It was a rainy day in Northern Ireland. I had just finished coaching the boys at Abbey college and I was drenched in my raincoat walking back from the carpark. I texted the girls to warn them of this weather and we debated whether we were going to follow through with our plans of going to the city for the first night of the Twilight Market in Belfast. We eventually decided to pull out our umbrellas and brave the weather to attend this award winning market.
We walked in to the market, soaking wet and happy to be inside a warm building. The smell of food wafted into our nostrils and the beautiful display of lights reminded us that Christmas was around the corner. We went from stand to stand trying hot apple cider, chocolate fudge, all kinds of meat and seafood, breads and olive oils, beverages, and all sorts of other things. There was a large seating area that featured a live cooking show and a DJ playing all the great tunes. Lots of people bustling around and vendors excited to tell us about their lovely, local products. We also tried this homemade granola that was absolutely scrumptious. It was so good you didn’t even need to eat it with yogurt or anything. I almost bought a pack but ended up buying salted caramel chocolate instead (oops). For dinner I did a super plate of an assortment of foods from this Spanish stand and it was also delicious. Perhaps my favorite thing about the market, though, was the overall atmosphere. You could hear and feel laughter and joy. You could smell different foods coexisting. You could see many different crafts from natural crèmes and oils to beautiful hand crafted cards to woodwork to tapestries. You could feel the warmth of human connection, the slow pace of enjoyment and experience, and the upward curve of your own mouth as you took in beauty of the market.
Yes, it was a rainy day in Northern Ireland. But it was also so so so much more!
