The Biggest Pizza in Belfast

Trip Date: 18 March 2012

Considering the day we had the day before, it's no wonder Rebecca and I didn't crawl out of our rooms until very very late in the morning. But up we were and shortly after or before noon, we packed up all of our things, picked up our trash from her relatives' flat, and headed out to meet her friends, Lydia and Daniel. It was a beautiful day, and we recalled some of the fun things that happened on St. Pat's Day, but we both agreed that the little pizza we had the night before was not enough. We walked down Lisburne Road and Lydia met us to take us back to her place.

On the way, however, Lydia pointed out one of her favorite places to eat that had the best pizza, Little Wing Pizzeria. Rebecca and I both kind of stopped and looked at the sign which read, "Biggest pizza in Belfast." In the window was a rack of pies two feet in diameter! Both of us hung over a bit, Rebecca and I decided (with some persuading from Lydia) to invest in the biggest pizza in town. I've been told pizza is kind of a newer food item over here in the UK and a lot of people are still pretty wary of it. But places like Little Wing are gaining good traction. A lot of restaurants in Ireland are also becoming very into locally produced foods and advertise it very well - kind of harkening back to my days in Vermont.

We toted the pizza back to Lydia and Daniel's where we (Rebecca and I) devoured the entire pie. It took a bit of effort, but we did it! Amy and Katie came over and met up with us as well and we all just enjoyed the morning over coffee and photos. Daniel and I, being the two Americans there, chatted it up for a while and the girls did their catching up before both Lydia and Amy move out of Belfast. It was soon time to go and Lydia drove Rebecca and me back to the ferry docks so we didn't have to hire a cab, which was very nice. I can't say enough how awesome my hosts were for the weekend, Rebecca, Amy, and Lydia. Fantastic people!

The ferry ride back to Scotland was much less crowded and much more quiet than on the way to Belfast. I'm sure that the majority of rowdy kids took the morning ferry back. Whatever the case, the sun was out and it was so warm that I spend much of my time out on the smoking decks taking photos of the scenery. Northern Ireland and western Scotland really don't get such beautiful weather that often, so it really was a treat. Rebecca found me on the decks and we just walked around as the ship made it's way back into Loch Ryan. Thanks to the weather, we also got a really good view of an old volcanic plug (a nickname for the solidified conduit through which magma reaches Earth's surface) that is out in the middle of the water, kind of like a focal point for the entire area around it. Back on land, Scotrail was doing work on the train line from Ayr to Glasgow, so our coach drove us all the way back into downtown Glasgow and we then split a cab back to our own flats.

It was just a beautiful, sunny, warm, relaxing, and great day to cap off a perfect St. Paddy's Day weekend! Thanks for sticking through all the way. I hope you've at least enjoyed the photos if you didn't get through all my writing. Here are some more!