In spring of my sophomore year in college, I found a cheap flight from Baton Rouge to London and spent a few days walking around the city. While I was in London, EasyJet had a promotional 0GPB fare from London to Belfast and back. I ended up paying something like ten pounds in taxes for the flight, which left in the early morning and returned late at night. It was also St. Patrick’s Day.
In Belfast, I caught a parade downtown walked to the Falls Road and Shankilll Road and toured Queen’s University Belfast before returning to London.
As it was one of my earliest international journeys, I didn’t bring too many books with me. In fact, I was reading James Clavell’s Tai Pan at the time, which isn’t really connected to Belfast at all. However, after my visit I have read frequently about Belfast and Northern Ireland.
My biggest suggestion is the Sean Duffy series from Adrian McKinty, which came out a few years after I travel to Belfast and captures the troubles with great pace and lyrical prose.
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