We're talking about Hermione.

Even though we only spent one night in Belfast, I loved our hostel, Global Village.  After a power nap there, we rallied again in hopes of finding some music...but we misinterpreted our map and went in the opposite direction of the center of town (life is hard with no phone service).  We eventually worked our way back to the edge of town and went for an Italian restaurant.  Note:  Ordering Italian in Ireland is like ordering Italian in Germany...  It's not really Italian.

Near Victoria Square

Belfast was the first place where we had difficulty understanding accents.  Walking into the "Italian" restaurant, the hostess said something I found unintelligible.  Norie answered, "Yes, a table for three for dinner, please."  I looked at her incredulously and asked, "Did you understand what she said?"  Norie replied, "Not a word."  We also had to make the switch from Euros into pounds.  Pound notes printed in Northern Ireland have a design unique to those printed in England, as do those printed in Scotland.

Norie and Annie at Yardbird

The next morning, we were determined to get a good handle on the city of Belfast.  Its reputation isn't the greatest; it used to be (and often still is) thought of as a rough and edgy town.  I could see the remnants of that image in some of the graffiti, and it certainly isn't a romantic, picturesque town like Galway.  We liked City Hall and the modern Victoria Square Shopping Center, which has a 360-degree view of Belfast at the top.  Not far from there is Cathedral Quarter, which we had searched for the previous evening, a trendy area full of old cafés and bars.  We stopped at one, the Yardbird, for their chicken lunch special (we had originally scoffed at the chicken and tried to find a different restaurant, but were put in our place - I have never had chicken that delicious, ever).

Cathedral Quarter street

Of all the places we went on this trip, Belfast is the first one I'd return to.  We didn't have time for the Titanic Quarter, an area dedicated to the ship which was built in Belfast.  I'd also like to see the Peace Wall and go on the Crumlin Road Prison tour.  I'm sure there are other interesting museums and tours on the history of the city as well.

Mid-afternoon, it was time to head out for the next frontier: Scotland.  We had booked a ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan, and from there a bus to Glasgow.  The ferry was a huge plug for us (we'd imagined standing on deck, surrounded by beautiful scenery, the wind blowing through our hair).  We did go up on deck only to realize that it entailed freezing cold, storm-like winds...and also that it's forbidden to passengers.  The ferry is really a luxury boat with couches, giant TVs, and even a cinema - all sorts of attractions to keep passengers below deck.  We took the opportunity to kick back and read.

Glasgow wasn't a main attraction for us; we spent the night there and left the following morning on our West Highland adventure.  We did learn one lesson from Glasgow:  Do not try to eat at Greggs.  Not even once.  It's a fast food place worse than White Castle.  We all bought, bit into, and promptly threw away our breakfasts (coffee included) and the train station Burger King meals we grabbed in a pinch suddenly tasted like haute cuisine.

There's a train from Glasgow to a small western seaside town called Oban that cuts straight through Loch Lomond (cue resurrection of classic choir songs) and the Trossachs National Park.  The train ride is reason enough to make the journey up into the Highlands; we cut through beautiful lakes, forests, and snowcapped mountains.  I stayed glued to the windows between train cars, and was thrilled to repeat the journey the following day when we returned via the same route.

Oban is an adorable small town; there wasn't a lot happening, especially in February, but we began by finding fish and chips at the Waterfront Fishouse that surpassed even Liscannor's.  There, we discovered haggis for the first time; I'll let you decide if you want to look up how it's made, but I can tell you that I did my research and was still addicted as soon as I tasted it.  Nearly every meal I had in Scotland ended up including haggis.

That evening, we witnessed a stunning sunset.

The following morning, we hiked up to McCaig's Tower for an equally stunning sunrise.

Maybe it was the act of crossing the sea and setting foot in Scotland, but all three of us had developed a sudden itch to relive our Harry Potter glory days, and we found a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in a thrift shop.  Our first read-aloud session took place at the Oban Chocolate Company café.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione...yes, we decided who was who.

In our chocolate-induced sugar coma, armed with our book and terrible British accents, we piled back on the train, through the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond, back to Glasgow, and onward to true Harry Potter stomping grounds, Edinburgh.