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Published: March 20th 2009
Dublin City Crest
From some famous British castles. Our very Irish tourguide felt strongly that Ireland should change it now that they're a free country. He suggested a leprechaun, guinness, and a clover with the saying "you're not happy unless you're pissed (drunk)"As predicted, I wasn’t able to write last night. It wasn’t so much from intoxication as it was from exhaustion (ok, plus beer). Yesterday morning we slept in a little then got up and met up with the 1916 Historical Walking Tour. On our way we stopped at our favorite local grocery store (much like a Whole Foods or Trader Joes) and picked up a scone and coffee/milk. It was a great breakfast on the run! We ate it on the way to our tour. This tour is recommended by my bible (with a discount for showing them the book!) and is extremely highly recommended online (#1 out of 352 things to do in Dublin on Tripadvisor.com). We figured that for 10euros it was worth checking out. Our guide was a riot - very funny, very Irish, and very honest. The tour started with a 10-minute lesson on the 1916 Rebellion, then we started out walking around town and learning about the details of that fateful day. We saw bullet holes in statues, park gates, and buildings, as well as some other famous statues, all with an explanation tinted by the extreme Irishness of our guide, Lorcan “I’m not a Marxist”
St Stephen's Green
You can see the bullet holes in the side of the gate from 1916 Collins. It was a very entertaining 2hours and still left us with most of the day. Immediately after the tour, we stopped at the first pub we saw with a lunch menu and popped in for what turned out to be the most English of lunches. We passed on the fish and chips and instead opted for Shepherd’s Pie. Even though we had just spent all morning learning about the tyranny of England, we thoroughly enjoyed our British repast. I would highly recommend Fitzgerald’s pub in Dublin for a fabulous meal of Shepherd’s Pie. As an added bonus, I acquired my souvenir Guinness pint glass (I collect them from bars from around the world).
After lunch, we wandered down Grafton Street, which is supposed to be a “must see” sight in Dublin. It’s basically a clean little pedestrian street that’s lined with expensive stores. I think every city has one of those streets. Sure, it was a nice way to walk, but nothing I would ever (EVER) put on a “must see” list in a city!! We didn’t do much shopping, but we did stop in the very trendy (and very expensive) bath store called Lush. We splurged on
Justice
At the Dublin Castle. Too funny. It was an English Castle so the Irish say "there she stands, above her station, with her face to the palace and her arse to the nation." some gourmet bath bubble bar to use in our luxurious hotel bathtub at the Radisson. We pocketed our purchase and kept walking.
Another “must see” is the National Museum. It sounds great in theory - lots of artifacts from as early as 2200 BC, plus plenty of opportunity to learn about the history of Ireland from the cavemen, to the Celts, to the Vikings, and beyond. In practice, however, it was like walking into the National History Museum in DC after half a day of touring already under your belt. We were tired, distracted, and only half-paying attention. Plus, since there was so much stuff there with nothing really standing out (no list of super special artifacts), we just wandered around for a while then moved on. The coolest thing there was the Viking skeleton (who was like 6ft tall!). Since I couldn’t take pictures, I was a little biased against the museum to begin with, and had nothing to focus my attention (it’s surprising how much more I pick up when I’m taking pics of things and trying to remember what it is or means so I can explain the pics later).
From there we moved on
Dublin Castle
Yeah, this was it. woop dee do. to the National Gallery. I wasn’t super excited about a bunch of no-name Irish artists (well, no-name to a non-art connoisseur). Lisa is an artist, though, and was interested, so we went in. I started at the portraits and read some interesting blurbs about the people in them, while she became more cultured.
Our last stop for the day was the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square park. The park itself was gorgeous - professionally manicured with gently curving paths meandering through lush and varied greenery, the likes of which I’ve never seen outside of a greenhouse. A beautiful park coupled with very few other people and fantastic weather (if a little chilly) all made the park a serene destination. We made our way to the Oscar Wilde statue, took the obligatory tourist photos, then continued our walk through the park on our way home. We walked by the Wagamama on our way back and decided to get a bite to eat, on my bible’s recommendation. It turned out to be the best yakitori I’ve had since I ate my cousin Nick’s yakitori in Japan. It was also the only yakitori I’ve had since then, but nevertheless, it was
O'Connell St Bridge
I look like i had too many Guinnesses.... haha Hopefully it's just the angle... amazing. Wagamama is apparently a chain with locations in the US. I would definitely recommend if you can find one. We also stopped at a grocery store on our way back and picked up sandwiches for lunch the next day. Ireland loves their sandwiches, but man do they know how to make em! I haven’t had a bad sandwich yet, and I’ve had a couple on just bread. Very creative. Today it was turkey with stuffing (which included sweet corn) on ciabatta. Also had a baguette with ham and coleslaw (which is soooo good on a sandwich!!) and a few other fantastic ones over the past couple of days. Believe it or not, they actually have Subway here and people eat that crap. Don’t get me wrong - Subway is ok, but I would never say they had great sandwiches/subs. Pretty much crap, in fact. I would only go there if I had to or was really concerned about my calorie count (and even then, they pretty much suck).
