Making a video about Belfast.
So I was wondering if I could ask you what you love about Belfast?
Well, we never come to Belfast.
We don't love . No, you don't. Sorry. You don't. Okay. Thank you.
That woman said she never comes to Belfast
and she doesn't love anything about it. Fair enough. Each their own.
I'm Kristin. It's my first time in Northern Ireland, so I'm gonna walk around.
Belfast and
ask locals what they like and don't like about their city.
And what brought you to Belfast?
My mother was from Northern Ireland, so, um,
she had moved to the States in the seventies.
Just had always wanted to move here. She had a lot of siblings,
so I moved over in 2010. So at the arrived age of 38.
I just put the bullet.
And that is so cool. And what, how do you like living here compared to the US?
Love it.
So was there something that specifically like you didn't like about the US.
Or, I just found, I'm, I'm from Texas. I just felt,
and I love my family and friends there,
but it just felt everybody was very conservative in a way that I'm not mm-hmm
, I'm just more socially liberal and just kind of very confining,
almost living there. Um, everybody always seems to be, you know,
chasing the Jones' or whatever.
That thing. Oh yeah. Keeping up with the Joneses.
And it's, you don't see it as much here. You know,
your car's not as much as status single and.
Yeah.
You know, where you get your, your name, brand bags. I don't know.
It just seems calmer and more relaxed here. It just felt more,
it just felt after I was only moving here for two years and then I thought, no,
I'm staying. Cause I just feel more, more just feel more settled and
contented. Yeah. I can definitely relate to that.
I went back to the US during the pandemic. Yeah. And then it was,
I did a video about like how I see the US Yeah.
It was like talking about the same things.
Do you follow Yorkshire Beach at all on TikTok? She's an American
that's in Yorkshire,
she met a man there and she does a lot of videos about how things are different
over here in the UK than they are in American.
Things that she thought were so normal in America now she thinks are a bit
ridiculous.
Yeah. So it's good. Yeah. What do you love the most about living in Belfast?
Um,
I would say like about Northern Ireland in general is just 25 days a year of
annual leave.
Oh.
Attend bank holidays on top of that free healthcare, all
of us-- services. Services.
Social.
Health care. More, more relaxed.
Yeah. You look, they look after your like a better work life balance kind of,
you know.
Did um, you get your passport, your citizenship here? I have citizenship? Yeah.
Okay. So you, because.
My mom was from here.
I'm Oh, right, right.
I just got an Irish
passport. Cool. And, uh, what do you about you,
what do you like about the city or live living in Northern Ireland?
Um, I don't know really. It's just, I've grew up and lived here all my life,
so it's kinda just used to it. It says I do,
it does have a nice pace. So going, it's not busy, it's not rushed.
Everything's a lot more like I lived in London for a while.
It's just a lot more hectic there. Yeah. It was just, it's quite a,
quieter piece of life.
Yeah. And my cousins live in London and it's like,
I just go for a few days and then I'm,
I'm like I need a break and I just got here last night.
So what would you say are some of the areas that have room for
improvement?
Like where can the city get better and what could be changed about it?
There,
there is a lot of areas in the city that they are currently trying to develop
into better areas. And it's just a case of getting it done,
getting the money and getting permissions and,
but generally speaking says the city has developed and grown an awful lot
and you saved the legs of the group for the cathedral quarter at.
Superb. Yeah. So when I got here yesterday at the train station,
some girls told me that they came up from Dublin,
like they come up here on the weekend. Yeah. Okay.
I've made it to Belfast and the first thing I noticed was lots of pretty ladies
walking around everywhere. And so I asked them, where is everyone going?
All dressed up. And they told me that they are just here to go out at night.
So it's only 12:00 PM but there's lots of girls
walking around like hair and makeup done.
And they said that the place to be is Cathedral quarter in Belfast.
I think I need to do some more research.
So what is it that brings people here all the way from Dublin.
It's cheaper up here than Dublin Yeah. Dublin's on the Euro and
Yeah. Everything.
in Dublin. Everything's Dublin's expensive.
It is. I was just there
So cheaper. That's so ironic that it's cheaper on the pound. I know. Here.
I know. Yeah. . Yeah, it's, well thank you guys. What were your names?
My name's Marade
rhymes with parade
Name with parade. Okay.
Your name? Name. You're Steven.
Okay. Steven. I'm Kristin. Nice to meet you. Where can we find you. Uh,
Traveling with Kristin. Okay. Is my channel.
K r i
uh, yeah, a K and an I. Okay.
Uh, We're all from Belfast
Oh, you're all from here. Okay, cool. What are your names?
