"A trip down memory lane" Belfast by planxty

If you read the paragraph below, you will understand my impressions of Belfast in 2005, not long after I joined VT. I still don't get back to Northern Ireland a lot and tend hardly to get to Belfast at all but I was there a couple of days ago, and if anything my impression is reinforced. Every time I come back, I recognise the city of my borth less and less. Familiar old bars have been tarted up and turned into gastropubs, old buildings have been torn down or gentrified, everything is renamed or perhaps I am just getting old.

There is no doubt, as part of the so-called "peace dividend" the old place has certainly become something of a tourist destination complete with a very good infrastructure including open-topped sightseeing buses. In the 70's the only open topped buses were the ones somebody had blown the roof off!

Still, it is now in a far better place than it was, and I'm glad to say the Belfast traditions of friendliness toward strangers and a ready, sometimes very black, humour have not gone the way of so much else. If you haven't been, you really should. Tell them I sent you!

I spent my formative years in Belfast, back in the 70's. Without wishing to dwell at all on the situation it wasn't, perhaps, the happiest place on the planet.. I left in 1981 and lived in various other places in Northern Ireland, mostly in County Armagh, and did not really spend so much time there.

I have now been living in London for 17 years, and don't get home too much and, when I do, I don't tend to get to Belfast as my parents live in the country.

I returned to the old place in February 2005, just for a couple of days, and I could not believe how much it had changed. Obviously, any city will change over that period of time, but in the case of Belfast, the transformation was nothing short of remarkable. The "peace dividend" was very much in evidence, and the place is really buzzing again.

Due to another imminent trip, I won't be able to complete these pages for about six weeks now, but watch this space.

• Pros:Vibrant night-life, friendly people, GREAT bars.
• Cons:The weather's not that great.
• In a nutshell:The place I was born and raised.