The main building at Queens |
The gate |
More Queens |
And yet another |
Jazz quartet at Cafe Aero |
By the last day we had seen a lot of Belfast. We saw the city
hall, Queens University, lots of pubs and restaurants, tons of shopping,
several churches, and so on. We wanted to go back and get photos
of Queens University since we had missed that opportunity on our previous
walk down that direction. While we were there, a guy on a bicycle
rode up, seeing that we were obviously tourists, and asked where we were
from. He looked to be in his mid 40’s maybe and was, well, not terribly
well kept. Though he didn’t look like a bum by any means, he was
definitely not upper management material. What ensued was a half
hour conversation about all kinds of things, again keeping with the spirit
of really friendly people. I would not initially have thought he
would have so many intelligent things to say. I was entertained,
though, with the fact that nearly everything he said about famous people
was somehow related to Belfast (i.e. they’re from there, studied there,
married someone from there, lived there, you get the idea).
Among other things, he mentioned that Bill Clinton had recently (within the previous couple of weeks I gathered) been given an honorary doctorates degree from Queens University in Belfast. Though he didn’t come right out and say he liked Clinton, he commented about how much he ‘helped the peace process’. Arrrrrgh…
To finish off the day (and the trip), I had to find some Jazz. No long layover is complete without some Jazz. Café Aero is right around the corner from the Posthouse (our hotel). It was a quaint European style café with great food and good music. The name of the band that played was “Giant Steps”. It consisted of bass, keyboards, sax and a vocalist. I talked to the bass player and vocalist during the break and afterwards. They do have a drummer but this gig didn’t call for drums (apparently the café didn’t want things to get too loud) so he sat out, though he was actually there that evening.
I was surprised at how good the group was considering the circumstances: Belfast isn’t world renown for their jazz, there was no cover charge, and the ages of the band ranged from 22 (the singer) to 62 (the bass player). The singer rather impressed me (most jazz vocalists do not) and the keyboard player was obviously extremely talented. The singer told me afterwards that the bass player is a regular at another club called the Rotterdam Bar and hosts various jazz groups there on a regular basis. Next time I’m in Belfast I’ll have to check it out.
So that’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and even the commentary…
V-
|
The main building at Queens |
The gate |
More Queens |
And yet another |
|
Jazz quartet at Cafe Aero |