A few months ago I booked some cheap eurostar tickets to Brussels. Before we knew it, the time had come... Saturday morning started (too) early, and we were off to Kings Cross for our second journey on the Eurostar. The morning was a bit of a shambles really, with late trains, delays on the tube, but we managed to make it in time.
I commented on how much I liked the Eurostar on our
Paris trip, and I'm going to say it again. You show up half an hour before departing (from the centre of London), no crazy security checks, a comfortable, smooth journey, and you arrive a couple of hours later in another country - again, right in the city. How good is that?
We arrived at 11am local time, and went hunting for a cash machine. In the main station of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, there is only one cash machine! Unbelievable! After queueing for about 15 minutes, I found it refused my card. It looked as though it was from a local bank and only took local cards. Great. Luckily Subway took visa, so we managed to get some breakfast.
Having visited a lot of Southern Ireland, I thought it time to take a look up north. So I planned a weekend trip to the city of Belfast – the capital of Northern Ireland, famous mostly for building the Titanic and religious conflict. 
Another very early Saturday morning (4am!) I was up and out the door to catch the bus to Stansted Airport. Flight was on time, departing at 8:30am, arriving in to Belfast City Airport about an hour later. By 10am I was in the centre of a very cold and windy Belfast. The first thing that caught my eye was a huge Ferris Wheel that looked to have been plonked right beside a large historic building.