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So in a few months I’m taking a cruise that goes from Dublin to Glasgow to Reykjavik to Belfast to Cork and then back to Dublin.

Anyone from or familiar with any of those cities and know of cool things to do or restaurants/pubs to stop at? It will be my first time in the UK area so I figure I will have to have some real fish n chips, or is that like cliche tourist food nowadays? I wanna try local delicacies, not burgers and stuff Based on the Highlander description, I don't think I'd wanna try haggis.

In Glasgow the ship is actually docking in Greenock (I think) and then we have to take a bus into town. We have whale watching scheduled for Iceland, and we may do a trip to Blarney Castle when we stop in Cork. In Dublin our flight arrives at like 9 AM but we can’t board the ship until around 3 or 4 PM, and it sets sail at 9:30 PM due to the tides in the river or something like that. So we’ll have some time to look around, we might book a hotel if they have day use rates just to drop off our luggage and maybe rest up a little, because it’s going to feel like 1 AM when we get there.

In Glasgow (and the rest of Scotland) fish & chips is referred to as a fish supper and it's still popular

(you could also add a deep fried haggis if you decide you do want to try it, I think they're excellent).

but sadly I can't really recommend anything to see there as all my info is 20+ years out of date and the place has changed loads since I was there and a lot of what I knew is gone

hope you have a great trip

When in Belfast, be sure to visit Kelly’s Cellars. There’s also the John Hewitt, the Duke of York, the Kitchen Bar and McHugh’s. And the Merchant Hotel. Truth is though, we’ve got more pubs and bars than we know what to do with.

Food wise you could go to Brooklyn Square, The Speakeasy, Little Wing’s, Boojum or Tribal Burger. We also have a Tim Horton’s and Five Guys. I just wish Bubbacue’s was still open though...it was amazing.

Our ‘chippies’ are generally superior to what you’d find in the rest of the UK (no really) so try them out if you can. We’ve also got plenty of cinemas, and there’s the Ulster museum, the Titanic quarter and the SSE arena (if you arrive when a Giant’s match is playing). A while back they had a showcase of all the GoT stuff used here too but that’s all wrapped up I think.

If you're going to Dublin, be prepared to be shocked by the price of a pint.

Luckily I don't drink. Will everyone in the pub laugh at me if I get a coke?

I don't know if we'd want to get burgers, since we have them everywhere here. But at the same time, we have a 5 Guys here, might be interesting to see if it's any different across the pond. We want to try and find "authentic local cuisine" as long as it doesn't involve internal organs We get really good food on the ship that's all included, so if we're gonna pay to eat anywhere we wanna make sure it will be awesome or special or something we wouldn't want to miss.

Future War Cultist wrote:Our ‘chippies’ are generally superior to what you’d find in the rest of the UK (no really) so try them out if you can.

That there is a bold claim. Scots-Italian chippies 4 lyf. Speaking of which, the Philidelphia on Great Western Road in Glasgow is a belter. Bonus that it's next door to Glasgow's second best pub, Inn Deep.

Necros wrote:Luckily I don't drink. Will everyone in the pub laugh at me if I get a coke?

I don't know if we'd want to get burgers, since we have them everywhere here. But at the same time, we have a 5 Guys here, might be interesting to see if it's any different across the pond. We want to try and find "authentic local cuisine" as long as it doesn't involve internal organs We get really good food on the ship that's all included, so if we're gonna pay to eat anywhere we wanna make sure it will be awesome or special or something we wouldn't want to miss.

But that's what food is?

Restaurants wise, I think Glasgow's best (non-Scottish) efforts are the Hanoi Bike Shop, Nippon Kitchen, Amarone, Butchershop Bar and Grill, and Mother India. Paesano is great for a quick place. Great local cuisine places are Cail Bruach, Ubiquitous Chip, The Bothy, and Stravaigin (which has quite a lot of sorta Scots-fusion things - sounds pretentious but really isn't). Bothy is owned by the repugnant and exploitative G1 group if that's off-putting. Helpfully, all of those are within 5 mins of each other. Eusebi is great for a breakfast or lunch.

The fancy-dan seafood restaurant Rogano always gets amazing reviews (and is priced like it) but it's been rubbish both times I've been.

I wouldn't bother with the best pub. Which is absolutely The Pot Still. Fact. It's just an old guy pub with a world leading whisky collection; a few rotating, but always good, pints; and terrifyingly knowledgeable staff, but if you're not a drinker it has nothing to offer. Inn Deep is cool and always has loads of interesting non-alcoholic options.

We're coming from Philadelphia, so we may have to stop at The Philadelphia Do they make cheesesteaks? j/k

I'm making a list so we'll try and check out some of these places

I'm totally ignorant when it comes to the kind of food that would be local delicacies or staples over there. The only dishes I ever had that make me think of the UK or Ireland are Fish n Chips and Bangers n Mash (or is it mush?). Then other stuff I heard of was haggis because I watched Highlander too many times, and blood pudding.. which I would probably never touch, because it has the word blood in it and that just sounds like vampire food.

We're expecting Iceland to be mostly fish dishes, and I think I read about something like rye ice cream. We get to Reykjavik in the afternoon and stay overnight and leave the following day, then go to Akureyri. Other than the whale watching we'll probably just wander around town near the port.

