📍Belfast, Northern Ireland 5/13/23

My recent travels have exposed me to the art of walking out of a city. It’s something I experienced before walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and I always found it bewildering how smaller cities in Europe seem to abruptly start and end–one moment you are in the city, and the next you are in the countryside.

It’s a better world without suburbs.

Larger cities are a bit more stretched with factories and industries lying on the outskirts, but smaller cities allow you to experience the magic of escaping it on foot.

Belfast is no exception, and it only took a couple of hours to feel like I had fully left civilization and gotten to an area with no humans around, one where I could frolic in a field without any watching eyes (the greatest feeling ever).

Walking out of a city also lets you experience neighborhoods you would not otherwise visit–areas without tourists or corporations, filled with locals and locally owned shops. It’s a better experience. I love pretending I’m a local.

During my trek from Belfast city center to the surrounding fields, I ended up taking my shoes off–partly because it was an unexpected hike in shoes I thrifted for 1£ the day before, and partly because going barefoot in nature feels far more adventurous.