tour of the harbor area. I saw where the Titanic was launched from ("Built by Irishmen. Sunk by an Englishman.") and the more modern drydocks. Belfast is a real blue-collar town, so I felt some kinship with them. (Not that I'm blue-collar by any stretch. It just reminded me of Cleveland.) Afterwards, I toured the shopping districts and got into the holiday spirit. We had dinner in a small diner off of the main roads.

All said and done, it was an excellent and exciting trip. I think Belfast might be one of my favorite cities now. Although there has been violence (Belfast was the heart of the Troubles) and there still is tension, the city feels alive. The juxtaposition of centuries-old and new architecture makes Belfast quite the interesting place.