We took a walk around Belfast’s City Center on Sunday. Belfast is a very walkable city. So far everywhere we have wanted to go has been accessible on foot. As we walked, we passed a police station that is most likely a vestige of “the Troubles.” It is fortified and surrounded by a large fence.
There is an old church that has been converted into a shopping mall. Just like in the USA when a better mall is built, this one sits largely empty.
There is a huge shopping mall—Great Victoria Mall—about a 15 minutes’ walk from here. The most dangerous part is crossing the street. After 50 years of looking to the left before stepping into traffic, I’ll be lucky to survive the next 4 weeks. At the top of the mall, there is an observation dome where the large cranes of the Harlan and Wolfe shipyard can be seen. This is there the Titanic was built.
Outside Belfast City Hall, a large video screen was set up and people were stretched out on the grass watching the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament. Over in another part of the grounds an accordion band was playing.
What would cost about a Dollar in the USA costs about a Pound here. A pint at the pub is between £2.80 and 3.60. With the exchange rate that is about $4.50-5.75. So it would make sense, but salaries don’t run as high. A teacher makes about £37,000 and a pharmacist about £50,000—that is about half of the same salary in the USA. So it seems to me that it is pretty expensive to drink in a pub or eat in a restaurant here.
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