The Relaxing Day

 Today is what I'm calling, as you can see from the title, my relaxing day. I slept in until 1:30pm today! I was up until 3am last night, so it's not too much of a surprise I suppose. I kept waking up, resetting the alarm for another 30 minutes to an hour, and before I knew it it was 1:30pm. I decided to wait until tomorrow to visit the Titanic Dockyard and Museum and my 2nd visit to St.Anne's Cathedral, since I did not want to be in a hurry. So I looked in my Lonely Planet Ireland and found the Ulster Museum, which I already knew about and knew it was near my hostel. It closed at 5pm, and it was around 2:45pm(takes me about 45 minutes to shower and get ready and then I spend the rest of the time looking for things to see today which were open past 4pm) so I decided to go to the museum first before eating.

 It was really close to the hostel, about a 10 minute walk or so. It was a lovely walk! it was not as cold as it was yesterday, at least not while the sun was up, and to get to the museum I walked through the Queen's University in Belfast, and it looked to be a beautiful campus! of course, European and UK universities tend to be beautiful. It looked like a place that made you want to learn, that let you know it was an honor to be there as a student. yet somehow, it was not as...formal....as Oxford somehow. It was more laidback. Which is the feeling I get in Belfast. It has the beautiful architecture and history which reminds me of Oxford, but it feels a lot more laidback and more relaxed than Oxford. The Belfast Botanic Gardens also connects to Queen's University,

 and so I had a bit of a walk through there since Ulster Museum is in the Botanic Garden. it is more of a park than a Botanic Garden, but it is so beautiful, as you can see above! Above is a picture of the Palm House, which of course, houses plants. they have a cool wing and a warm wing so they are able to grow many kinds of flowers, at least according to the sign outside. Before walking through the Botanic Garden, I passed by the Union Theological College, as you can see by the first picture, and I did take a picture of it but accidently it(and some others)when I uploaded them to my computer. oh well, I can go back tomorrow and re-take them. Since I have so many friends who are in seminary, I thought I had to take a picture of it. It's a beautiful building. anyways, the Ulster Museum was pretty good. the first thing I noticed and that grabbed my attention is also one of my favorite things about the musem: the outside. as you can see in this picture, half of it is very traditional, very opulant, and the other half is very modern. it is a bit shocking to the eye, but it works somehow. I loved it! It made me think that you don't always have to have only one style, oe way, one seemless thing. you can mix things which seem to be opposites or don't go together and

 create something unique, something...new. 

     afterward, I was going to go to this Italian resturant near my hostel but it was not opened yet, so I decided to go to Bishop's resturant, which is where I went the first day I was here. I had the same thing, the Chicken Curry with Rice, which I have been slightly craving, and I added the Garlic Cubed Potatoes, which can seen to the right. I did not finish the entire potatoes, in fact I ate a few since the curry really filled me up, but they were delish! I am going to have to learn to make Chicken Curry when I go home. it's seriously delicious! and like I wrote before, the decor was great! makes you feel like your eating in an old fasioned parlor or something. at least when your near the fireplace.

 after eating, I was going to go to that cupcake place but halfway there remenbered that it closed at 5:30pm, so I walked back to the hostel, and on the way stopped at a Tesco Express and bought a package of Jaffa Cakes(soo good! I have missed them!) and a bottle of water. then near the hostel I found this cute cafe, and went in and had a chocolate chip cheesecake and hot cocoa(pictured below). I finished about half of each, but it was really good! nice warm hot cocoa, good cheesecake...I also loved the decor as well. very nice and cute. you can see a little bit of the ceiling decor in the picture below the cheesecake and cocoa picture. to the left is a pictue of the utesil holders on each table, and I loved it! it's very similar to my idea I had for storing my kitchen utensils when I move apartment in August, and so it was perfect. It works as a great and unique decor,but also a handy way of storing utensils doesn't it?

Again, this is what I had. so delicious, but i was still full from dinner so only could finish about half of each. yet it was so delicious! I decided to go tomorrow for breakfast before my hop-on, hop-off tour at 10am. I usually do not have breakfast, but I do love breakfast food, like Omelettes and Sausages and Pancakes,etc. I'm excited to go back to that cute cafe.

I am slowly coming to love this old-style,  type of decor, with the chandeliers and antique looking light shapes and old-fashioned wall paper, or even exposed brick or newspaper style wall paper like in the Cupcafe Cafe.

  After this, I went back to the hostel. it was a good and relaxing day, and I think one of the things I believe about traveling, and that becomes more and more obvious each time I do a trip like this, is that it's okay to not always be "doing something." it's okay to sleep in one day. it's okay to spend one day not really seeing anything but reading in a cafe or a restaurant or walking around a bit, exploring. you don't always have to be doing an activity, seeing something,etc. so today was a good day.