We slept in a bit this morning since we had no plans for the morning and had our AirBnB until 11. We decided to try a café in the Craft Village called The Cottage. This is a can’t miss stop in Derry, it is a cute little café with a lot of charm. I had a plain soda scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam with an Earl Grey tea, it was heavenly! I could absolutely get used to this.

After breakfast we caught a cab back to the Derry-Londonderry Station and reluctantly caught a train back to Belfast for the night. We had our worst dinner of the trip so far in Belfast, we went to a restaurant called City Picnic. The menu online looked pretty good, but when we got to the restaurant the menu was completely different. We should’ve taken that as a sign and ate somewhere else, but you know what they say about hindsight… I got a pizza with pulled pork and barbecue sauce, which sounded good in theory, but in practice they put pulled pork and barbecue sauce on top of a cheese pizza with marinara sauce, not a good combo. I also ordered a “fresh pressed juice” and received a slushie (which the waiter said was a smoothie when he brought it) I told him I ordered the juice not a smoothie and he said “the menu says juice, but it’s really more of a smoothie”… then don’t call it a juice! Gina got a chicken sandwich and the chicken wasn’t completely cooked. Suffice it to say we did not eat much of our food.

After dinner we grabbed a pint at a pub called Maddens, recommended by Nick, we found a patch that he had mailed to them there so that was fun. It was a great pub with a nice ambiance, we finished our beers there and decided to head back to the Cathedral Quarter where we’d gone a few nights before. We walked along the street and heard live music coming from a bar called the Thirsty Goat. We popped in there for a drink in the beer garden and then went next door to the Dirty Onion. This bar was super cozy and had a nice big fireplace.

When we were walking to the Cathedral Quarter we passed a bar called The Deer’s Head which had live music playing, so we decided to take a stroll back there to check out the band. We paid a $7 cover and went in and it was immediately clear that we did not fit in with the heavily goth crowd- but we paid the cover, so we had a drink. After about 30 minutes the band still hadn’t come back from their break that they were on when we arrived, so we left.

We went back to The Harp where we had enjoyed the live band a few nights before, and there was a very lovely set happening, a female singer and her guitarist. They played a few songs and then another artist, Juram, came on. We had a great time and a lot of drinks. We made a few friends including a man named Billy from Scotland. We were introduced to Billy by this guy that turned out to be a bit of a creep and wouldn’t leave Gina alone despite her telling him that she had a boyfriend 5 times and then eventually telling him she was getting married soon. The only thing that finally got him to back off was when she told him she’s 36 (the horror!) and Billy telling him to go away.

The bouncers at the bar were amazing and kept a close eye on us to make sure we were ok and no one was bothering us. My only regret from the night was not making conversation with the cute security guard I kept making eye contact with (pictured above), but I guess Que Sera, Sera.

We taxied home, watched some more Dahmer, and then went to bed! Back to Dublin tomorrow!