Northern Ireland: A Failed Journey to Filthy McNasty's

Mary-"Annie, is the plane moving?"
Me- "Yes....but upon further inspection.... no."

Belfast

is

My Favorite Place on Earth

We got off the plane in a haze, and next thing we know we are on the streets of Belfast looking for a hostel. Maybe it was the muffins, or the fact that Belfast looks like a Bizarro Boston, but we had no idea how to get anywhere. We must have appeared obviously confused, for luckily some woman stopped and asked us if we were lost. Upon telling her our destination she advised us to get a cab and pointed us in the right direction...however she then said that we should save cab money and give us a ride. She was so sweet and motherly, that we jumped into her little car and she drove us, on the other side of the street, to our destination.

We got to the hostel with one thing and one thing only on our minds. Food. We managed to wander out of the hostel and find a Restaurant called Darcy's Bistro (The next day we will realize Darcy's is BRIGHT pink...which could have been a key factor in our dining decision). We ended up ordering and spending what seemed like an eternity just staring at each other, as the couple next to us looked as us like we were so crazy.

Finally the food comes, and we awkwardly dig in. We proceed to feast like kings, not paying attention to anything but what is on our plates. At one point, I come up for air when I see Mary sitting across from me. She has a plate that formerly held raviolis on the table in front of her and is holding a salad to her mouth and literally shoving salad into her mouth.

"Mary...Mary!"
"What?"
"Put...the..salad...down"

We had hit an all time low.

The next day we woke up early to get on a bus to go visit the natural wonder of the Giant's Causeway. Giant's causeway is a volcanic rock formation...that totally rocks!! (get it?) We were obviously obnoxious during the trip, and ended up befriending some fellow American Travelers from Iowa!! They were really sweet and we ended up making plans to meet up with them later to go to a bar....

Filthy McNasty's

We had heard the name and knew it was where we needed to be. So after witnessing two fights (which is a strange Irish phenomenon. We saw quite a few street fights in our time and all of them followed a similar format: Yell, Cuss, Take of your shirt, hit the other person a couple times, then walk away cussing...shirt still off....and refuse to put your shirt on for the rest of the day), we met up with the girls and asked some taxi drivers to take us to a nice irish bar to start our night.

At Fibber Mcgees, there were naughty nuns, a frat bar crawl, a man in a female lifeguard suit, cowboys, and an assortment of old creepy men for our amusement. Andrew and Billy became our quick friends, regardless of the fact that we couldnt understand a single thing they were saying (ask mary for the impression..its spot on). Andrew kept insisting (we think) that we had to see the band that was playing. So sure enough the band came on and played an assortment of songs that I could only relate to the music played when Rose went to hang out with Jack in the bottom of the Titanic. After dancing like crazy people there, we decided it was time for some McNasty's.

As we walked down the street, we ran into some people and asked where the classy establishment was. We were answered by two gay men and one 20 something, both pointing us in different direction. This quickly became a battle of trust, and after bombarding them with questions, we took the advice of the 20 something...Sean...and went with him to the wild party at Whites Tavern. We walked with him, picking up Tom from a windowsill along the way, and proceeded to show people from Belfast how to REALLY break it down. We stunned the party with our awesome american dance moves, and stunned the girls from Iowa with our ability to break it down and bring the party.

All around, a great experience, and the bar was set pretty high for Dublin!