Simon was lucky enough to win an overnight stay at the Ramada Encore Belfast City Centre at his company's rewards night. We didn't know when to use it though. We finally decided near Christmas time would we go as we could do our Christmas shopping.
We booked to stay on Friday 8th December 2023 as we couldn't book on a weekend. Our booking was for a standard double room and included breakfast. Simon's Mum kindly agreed to take Isaac for the night for us. I spent ages trying to find somewhere for us to have dinner that night. I struggled as I don't know Belfast well in terms of eating out in nice restaurants. I hate previously eaten in Ampm and The Lantern, both of which were very good. I found a place called Bar+Block which was near our hotel.
Simon and I were both off the week leading up to the stay. I was so unprepared and hadn't thought of packing, except for Isaac. I was about 10 weeks pregnant at this point and not feeling great mentally or physically.
Friday 8th December
I got up and began getting us all ready as Simon wanted to leave before lunch. I already had some of Isaac's things packed but still had stuff to do. I'm definitely not one for leaving packing to the last minute. I think we managed to leave around 11am and headed to Belfast to Simon's Mum's house. It took about an hour to get there. We stayed at her house for a a while then decided to leave to go to our hotel. I'm not sure how long that took but we were there just before 2pm. As the hotel doesn't have it own carpark we had to park in the St Anne's Carpark. We did have to pay for it though. It was £20 for the full day. We didn't mind as we hadn't paid for our hotel stay. We were too early for check in, so we decided to walk into Belfast City centre to do a spot of shopping. It was cold and wet. We decided to go get coffee somewhere to warm us up a bit. The walk from our hotel didn't take too long. I got to see the famous Cathedral Quarter umbrellas as it was near our hotel. Our first stop was Castle Court shopping centre but there was nowhere for coffee in there, other than the usual Starbucks and the very busy food court. We then went to M&S as Simon had a gift voucher for there. We stopped off in the cafe in there for coffee. I had a decaf vanilla latte and a ham and cheese sandwich, as I was hungry. Simon got himself a hat and scarf and I got new slippers and some thermal long sleeve tops for work. We didn't visit any other shops as it was lashing down with rain when we left M&S. I didn't even drag Simon into Primark.
We walked back to our hotel as quick as our legs would let us, in the pouring rain. We were soaked by the time we got back. Simon went back to the car to get our suitcase while I went to check into the lobby. The lobby had a beautiful Christmas tree in it. We got checked in straight away. Our room was on the 5th floor. The room itself was a decent size, though pretty basic. We had a double bed and a sofa. I didn't get any photos of it though. We had a decent enough view of Belfast. We did look over to Lux nightclub which used to be Mynt. Simon sent me down to the bar to get some drinks. I had a 7up and Simon some beer. It was fun trying to walk back to the hotel with 3 drinks but I managed it without dropping them. We chilled for a bit before getting ready for our dinner reservation at 6:15pm.
We got ourselves ready with me wearing my favourite wine/red dress and boots. I decided to keep my black boots on rather than my suede grey ones due to the rain. We wrapped up warm then left the hotel to go to the restaurant which wasn't too far away. The restaurant was quite busy already with lots of people in Christmas jumpers enjoying drinks in the car. The downside to Bar+Block is that everyone at your table must order from the same menu. So if I ordered from the Christmas menu, Simon had too as well. I had looked at the menu online so knew what I wanted. Simon decided on the salmon starter. I got to taste the salmon and it tasted delicious. I had a non alcoholic cocktail which was a passion fruit and ginger drink and delicious. I ordered the turkey dinner while Simon and the steak. Mine was really tasty. I had the churro sundae for dessert but couldn't have the Bailey's ice cream. While enjoying our dinner, we tried to decide what to do next.
We agreed to go to the cinema as we hadn't been together since long before COVID. I had been to see the Westlife concert in 2022. We booked tickets online to see the new hunger games movie; The Ballad of songbirds and snakes. I wasn't the biggest fan of the Hunger games movies so had no expectations for this movie. We left the restaurant and walked to Victoria Square shopping centre. Belfast was buzzing with people out and about socialising. It wasn't raining now, thank goodness. We bought some drinks and popcorn in the cinema and went to our screen. It was very quiet. Our movie was supposed to start at 8:10pm but it was nearly 9pm before it came on. I thought I'd be falling asleep by now but I was very awake. Probably a good considering we were about to watch a 2 hour movie.
The movie was surprising good. It didn't have a massive cast of people I knew but they did a fantastic job. I didn't fall asleep which was also a huge plus. After the movie finished, we left and walked back to our hotel. It had been a good few years since I last walked through Belfast late at night. I think it was after a concert and we stopped of at McDonald's on the way to our hotel lol. There were a lot of people out and about at the various bars, pubs and restaurants. I was happy to see many women in flat shoes rather than heels. We made it back to our hotel and went straight up to our room. We could hear the music coming from Lux down the street. We got ourselves ready for bed. It was fun trying to sleep in a double bed when we're so used to a king sized at home. I couldn't get comfortable and the duvet was quite heavy. We both woke up around 1am absolutely roasting. Simon opened the window and we could hear Fairytale of new York blasting from the nightclub down the street. We finally got back to sleep again.
Saturday 9th December
We woke around 8am I think and got ourselves ready for the day. Then we went down to get breakfast which was included. It was very quiet, which was good. It was a buffet breakfast but sadly, no decaf coffee so I had to make do with tea. Breakfast was good and just hit the spot. We went back to out room to finish our packing and get ready to leave. Once we checked out, Simon left our case in the car then we walked into the city centre. Simon forgot something and had to go back to the hotel to get it. Thankfully, he could get back into our room. It wasn't raining as we walked into city centre. Our first stop was M&S to change my slippers which didn't fit. It began lashing down with rain as we left M&S so we decided to skip anymore shopping and go to Simon's mum's to get Isaac.
All in all, it was nice wee night away just before the Christmas madness. Sadly, we didn't get much shopping done but we had a lovely meal at Bar+Block and enjoyed visiting the cinema for the first time in ages. The hotel served it's purpose for 1 night and I would recommend, if you're looking for a room for the night and in a city centre location. Don't get me wrong, the bed wasn't the comfiest, especially when we're used to a king size and it was double.
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