Uh, I'm Johnny. Johnny, Luke. And I'm Lewis.
What do you guys love about your city?
Um, just like, you know, just the overall like freedom of it. I mean we,
we all like, you know, officiate all types of cultures as you see,
I'm not like we, we fit them with these type of people. .
Say that, but what about like daily life? Like what is that like here?
Um, it's, it can be peaceful. It can be peaceful. You get like,
Like nightlife, life is mostly the crazy ones. So it is. But, but no, during the day,
I mean it's peaceful. I mean you get walk about,
you go to the shops and just everyone's nice to you, you.
Know? Yeah. So far so good. I've been here like 12 hours. Well have you,
how you came? Uh, I came on a train from Dublin, but I'm from Florida.
Oh, right, okay.
Orlando. Orlando.
Orlando. Yeah. Upside down. What did you think of the US? Yeah.
It was good. So it was just very warm and humidity and all that. It's too.
Much. Yeah. .
Opposite for you. Suppose here is just like cold it would.
Say. And uh, what about you? What do you love about Belfast?
Well, Belfast would I say what it would be? The nightlife.
Oh yeah. Every.
Place.
Everybody's out having fun, half off, sitting down, making conversation.
Overall it's a great way city.
Where's the best place for nightlife?
The best place should be on about would round by beta cathedral quarter Uhhuh.
and roundabouts. Where the har bar is.
The harp bar.
Yeah. That's where you would get more or less nightlife?
Yeah. Or just any pub really in town
or like Monroe
that's my go-to place with it. Okay. Like just karaoke nights as well.
Sometimes you get a free shot if you do a song well.
Oh my god. . I'm not much of a singer.
Neither am I, I scream .
And what would you change about Belfast?
Where do you think the government could improve things around here?
That's a question, isn't It, it's horrible. .
It's perfect.
Uh.
Hmm. Never actually much that into that question actually.
You don't have many complaints.
The only one thing I would personally have to say about the government,
There's a cost of living crisis, which is obviously costing everybody. Yeah.
And it's.
The inflation is just massive. It's costing everybody a fortune,
but just about by with the.
the scraps.
Prices.
. Yeah.
We'll survive.
Yeah, that's true. It's uh, it's much worse in Florida,
I can tell you that. The cost of living. Well thank you guys so much. Um,
nice to meet all of you and.
Hope you get to see all the beautiful bitd of it. Thanks.
Yeah, it's a lot of it. Bye!
Everyone's super nice and they all seem to like their city,
so can't complain. After talking to the guys,
I walk down to the Cathedral quarter district, which comes highly recommended.
What do you love about Belfast?
Um, well the cathedral quarter is brilliant. Great crowd Um,
There's always something happening, people are lovely.
. What would you say to people who've never been here, like tourists,
why should they come to Northern Ireland?
Um, there's loads of history. . Yeah. In a way that's for sure. Um,
city centers really up and coming. Um, there's gorgeous restaurants,
loads to see, loads to do. Um, so it's just amazing.
Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Bye. .
Everyone's super nice here and it is very quiet,
it's very pleasant and I'm liking it.
Are very friendly in Northern Ireland.
Belfast has got the friendliest city in the world or the UK you know, um,
over the last while. And um, it's, I picturesque.
I have a home in the north coast and the North coast.
All the beaches are beautiful.
What's it called?
White, uh, white rocks and uh, white rocks. Portrush
port rush bash Bushmills and all that.
Beautiful. Oh wow. That sounds lovely.
Is there anything you don't like about Northern Ireland or Belfast?
Uh. They could keep it a bit cleaner.
Uhhuh, , you know.
I don't think they should be having chewing gum on the streets or cigarette butts
on the streets. It should be kept cleaner.
Yeah. Okay. Well thank you so much. What was your name? Janice. Janice,
nice to meet you. I'm Kristin. What.
Where will this be going on?
Uh, my channel's called Traveling with Kristin. Oh.
What, where? Whereabout.
Did you get that on YouTube?
YouTube.
Yeah. You can search Traveling with Kristin.
I'll get, I look it up
Travel with Kristin. Yeah.
Okay.
Alright. Bye. . Janice is precious.
Loved her. What's your name?
My name is
Sammi, Sammy? And how long have you lived in Belfast?
One year. What do you like about it? Here. Where are you from?
From Eritrea
Where? From Eritrea? Yeah. Oh, okay. And, uh,
why did you come to Northern Ireland?
I dunno because I don't have freedom in my country.
Don't have what? Freedom. No freedom. And you feel, um,
like there's more freedom here?
Yeah. Better, Yes
What are some of the problems in Eritrea?
