And with that, our time in Scotland had come to an end. If we hadn’t pre-booked our ferry, I’m sure we would’ve stayed for another night. It was just such a lovely campground. The owner was nice, the landscape super pretty and our neighbours easy to chat to, plus they liked having Number 3 around.

We packed everything up with time to spare and headed off to the small town right next to the ferry port. Flo’s plan was to charge the car, spent a little time and then head on to the check-in. The first charger, however, was out of service. By the time we’d gotten to the next one about 3 minutes later, me (and with me Number 3) had gotten nervous about missing the ferry. By unforeseeable happenstance, Flo listened to me and we drove on to the ferry port…where we logically stood in line for a while. 😀 We were by no means the first ones at the port but I got A LOT of shit for our waiting time. Not even a coffee and two muffins made a real difference.

Leaving the campground, we had told the kids about leaving Scotland and continuing to Ireland. The Agent of Entropy said “nochmal Schottland bitte” (Scotland again please) which she always says if she enjoyed something and would like to repeat the experience.

Alas, time continues to go by even when you’re just waiting around and we were allowed to board eventually. The kids were raving with excitement. Everything was big and loud, it was windy outside and there were toys to play with. I think, the Agent of Entropy has found her calling as a being of the wind. She probably feels kinship to it as it also brings a lot of entropy into the world.

For us adults, it seemed like another ferry ride, mostly like the one to cross Cook Strait: Waiting time, overpriced bad food in the restaurant, people battling for the comfiest spots. Since this ferry ride though, both kids really want to go back onto a boat, but please for longer next time, okaaaaay?

At 1.30pm we arrived in Belfast. The Agent hadn’t slept on the ferry instead she’d been all over the place and was thus exhausted. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep in the car although we just drove from the port to a charger in the inner city. Flo managed to gently put her in the kids carrier so we could go and explore Belfast a bit. Number 3 still is a city exploring champion. He walked everywhere with us, through the rain, from coffee time until dinner.

We started with a bit of a tour around the quarter that we ended up in. There were murals to look at and little lanes to take. We came across many a pub that looked lovely but it was neither the time nor the circumstances to go into one. Instead, we found our way into “Established coffee” for a coffee time break. By that time, the Agent of Entropy had woken up again and graciously agreed to a chocolate cookie and a babyccino.

Around the corner there was a cathedrale which had a spike coming out of the middle of it. It piqued Flo’s curiosity so we went in. Unfortunately, it was about to close. They let us in for five minutes but we couldn’t figure out why the spike was there and what it meant. Number 3 was happy though as he got to light a candle in the church, something he really wanted to do in Aachen already. I loved it too, as a kid.

From here, we took the “scenic” route to our car, still debating how to proceed with the day. We were toying with a couple of options i.e. having an early dinner in town or setting up camp and then taking the bus back to Belfast for dinner. We decided to go for the first option as both kids seemed to be over a certain threshold already. Unfortunately, Number 3 had listened in to our conversation and demanded a bus ride in the 100% electric, pink double-decker buses which we simply couldn’t work into our plans today. Proving our suspicion that the kids really just needed to go to bed, he had a full-on tantrum. Many words of comfort and a promise of a bus ride in Dublin later, we went to dinner in Yügo. Asian fusion at its best, the plates to share were right up our (and the kids’) alley. I had miso-grilled corn and fried rice, Flo had duck truffle rice, Number 3 opted for blackened salmon and the Agent chose and ate the chicken spring rolls all by herself. As all food was just so good, we decided to order another round with dumpling, kimchi buns and last but not least, milk chocolate ganache as a dessert which my kids ate more of than me.

Round bellies and sleepy eyes shuffled back to the car and we headed for our communal campground, only 15 minutes Belfast city centre. It turned out to be just what we needed with a patch of grass, facilities and a code-operated gate which kept everyone outside who was not camping.

Just when everything was set up and the kids in bed, we realised that there were a washing machine and a dryer set up here to comfortable use. It was just too good to pass on so Flo took it upon himself to manage our laundry while I just went to bed.