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Published: February 29th 2008
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I may be in a different country, but the birthday cakes continue. Or in James’ case, as he is not a big fan of cake, birthday “creation”. So rocky road Mt Everest it was!
Since my last blog, we have been to Dublin! Not what I was expecting, but it was very good. The first thing to surprise me about the place was the size. Dublin is not very big and it is easy to walk anywhere there. Once equipped with a free tourist map, you can just work your away around to everything.
James and I arrived on Friday afternoon, and it was so windy I thought I would get swept away! We caught the bus into the city centre, and made our way to our first hostel. The reason why I say first hostel, even though we were only there for two nights is due to the fact that we left our hostel booking a little too late, not realising that the 6 Nations rugby was on, and Ireland v Scotland were playing in Dublin on Saturday night. This meant we were unable to find consecutive nights anywhere.
We were checked into our hostel by a
young Irish guy, who was totally confused by the fact that James and I both had two passports. But to my delight, while he was getting everything ready he did a little “fiddly-dee” tune. Gold! Not even in the city for half an hour!
As Shaun and Krystel were arriving late that night, because they travelled straight from work, we decided we would have a look around, get our first Guinness and get our bearings for where we need to go the next day for our Jameson and Guinness tours.
After walking around the centre of the city and seeing the huge spire in the middle, we headed to Temple Bar, which as the names suggests is the main bar area. We decided to have our first Guinness in the place’s namesake, The Temple Bar. The place was swimming with Scots, and I have to say, that I have never seen so many kilts in my life! The Guinness is very smooth, and goes down so easy in Ireland. Just goes to show the freshness is key. While we were sipping our brews, an Irish band started playing. After enjoying the festivities of the pub for a little,
we decided it was time to get some dinner. We found a pub that had a restaurant upstairs, and got the Irish Stew and Guinness. A revelation of the trip was, that the Irish don’t actually eat Guinness Pie; so having one of those is going to have to wait until I get home.
Once we had finished our meal, our walk to the Guinness factory began. On our walk, I have never seen so many 14-year-old kids out and about at night, trying to get alcohol. It was amazing. In our travels we also found Dublin’s oldest pub, The Brazen Head, and stopped of a drink. I must say it had a pretty cool beer garden.
When we had our bearings for the following day, we decided to go back to the hostel and get some sleep for the big day ahead, while waiting for Shaun and Krystel.
The next day had arrived and we were booked into the Jameson Tour first at 10am. This was great. Definitely one of the highlights for me. We got walked through the tour, and taught how Irish whiskey was made. And then came the best bit… the tasting. They
picked six people out of our group to do tasting, and learn to distinguish between three Irish whiskies (Paddys, Powers and of course Jameson), the best selling Scottish whiskey (Johnny Walker Red Label) and best selling American whiskey (Jack Daniels). And guess who got picked… ME! That was very interesting, considering I have never had whiskey before, and I must say I rather enjoyed it. Jameson was my favourite, for the record. Being the nice person I am (and also ensuring that I was still able to make it to the Guinness factory in the afternoon) I saved some whiskey for James and Shaun to have a taste as well. I am now an official whiskey taster, and have the certificate to prove it.
For lunch we headed to a great little food market behind Temple Bar, were we had samples a plenty, and keeping with the potato theme I had a Roesti. Basically a big potato cake of shredded potato and cheese.
Then it was Guinness time! We headed up to the Storehouse. On the way there was a dodgy market that sold everything from washing powder, to (your not going to believe this) tombstones. When we
arrived at the Guinness Storehouse we got to jump the massive que that was there, as we were smart and pre-booked online. You walk your own way through Guinness, reading the information as you go. My favourite part was the advertising sections. They have some quality ads. And it goes without saying the tasting and the Gravity Bar at the end, are a sight to behold.
Once we had finished at Guinness, our next stop was to find a pub to watch the rugby. The first place we stopped had no atmosphere, so we decided to head to Temple Bar. We ended out at the same pub we had dinner at the night before, and it was pack. It was heaps of fun listening to the banter between the Scots and the Irish. We then headed up stairs and had dinner. I opted for the same option as the night before. It was good.
After dinner we headed back to the hostel (by this time it is our second hostel) and freshened up for a night on the town. One of Shaun and Krystel’s friends, Joanne and one of her mates, we going to meet us out and
take us to a club. We headed into Temple Bar again to meet then, and while we were waiting decided to go into a pub. Never before have I seen a pub so packed. It was also unpleasant, as it smelt like farts and wet dog (I put the wet dog smell down to the kilts). Needless to say, we decided to wait outside for Joanne.
We headed out of the Temple Bar area and went to a club called the Dandelion. It was a pretty cool place, and we tore up the dance floor.
The next day we decided to walk around and look at the sites Dublin has to offer. James and I only had the morning, as we had to head to the airport at lunch time, but we still managed to see quite a few things like Molly Malone, Trinity College, St Stephen’s Green, and the Oscar Wilde monument.
Then it was time to go. A good time was had by all, and now I can’t wait until my next travels. But for now, it’s back to work…
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Mark
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Happy Birthday Jim! You lot look very much at home with a Guiness in the hand.. Are you planning a trip to Belfast? I heard it was a pretty interesting city. Ciao