When we started our day, we had several other things on our list, but a few were crossed off during the historical walk, and we were on the fence about
the others. During the tour, we had hit the Dublin Castle. I’m so glad we didn’t waste time going there on our own. It’s nothing to write home about and really nothing even worth mentioning. Next. We also strolled through St Stephen’s Green Park. A few statues worth talking about and some bullet holes in the pillars at the gate. That was about it. It was a gorgeous day out, and if we were on our own at that point we would probably have gotten some lunch and eaten it in the park. Instead, we continued our tour. We also crossed St. Patrick’s and Christchurch off our list. The Viking exhibit was supposedly not that great, and the churches were just churches (not even Catholic! They’re like Church of Ireland or something). We figured we’d pop in if we had time, but wouldn’t spend time doing that when we could be doing something else. So on the backburner.
We got back to the hotel room with a couple of hours to spare before our evening plans. While Lisa enjoyed the luxury of half of our bath bubble bar, I took a much-needed nap (I had actually considered a brief
O'Connell statue
A better day than the other pic. Plus you can kind of see the bullet holes in the crest. There are others too... nap in the museum earlier in the day). We rallied after our relaxation layover and headed out to meet up with the Backpacker’s Pub Crawl. Dublin actually has a few sanctioned pub crawls that are really worth doing (so I hear). The traditional Irish music one would be awesome, then there’s the Literary one too. Both sound great, but both are only on Thurs, Fri, and Sat in non-peak times (i.e. now). The Backpacker one was the only one that was running on Wed night. For a meager 10 or 12 euros, you get led through different pubs in the city. I’m still not really sure what makes the backpacker pub crawl worth it. At least with the others, you get music or craic (the Gaelic word for “fun atmosphere” and essentially shootin the shit). While were standing around waiting to go, we looked at all the other pub crawlers and realized that not only were we the oldest ones there, but that there was a good chance that at least some of the others there weren’t even 21 yet - and the rest weren’t far off. We decided that it really wasn’t our crowd and that we’d be better
The Tart with the Cart
Molly Malone was reputedly famous for selling cockles and mussels "alive, alive o" from her cart. Since she dressed a little suggestively, they called her the Tart with the Cart. There's a whole song that goes with her alive, alive o that's still sung at soccer games. off just doing our own pub crawl. So off we went.
Our first stop was the local microbrewery that I had wanted to hit the other night. The Porterhouse Brewing Company is actually a local chain, but it was still pretty good. We had a good sampling of all 9 beers that they brew (we shared so it wasn’t THAT much beer). Plus a delicious strawberry beer that they make - supposedly with real strawberries! We had a couple glasses of that one. After some useless flirting with our Irish bartender (he wasn’t really that cute, but the accent makes up for a lot! Too bad he had a girlfriend…) we moved on to our next bar. We didn’t make it far, though, since we had already spent most of the night in that one pub. So worth it though! It was a nice and different experience. On our way back from there, we stumbled into a falafel place. Since we hadn’t really had dinner (and were a little tipsy - well at least I was), falafel sounded perfect. We actually went with the shawarma (good call Lisa!!) and it was the best shawarma I’ve ever had. I think
Merrion Square
This is the gorgeous park with the Oscar Wilde statue. This pic just doesn't do it justice. it was basically a gyro, but I’m still not really sure. I have to say, though, I think that even beat jumbo slice - and that’s saying a lot! After that, we were on our way home and heard a band, so we stopped in for a drink. They played a couple more songs, we had half a pint of something or other, then were on our way home again.
It was a nice night out after a nice day of touring. I ended the day with a luxurious bubble bath in the deepest and most comfortable bath in a long time. I have to end for the day here. Even though we’re sitting in our hotel in Cork as I write this on Thurs night, we have a really big day tomorrow and have to get up early (Ring of Kerry and Dingle tomorrow!) I’ll write tomorrow about our adventures today at Jameson Distillery, Blarney, Kinsale, and Waterford (google that one - there’s a very unfortunate story about that ala Enron).
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Dad
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Bubbles and beer
Emjoyed the pix no end. Looks like you're having fun. How did Ireland get all those great ethnic foods?