The Big City

It’s the capital of our little country, it’s been through hell, it’s still getting over it but it’s a city with a great culture and I have loved living in our wee city of Belfast. As a kid Belfast was reserved for Christmas, Q-con and a small number of special occasions. Even then it was basic places like Cosmo’s in Victoria Square, Yes I know Cosmo’s is amazing but Belfast has so much more to offer and I didn’t know even half of it! But in the past few years I started travelling to Belfast more and more, made friends that lived handier to Belfast so we would meet there and I fell in love with the City. This is my experience of living in Belfast for a year (pre and post pandemic) and everything I fell in love with.

Rise Sculpture (Balls on the Falls)

Moving to Belfast

Belfast has a lot of choice when deciding where to move to, the most important thing we were looking for was how quickly we could get into town. Our house was about a 30 minute walk to the center. Perfect for dandering over or usually about a £6-8 Uber. This was our most important point when choosing to live in East Belfast but they all have their good points. These are some of the things I found were important to me when choosing where in Belfast to live. There are lots more different areas to look into but we found our house before we had to look any further.

• Ravenhill - Cheaper rent than the center, slightly bigger houses for that money, Ormeau park for walks, glider routes handy, easily travel to Ards and North Down

• Botanic and Lisburn road- Student area, good clubs and take aways, cheap rent, smaller houses, or flat’s, easy bus route into town, 10 min walk to center

• North Belfast - Much bigger houses, Reasonable rent, lots of great shops, not as busy as the center, easy travel to North west of Northern Ireland (Portrush, Ballymena)

• Belfast is never short of things to do. Here is my list of must try’s when in Belfast

Parkrun - Ormeau Park

Things to do in Belfast

Belfast is never short of things to do. Here is my list of must try’s when in Belfast

Drink! Man the amount we have drunk

• The Perch (Cocktails, Expensive and fancy)

• Cuckoo (Cheap and fun)

• The Dirty Onion (Great Pints and music)

• The Point’s (great bar staff and music)

• Bootleggers (So much Tequila and great cocktails)

• The Bear and Doll (Crazy cocktails)

Walks

So many things to see in this town filled with history.

• Ormeau Park

• Cave hill

• Titanic slipway

• Coastal route to Bangor (this is a long one)

• Sir Tomas and Lady Dixon Park

• Botanic Gardens

• Victoria park

• Colin Glen Forest Park

• Stormont

Don’t forget to live here love here and clean up after yourself

Belfast Ravenhill to Bangor Pickie Park

Food - Brunch

• Freight - Lisburn road or upper Newtownards road

• The pocket - Victoria square or University Road

• Town Square - Botanic

• General Merchants - Upper Newtownards Road

Great Coffee

• The pocket

• Freight

• Established

• General merchants

• Kaffe O

• Town Square

• District

• 5A

Events and experiences

• Pride

• Culture Night

• Boulder world

• Cirquefit NI (Pole fitness)

• St Patrick’s Day

• Tenants Vital

• Belsonic

Money Money Money

Belfast is up and coming which means prices are rising

Uber or Taxi? find out from both, Uber can be convenient but when the prices go up you can get caught out, check your Uber app, Call a taxi company or walk to a taxi rank and see if anyone’s free and how much they’ll do it for.

Find out if you can walk home

Belfast does not need you to be fancy, wear comfy shoes when going out and prep yourself for walking home.

Shop around, Shop local

The Asian supermarket, every students savior, and to the budgeting young adult, an absolute godsend. Bulk buy whatever you can! Bacon! Chicken! Save as many pennies on home meals so you can treat yourself when you do go out!

Enjoy the nights at home

My cocktail kit is the best purchase I have made for the house, save some money by hosting rather than going out. Find out how they make your favorite cocktail and do it at home! My Favorite Recipe is a porn star martini (double up the ingredients and you don’t have to make them as often)

A quiet one with the BBQ

Belfast

I love it, I think everyone will love it! Come visit!

If you're already local, get out there and try all the new things the city has to offer. There’s so much to explore I’m still nowhere near knowing all of it’s secrets but I’m working on it! the only question to you is what will you try first?