I visited Reykjavik over New Years in 2017/18 (Sigur Ros playing concerts back at home in Iceland? You're damn right I'm going to visit to see that!). It's a great city but be prepared, it is very expensive!

Some things to check out:

- Get yourself a hotdog from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur at Tryggvagata. Get there early around lunch time or else you will end up at the back of a very long queue! Ask for one with everything ("eina með öllu" in Icelandic).

- If you have time, look into taking a tour out to some of Iceland's natural landmarks (the golden circle tours). It is a beautiful country with lots of really interesting geological features. EDIT: Doesn't sound like you'll have time for this, unfortunately.

- The Blue Lagoon is just outside Reykjavik and is good for a visit to bask in a natural geothermal pool. Make sure you use the conditioner they provide to protect your hair from the silicates in the water! EDIT: Doesn't sound like you'll have time for this, unfortunately.

- The national museum was pretty good, I thought.

- Foodwise, also check out Svarta Kaffid. You get a nice hot soup served in a bowl of bread. Choices are meat soup or veg soup, so no having to fuss around with menus! The meat was reindeer when I was visiting.

Reykjavik isn't a huge city, so you can just wander around and see what takes your fancy.

If you want good British food, find a pub (a proper pub, not a chain pub) that does roasts, beef, lamb etc.

Dublin has lots of nice restaurants, but Burdocks is pretty good for fish and chips if you want to get it. Dublin is right on the coast so the fish tends to be good.
Very expensive city though and currently a big homelessness problem.

Nobody cares if you are not drinking, don't worry. If you want traditional Irish food you might try places like the Porter House and get the Irish Stew. Most traditional Irish food is pretty stodgey and not super exciting though!

I hope you have fun on your trip!

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Glasgow sadly I can't really recommend anything to see there as all my info is 20+ years out of date and the place has changed loads since I was there and a lot of what I knew is gone

Visited in 2018 and spent quite a bit of time in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. As one can guess there's art but also a lot of other exhibits like history and nature. It's certainly worth having a look at.

Things to do in Glasgow?

Get the train to Edinburgh.

Glasgow, come for a laugh, go home in stitches

So we decided to get a hotel for the day downtown in Dublin. We looked around and found a good deal for day use rooms and then we can stash our luggage while we explore. It's on Parnell street and there was a nice looking restaurant across the street called Kingfisher, they seem to be famous for breakfasts according to the google photos. There's also a mall right by the hotel too so we figured it would be a good location and on the map it looks like the cruise port isn't too far away. On Google Maps there were like 8 different burger kings nearby

I googled the hot dog place in Iceland, looks like they have a lot of locations so we'll see if we can find them for a snack. Looks like they have one in Akureyri too. We'll probably try and find a good dinner restaurant there for the evening when we arrive and the next morning we have our whale watching tour and I think the ship will be leaving soon after we get back.

We're gonna just wander around Glasgow and see what we can see. The ship has some shuttle buses going back and forth from the port to downtown.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Things to do in Glasgow?

Get the train to Edinburgh.

Glasgow, come for a laugh, go home in stitches

Unless he's going to wander around in Easterhouse trying to buy heroin 15 years ago he's going to be fine.

So we did some research last night.. apparently we can take a train right from Greenock where the ship is into the middle of Glasgow, for about 7 pounds each way.. around $10 US. The tour bus from the ship is $60. So we will probably just take the train and then wander around and see what we can find or see if any of the restaurants you guys mentioned will be around there. Looks like there are tons of shops and restaurants all around the train station.

Go where the locals go.

That'd the best tip, if you can Blende in

 Necros wrote:
So we did some research last night.. apparently we can take a train right from Greenock where the ship is into the middle of Glasgow, for about 7 pounds each way.. around $10 US. The tour bus from the ship is $60. So we will probably just take the train and then wander around and see what we can find or see if any of the restaurants you guys mentioned will be around there. Looks like there are tons of shops and restaurants all around the train station.

Both train stations are right in the centre. They're amidst the bulk of the shops but not many of the good restaurants (Amarone and Nippon Kitchen are central, though). The tube takes you everywhere, though, and there are two tube stops within seconds walk of the train stations (there's an escalator between Queen Street Station and Buchanan Street Tube and St Enoch Tube is a minute tops from the bottom exit of Central Station). It's also very cheap.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
If you're going to Dublin, be prepared to be shocked by the price of a pint.

It’s OK. He’s going to Reykjavík too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for travel round Glasgow, you might want to pick up a day ticket for the Subway. It’ll take you from the city centre to the West End (some of the restaurants nfe mentioned are there).

If you’re looking for shopping, there’s plenty of designer shops in the centre of Glasgow, or there’s the Kelvingrove gallery and transport museum in the west end and the gallery of modern art in the city centre with the famous statue of the Duke of Wellington wearing a traffic cone out front. That’s worth a selfie at the very least. the People’s Palace is a short walk east, and while you’re there you can pop in for a pint at West. Or if you just look up a bit, there’s some impressive architecture hiding around Glasgow.

There’s also Static Games in the Trongate and a few geek / anime shops too if that’s your thing.

Finally, if you’re feeling brave, I know at least one place that I can confirm will sell a deep-fried Mars bar.