Leprechauns and Rainbows

On Friday my two amazing friends- Sarah and Hattie came to visit me. Glenn and I met them at 2.30pm at the Europa bus station in Belfast (it was my first time into the city) and it was a very exciting moment  spotting them through the crowds of people. It was so so nice to see some familiar faces! Once we were back home we decided to have a walk into Newtownards before going back to Glenn and Heidi's for pizza. This was a bit risky since none of us really knew the way, but we let our noses direct us. And according to Sarah we were never going to get lost because she has a "very good" sense of direction (I'm not so sure about that). Thankfully we didn't get lost and by the time we were back at the house we  were all pretty hungry. Glenn and Heidi had also invited two other girls for dinner so it was really nice getting to know them a bit more too. We then went to YF with these girls and all in all had a great evening. Sarah and Hattie were fortunate to have their own personal guided tour around the Church as well. 

On Saturday I walked up to meet Sarah and Hattie at 9am to start our full packed day of touring. Gwyneth and Katie (the Mum and daughter in the family that I was staying with) had given me 3 maps and 2 bus timetables which would help us in basically any situation we could get ourselves into! I was very grateful for all the advice and tips that was given and we set out pretty confident that we couldn't get lost. Our first stop was to a little place called Cafollas's where we were all going to try our first Ulster fry- sausage, bacon, fried egg, pancake, fried soda bread and fried potato bread along with a cup of tea. I know you're all probably jealous of this right now and so you should be. It was extremely tasty and all for £3.50 which made it even better. After filling our stomachs we headed for the 10.40am bus into Belfast which came to an outrageous price of £5.00. (I thought Aberdeen was expensive) The ride into the city was quite pretty and the red brick buildings were a nice change from the grey granite back home. We got off at the Laganside bus centre and then walked along the river Lagan to the titanic museum. This probably should have taken us about 20 minutes, however due to the amount of photos taken (Hattie Turner) it took us more like 40. We were very lucky to be able to just walk right into the museum and start a tour right away. For the next two hours we wandered through the different sights, rooms and memories of titanic. I would recommend this to anyone who fancies a trip to Belfast. 

   After the museum we re-traced our footsteps back into the city centre and into Victoria Square (the big shopping centre). On our way into VS we spotted a group of men from Deeside who were over for Mandate- a conference about missional prayer that was being held in Belfast. (It was very strange seeing them there!) After this weird encounter we felt we deserved a Starbucks and all of us really wanted to try the 'Eggnog latte'. Sarah had a slight problem being understood however as instead of being given an Eggnog latte, she was given an extra-hot latte! (we all know how much of a Scottish accent she has!) Don't worry though, we soon set it right. 

   The next thing on the list was to walk to the top of the glass dome that was in the middle of VS. From the top we had a view over all of Belfast which was beautiful to see. This took all our energy out of us so again we decided that we deserved some food. We went to a place called 'Made in Belfast' and it was the cutest place I have ever had dinner in I think. Our water was served in jam jars and our meal came served on a chopping board with the chips in a rustic old fashioned mug. This decor made the food all the more tasty. We tried to persuade them to expand to Scotland and open a - 'Made in Aberdeen'. Our day didn't end here.. we managed to get locked in Marks and Spencers, buy jeans for £4.00, eat 'Mauds' ice cream and watch a disney movie, Geek Charming - recommended by Glenn's wife Heidi. We were all exhausted by the time the film finished and couldn't wait to climb into bed. Sarah and Hattie were leaving at 6.30am the next morning so it was going to be a very early start for them but Heidi very kindly had offered to take them to the bus station so at least they weren't without transport!