I especially enjoyed walking around the Waterfront Festival Hall and up towards the University area - a mix of old historic and ultra-modern buildings, burgeoning nightlife and revellers streaming into the tiniest of 'craic ninety' places.

I could have walked for hours, and indeed did, soaking up an atmosphere that can only be described as the feeling you get when you're rested, well fed, have had a couple of favourite tipples, and are on your way to meet a new lover who thinks you're the sexiest thing she's ever met - reignited senses of wonderment doing more for my state of mind than any plastic surgeon or alternative therapist could ever do.

And almost any walk could lift you there - City Hall down to Victoria Avenue, a left turn down to the Albert Clock and Customs House (mind the street fountains), a right turn up past the Big Fish, The Waterfront and on to St Georges Market - a right turn up Great Victoria Avenue, past the Europa Hotel (most bombed) and Opera House - on to Laverys (a thousand pints of Guinness poured on each and every night) - then up along Shaftesbury Avenue to the Queens Film Theatre (currently showing John Wayne movies) for a freshly brewed coffee, before heading onto Queens University for a gaze at its decorative facade.

Yes it's all there: shopping, culture, music and historic walks; a hundred different restaurants serving food you'd really die for, and needless to say I'll be back there again before Christmas - dying to see what she'll look like when dressed up in all her colours.

I stayed at the Belfast International Hostel, 22-23 Donegall Road, Belfast BT12 5JN. Double en suite room cost £28. Bookable through www.hostelworld.com

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Very central, very cheap, and provides all the facilities you could wish for. Great choice of breakfasts from The Causeway Cafe. Fresh cooked and very reasonable.

22-32 Donegall Road, Belfast BT12 5JN
www.hostelworld.com

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Vibrant is the only word I can use to describe my two-day visit to Belfast. The place simply buzzed with activity and on an afternoon when an autumn sun shone over a reborn city - it made me feel like I'd been missing out on life since the last time I had been there.

There are many ways to get around the city but I chose to take a bus - the bus guide displaying ample amounts of Belfast humour as we made our way down roads which once had been the subject of so much news footage (Shankill and Falls) - her jokes taking the sting out of sensitive issues and thereby sentencing them, we hoped, to history forever. Surely nobody could joke about 'the troubles' unless they felt certain they were well behind them.

She really didn't have any cause to emphasise the fact though as it was apparent to all who rode the bright red double decker that this was indeed the case - every street it turned down packed with well-dressed pedestrians availing of every possible facility - and no doubt looking forward to those soon to open up all around them.

I stayed at the Belfast International Hostel, 22-23 Donegall Road, Belfast BT12 5JN. Double en suite room cost 28 sterling. Bookable through www.hostelworld.com

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