Euro 2008

Belfast, Northern Ireland

They say the Europa is the most bombed hotel in the world. It is also the epicentre of Belfast life; morning coffee, afternoon tea, lunches and dinners all served here.

It has photos of famous guests lining the walls of the staircase that leads to the huge pictured café bar gawping out on to Great Victoria Street. Former US President Bill Clinton, who once booked out the whole place for his entourage, even has one of the swanky suites named after him.

As luck would have it, it was also the venue for Miss Northern Ireland on the day of our stay. As Miss Coleraine, Miss Bangor and Miss Derry tottered around in stiletto heels and identical pink T-shirts, producer Garth understandably became very excited.

We had come to Belfast on the latest leg of our Euro 2008 tour to meet World United, a team made of diverse nationalities living in the city and trying to integrate into local football.

By 7pm, 25 Poles, various Irish Football Association bigwigs and a smattering of other players, including Portuguese captain Aruna, had crammed into the back bar of the nearby The Garrick Bar.

This was not far from the scene of anti-George Bush protests outside City Hall earlier in the day. The current US President was in Belfast the same time as we were but elected to fly out after a few hours rather than commandeer the Europa.

As Poland v Croatia kicked off in our room, the more traditional front bar was showing Austria v Germany to a tangle of enthusiastic locals and a couple of German voluntary workers.

The match over, our evening had only just begun. So keen was Garth to fully explore all aspects of Belfast "culture", he'd blagged us both tickets to Miss Northern Ireland.

Two scruffs amongst dickie bows and evening gowns, we watched Judith Wilson, a 22-year-old teacher from Ballinamallard, crowned outstanding beauty for 2008.

Click here to follow Clem's route around the UK..