I’ve stayed in hundreds of hostels down the years on my backpacking journeys. Each one has its own style and uniqueness about it and that is one of the joys of travel to me. Belfast City is Northern Ireland’s capital and November 2015 saw me staying in a Belfast hostel for the first time ever. Read more about Backpacking in Belfast: Staying at the Largest Hostel in Northern Ireland[…]
“Take me back to the town where I was born, because I’m tired of being a stranger and I’m miles from home. We can hide by a lonely windowpane. We can walk the streets of my life while they still remain.” – Noel Gallagher. We have all had a ridiculously crazy journey on this planet. When we were Read more about Sunday’s Inspiration: The Street I Grew Up on, 35 Years Later[…]
There are so many myths about the ill-fated supership The Titanic over the years, that the only place to get the real story, the truth behind this incredible ship is to return to the place where it was built. The place where it sailed out of for the first time – Belfast City in Northern Read more about Visiting the World’s Biggest and Best Titanic Museum: Titanic Belfast, Northern Ireland[…]
If you’ve followed the blog from the early days, you’ll know I covered my job history on here as I did it, especially the farming and bar work. Yet the Working Wednesdays feature still has at least 50 jobs I’ve done and not yet written about, so in an attempt to eventually get this blog Read more about Working Wednesdays: Being Part of a Focus Group in Northern Ireland[…]
“Teenage dreams so hard to bate” – The Undertones It wasn’t Fearghal Sharkey, Norman Whiteside or Colin Clarke that got me into supporting Northern Ireland. It was my Dad. My Dad, Joe Blair is a veteran of over 200 Northern Ireland matches down the years. He dare not count them, but in the past 50 Read more about Watching Northern Ireland Bate The Faroe Islands 3-1 in Torshavn and Go Top of the Group[…]
Thirsty Thursdays comes from North Down in Northern Ireland today, so it does. Northern Ireland punches above its weight time and time again. And I mean in the metaphorical sense, not just in boxing (though the likes of McGuigan and Frampton certainly justify the phrase). A country housing 1.6 million people, boasting some of the Read more about Thirsty Thursdays: Top 5 Coffee Shops in North Down, Northern Ireland[…]
The Peoples Republic of Podjistan is a tiny country, landlocked within Northern Ireland. My tour to this remote zone was an “access all areas” complete guide to this wacky country that is often forgotten and unknown in the tourism circles. In fact, I was the country’s first and last backpacker for the genuine purpose of Read more about Backpacking in Podjistan: Top 6 Sights in Four Gables[…]
My fascination for unknown and un-ventured countries continued this week as I headed to the Peoples Republic of Podjistan. This is a tiny country which is landlocked by Northern Ireland, itself governed by the United Kingdom. An enigma in itself, Podjistan stands alone. Untouched, unventured, unknown. Not many travellers can say they have a Podjistani Read more about World Borders: How to Get From Northern Ireland to the Peoples Republic of Podjistan[…]