Inntrek 2006

A big group of us headed out on Friday night to raise money in aid of Diabetes UK in the form of Inntrek 2006, a pub crawl through 5 of Belfast's olde pubs. We started at The Roost at 7pm where we picked up our quiz booklet and after ordering a round of drinks settled down to fill in the answers. Unfortunatly this did not seem to be our strong point and after rattling off the easy questions, we headed for the Morning Star. After the warmth and charm of the Roost, the Morning Star represents the older style of pubs in Belfast which is to say, all it's missing is an old man with a dog by the bar. However, any nostalgic feeling for this bygone era is lost as the place is in a little need of a facelift. I'm totally against rejuvenating it a la Morrisons, but the place was a bit filthy. Straight up it's a mans bar and admittitly they do a very good buffet lunch so no real complaints but a quick census revealed no one would go there unless they were forced to.

Next up was McCrackens, previously O'Neills, and it was deader than a graveyard in the depths of winter. By this time it was a little after 9pm and we arrived with a guy on keyboards singing Van Morrison's classic Moondance. It's a shame though because it's a really good bar and we agreed that if we were heading out as a group it would be a great place to go because a seat would be guaranteed but not the best if you're on the pull or trying to raise your social reputation. We ordered some hot nuts and attempted to pencil in a few more blanks on the quiz sheet. However, we quickly discarded it in favour of conversation and after downing our pints, we moved on to Whites Tavern.

Whites Tavern is a great little bar and the guinness is always good so I ordered pint number 5 or 6 and we scooped some tables at the back beside some french tourists. By this time, we weren't going to answer any more questions and the night began to blur. A few of us hadn't had any dinner and The Roost was offering sandwiches to entrants at 10.30 so after chucking the drinks down, we headed back to the scene of the crime and got a great table upstairs. More pints were ordered, knocked back and dancing and singing commenced downstairs. We sat and chatted away getting more stocious until closing time around 1am. I'm sure we raised over £300 between us which is really good news and judging from the crowd, Diabetes UK made some much needed money for their cause.

Bring on Intrek 2007!