Dictator? The president
The president. Dictator? Yes. Oh, dictator. Oh, okay.
Did you bring your family here?
I'd like to bring but, my family isn't here
Oh, okay. Well thank you so much.
I hope you have good luck with everything that you're doing here and that you
get to see your family soon. Bye.
What do you guys love about Belfast?
. It's good. Yeah, because like craic good.
Yeah.
I feel like this needs some explanation because in Ireland and Northern Ireland,
craic is spelled like this and it's a good thing. Where you
from anyway? I'm from the US .
America, where part?
Florida.
Florida Miami. My cousins are there at the minute. Yeah. You went to Florida?
[inaudible].
What's that? You know.
Frame? I don't know. Are you here on job?
Oh, oh no. I'm a Taurus. Tur. Yeah. Yeah. What's your names?
I'm Lewis. I'm Brandon. That's I'm Lewis. And what's your name.
And what do you love about your city? Everything. Everything.
Is there anything you don't like?
Um, yeah, the separation religion. Yeah. Because like,
I'm a pro and then Catholics knew I was a,
a pro, they would beat us. Really? For no reason. Yeah.
For no reason.
Is that still happening? Yeah.
Start in the troubles if you know what I mean
I thought they were over.
No like us kids. Like they jump. I've been jumped before.
At school.
No.
So if you say kids dressed up like us, They'd probably jump us.
I would --uhhuh.
But they'll do it for no reason.
That's not cool.
Are good. Some of them are, you know, fun. Yeah.
Yeah.
Some Protestants are bad
Yeah, some.
We're.
Good. Yeah, we are good. We.
Yeah. Well what do you think they can do to change it? How do we fix it?
They just being brought up
different, I don't know because they were brought up by people in troubles.
Oh we don't like we don't I was brought up, hit them as.
Yeah. Yeah.
We were brought up. We have been jumped.
That's crazy.
Like our Catholic -- wouldn't, doesn't like us. Yeah. Know what I mean
But if
they ended up dead liking that and we ended up bringing their stuff, you know.
What I mean? Yeah, we are.
But it would never worked.
Well thanks for sharing about that. And I hope this brings more awareness.
Hope those --you posted any work?
On YouTube. What's your YouTube
Channel? Traveling with Kristin.
Traveling with what?
Traveling with Kristin with a K, Kristin. Great.
No, it's my first time in Belfast,
so I just wanted to learn more about the city last night.
Last Night
Yeah. What from uhm? From Dublin. Dublin? Yeah.
I took the train traveling.
Where else have you been?
Uh, I've been to like 60 countries. 60 big? Yeah. Yeah.
That's close. Like what's your favorite thing?
Um, ooh, it depends, you know, like for,
for like culture and stuff. I love Bali and Indonesia.
Where's that? Australia.
It's like Indian Ocean. Um, yeah,
south of like Japan and Philippines.
And everything. What's Japan like? Is it.
Like Japan is super cool. It's a very interesting culture,
great food, uh, lots of nature, lots of, uh,
good skiing and snowboarding.
Actually. Um, hello Jaime. I on the watch, What? Jaime says Jamie Rocks.
Jimmy Rocks say, well to Jaime Rocks say Hi, Jaime Rocks.
Who's that.
Friend?
Oh cool. My brother's name's Jimmy.
It was Jamie.
Jimmy, Jaime. Oh, Jaime?
No, j a m i e.
Oh. Oh, okay. Sorry. I only speak American
So where should I go around here? What's good spot?
Where you in the
Castle Court or
I was think I was walking there.
Victoria Square. And you go.
Do, you're gonna come. Okay.
My new friend slash tour guides took me to visit the famous dome at
Victoria Square in Belfast where you can get 360 degree views
of the city. There is an elevator, but we took the stairs.
We're hiking up a lot of stairs. Got my tour guide here. .
You guys are fast. It's cause they're younger. Okay.
Woo. We made it to the top. Oh my God.
Wow. Cool.
Those kids were really cool. They were super nice. So shout out to them.
You really learned so much when you talk to strangers and kind
of a new perspective on how to look at the world.
But yeah,
everyone has a story in talking to random people on the street.
You hear some pretty cool stuff, but also some very sad stories.
Like one of the girls I, I asked to be in the video,
she said she would,
but that her best friend just died today and she didn't wanna talk. So what?
I can totally understand that. I'm so sorry. Yeah, just,
you know,
you see someone sitting on a bench or just standing in the
sidewalk and you don't know what they went through that day.
So just a reminder to be kind to everyone and
compassionate and empathetic and strangers are just friends you haven't
met yet.