A Polish man has opened up on his experience of moving to Northern Ireland.
Lukasz Ludziejewski, 41, moved from Wroclaw to Lisburn soon after visiting friends 15 years ago and falling in love with the country.
Since then, he has worked in a variety of jobs including in a warehouse, as a driver, a kitchen porter and in retail, before setting in an IT career working with artificial intelligence.
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In his spare time, Lukasz is also a photographer and is involved with the Cooltura Organisation, a community group that helps promote Polish history and cultural heritage in Northern Ireland.
"I came to Belfast 15 years ago for a trip to visit my friends, who had been living here for around two years by then. The plan was to take two months off from work and to come over here, to visit this place and spend some time with them," Lukasz told Belfast Live.
"That was the initial plan, but as you can see - 15 years later, it didn't work out like that.
"I was in photography school at the time, so when I was here travelling I did some work to afford a new camera, before returning to Poland.
"After a year, my wife joined me here and our kids were born here, so they have beautiful Northern Irish accents - it's so brilliant.
"If anyone asks when the last time I visited home was, I tell them it's every evening when I finish work. Northern Ireland has become my home now."
After first moving to Northern Ireland, Lukasz said he didn't know much about the region's history but enjoyed educating himself.
He said: "I didn't know anything about Titanic or The Troubles, and when I came here I didn't know what the difference was between Ireland and Northern Ireland. But then I started digging around and educating myself.
"I got my camera finally and began taking photos here, I would go and take photos of rioting, and go wherever there was news.
"As I began to learn more about Northern Ireland I realised it's a very strange place to live, but I love it. Belfast is also quite a small city. I never liked big cities, I worked in London for a while. I love it as a visitor to the city, but living there - no way."
The 41-year-old also said he initially struggled to understand the strong Northern Irish accents, but has been able to adapt and learn in the years since.
Lukasz added: "Whenever I came here I couldn't speak English as well as I can now. I learned it at school, but the English they taught me was English that was only understood by the same guys who taught me.
"The accents here are so crazy, the first two weeks here I didn't even know if people were speaking English to me. But after a month I got very used to it and knew much more.
"I've found that the pub is the best place to learn English here. You can listen to every single accent, then after you have a few beers, you don't really care if they understand you - everyone sounds the same when they're drunk! So this was a main way I learned the language."
Lukasz said that living and working here for the past 15 years has allowed him to see a positive future for Northern Ireland.
His work with the Cooltura Organisation, too, has led to him meeting people from different backgrounds and across divides.
"There are a lot of people who don't really care about the conflict," Lukasz explained.
"I work with people from all over the place, from both sides of the divide. After work, we all go for drinks together, and we are all the same - there are no differences there.
"There are a lot of people now who don't really care about the past, they're living in the present day and focused on building the future.
"With Cooltura, the idea is to join communities together, not divide them. I was always afraid of creating a bubble for one community and not join with any others, so we work with people from all over the place. It's all part of making this place better."
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