So, it was prearranged that Tuesday was to be the day that we treated ourselves. Great food, tour the sights of Belfast, and do as much shopping as our wallets would allow. After all the intense study and research we had been doing, a day to just relax and enjoy was really starting to sound great.
We awoke to a lovely Irish day outside, and realized that one small issue stood between us: both of us were critically low on clean clothes. We proceeded to talk to the hostel manager, who gave us a bit of an under the table deal, in the form of letting us use the industrial sized washing machines in the hostel cleaning room. We agreed, and didn’t even baulk at the small fee. A few Pounds was better than selling our souls. Or, smelling like the souls of gym shoes, which was our only other option.
With each of us freshly showered and wearing clean duds, we embarked on our grand adventure. As we walked to the restaurant district of town, I asked myself a question “should I be so indulgent as to have a Red Bull?” I find a guilty pleasure in energy drinks, and I try to only have them as special treat. I repeated the question out loud to Sam and his reply came back as a hardy “treat cho-self!” Armed with my favorite beverage, and beginning to find ourselves very hungry, we continued our search for superb dining.
It was then that a truly tremendous thought occurred to me. I don’t have truly tremendous thoughts very often, but when I do, I usually share them with Sam to make sure I’m not just imagining that its actually even a good idea in the first place. I asked Sam if he would be at all opposed, since it was a very special day for us, to go to a restaurant called Fridays, even though today was only Tuesday? He informed me that he saw nothing wrong with it at all, and so we proceeded to have an incredible steak and shrimp dinner at T.G.I.Friday’s.
Now that we had certainly treated our bellies, we decided to treat our-selves to a complete tour of Belfast via tour bus. These open top buses are really popular, and they hadn’t been on the list of things we needed to do for our main objective. While we were actually working on our Irish study objective, we were mostly concerned with the traditional Irish areas of the city, not the main stream stuff they show the tourists. But, since today was intended for our leisure, we hopped on that two-story convertible and let the tour guide lead us through the hot-spots of this classic old city. The tour included a trip through the ship-yard that built the Titanic, Shankill Rd. that is home to the British loyalists community, and the Falls Rd., which me and Sam were all to overly familiar with. Although, it was a neat experience to view all of these areas from a touristy point of view.
Tour completed, it was time for some shopping. I hated the idea of coming home from Ireland not armed with a shillelagh. And we also needed a few gifts for some folks back home. We found ourselves in a small shop called The Wicker Man, and it was full of traditional Irish crafts and gifts. Sam and I obtained a few items to bring back to a few very special people, primarily our mommies, and we even treated ourselves to a couple of small souvenirs to remind us of our trip. Sam gifted himself with a patch that he intended to apply to his man-bag, and I am now proudly sporting a shamrock bracelet. We treated our selves. Unfortunately, my search for a shillelagh went unsatisfied.
Our search for something else truly epic did not return void thankfully! Sam and I had heard that there was a large statue that’s stands in tribute to C.S. Lewis here in Belfast. We had to search all over, walk for what seemed like miles, and consult multiple locales, but, we were soon rewarded with the discovery of one of our most favorite authors. There, in the courtyard of the Holywood Arches Library, stood ‘The Searcher’, a life sized statue of one of Lewis’ characters about to enter the legendary wardrobe. Me and Sam where happy to a point that approached a juvenile level, but our excitment was warranted, and we used it as a wonderful photo opportunity.
To complete our day, we intended to go back to the hostel, order take-out, and watch Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (another item Sam obtained on our adventure today, especially a treat because it is not out on DVD in the States yet). We were, however, pleasantly surprised when I approached the desk attendant to place our order.
I asked “hey, can we please order some take-out?” She leaned in real close, glanced left and right quickly, and with a certain coyness in her accent the lady sultrily asked me “would you boys like some pie?” I could only answer with a eager nod of my head and she waved her hand that indicated that I should follow her. Now, when she said pie, I was thinking pecan pie, apple pie, something along those lines. My sweet tooth is always in the mood for a treat, so you can imagine my confusion when I was lead to the cafeteria inside the hostel and my new best friend started loading down a couple of plates with some sort of mashed potatoes and meat mixture, along with some yummy looking French fries. Apparently, some kind of retreat had just finished eating and the left-overs were gonna be thrown away anyways. I put on a good poker face, and graciously accepted the meal.
So that night, Sam and I reflected on the things we had done that day. We ate a gorgeous lunch, got some great pictures, found Lewis, bought some neat stuff, and overall just spent the day enjoying the blessings God had made available to us. We have had a wonderful time on this trip, and its been a great experience for us both, and we had all but wrapped the whole thing up with this little “us” day of ours. So, to end it all, we feasted on the wonderful, unprecedented offering we received from our friend at the hostel. For if we’ve learned anything in the last 3 years of college, we have learned this: whenever somebody offers you free food, don’t ask questions, just treat cho-self!
-Ethan Bossier
Last Day in Belfast
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