A free day out in Belfast

A free day out in Belfast...

So we’ve decided we want to return to Oz with some pennies in our pockets, so we’ve stopped eating out for every meal & today we went on a mission to enjoy a day in Ireland for next to nothing.
We had cold spaghetti on bread with a plastic fork for breakfast, as horrible it was that alone saved us at least 10 quid.

We left the hotel around midday to go check out the Botanical Gardens which was only a 20 minute walk from our hotel. We stopped off at Tesco on the way to grab two meal deals for 3 quid each. They're great, you get a sandwich, pasta or wrap, with your choice of a healthy snack or crisps and a drink.

The gardens weren’t that spectacular so we’re happy that we didn’t have to pay anything, although it was still nice to see some color and some nature. I don’t do to well with cities and the fast paced life we’ve had in Ireland. So it was a more relaxing start to the day.

Nathan noticed on the map another thing that we could do for free, there’s not a lot to do on the Belfast tourist map compared to the Dublin map but it does label everything free to do in the area.
We found a museum right next to the gardens called Ulsters Museum, at first we thought about how much we had paid for other places similar which hadn’t been to great, so we thought if it was free it couldn’t be too good?
We walked into the main entrance which didn’t look like it had much going on and were greeted by a lovely Irish woman who handed us a map and pointed us in the right direction. You start by getting a lift to the top and spiral down through the museums, starting with the Art zone, then onto the Nature Zone, History Zone and finally Window on our World Zone. One of the exhibitions on was Elements: From Actinium to Zirconium.
It was one of the best museums I’ve been too, I don’t know if that was because my expectations were so low or because there was so much to see, touch and interact with making it much more enjoyable.
They had a section with minerals and rocks which looked quite boring in normal light, but under a UV light they glowed bright red, green and blue! They absorb an invisible ultra violet light and emit it as a visible florescent glow. The next part showed radioactive minerals which have atoms whose nuclei are unstable, with a resulting tendency to break down to emit particulate & electromagnetic radiation. Ok, i’m going to stop, that stuffs to smart for me. They had a whole sections on minerals & rocks with reminded me of my sisters boyfriend who is studying to be a geologist, we talked about how excited he would be seeing them all.

They had history on Ireland, how Vikings lived using only natural materials, history on the rest of Europe, and many, many artifacts.
They had a large collection of fossils from thousands of years ago on display. There was an elephant skull, a t-rex replica skull, tiger, polar bear, cheater, cat, turtle and little baby bat skulls. It was fascinating.

They had deer antlers on display which were 2.8 meters long, the longest ever recorded came to a span of 3.6 meters!



Nathan & I must be getting old because we were really enjoying it all! We would both definitely recommend it if you’re visiting Belfast.
The only thing that made me feel uncomfortable were all the stuffed animals around the museum. I don’t know how they do it to the animals, wether they kill them or find them dead but I really don’t want to know.
They had a few stuffed wolves, which were incredible to see, a stuffed brown bear, birds, foxes, small rodents, deer and lots of butterflies on displays. It was all magnificent to see but a little haunting.
We expected to be in there for a few minutes, but we spent easily an hour in there, it was pretty straight forward which room to head to next & we found ourselves at the bottom after a few hours. Educated & excited.

The museum overall was definitely worth a visit, & although I enjoy art many museums I wouldn’t return to. However, this one is one I would visit again if I came back to Belfast. Although it was free there was a 3 pound suggestion donation.

Our day ended with a lovely stroll around Colin Glen Forest Park. I stumbled across it on Google & we decided to check it out as it was free entry, perfect! We didn’t have to pay for parking, but we didn’t have long. We arrived at 3.30 & gates locked at 5pm wether you were out of the park or not. The map showed four different routes, 2km was the shortest and 6.5km the longest. Seeing as we had little time we decided on the shortest for now & possibly starting from the top on Sunday before we leave to see the beautiful view from the top & the lake.
It was a lovely walk with a little stream running nearby, it was fairly peaceful but we could still hear cars in the distance. The only down part was small patches of broken glass and dog poop, I don’t understand why people don’t pick it up! Especially in such beautiful areas. (Now I'm sounding like an old woman!)

We went home exhausted, visited three beautiful ares of Belfast & all for the cost of 6 pounds. Brilliant!