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Published: February 28th 2008
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Temple Bar
The Temple Bar in Temple Bar Just thought I would pop in and do one of these blog things.
Well London life has been going as well as could be expected, busy with work etc.
But every now and then it's good to get away for a few days.
As it was my birthday last week (thanks for messages, cards etc.) I decided a weekend in Dublin might be a bit of fun and a welcome break from London Town.
I also happened to choose a busy weekend to go as the 6 nation rugby Ireland V Scotland was on, plenty of kilted scotsmen!
Emily and I arrived Friday evening about 5 hours before Shaun and Krystel were due to land. After finding the hostel (not to be recommended) we headed out for a quick look at Dublin, which is a beautiful little city. As someone descirbed to me "all the facilities of a city but the charm of a small town" to be sure, to be sure.
After a quick walk around we made our way to Temple Bar (it is an area of Dublin) where all the pubs are and went into, well, the Temple Bar. Here was the first taste
Christchurch
Christchurch, Dublin of a creamy Guinness straight from the source, and let me tell you, BRILLIANT!!!
After a couple of pints, some Irish ditties and kilted Scotsman dancing the jig it was time for phase 2, something with potatoes. After a quick wander through Temple Bar we settled on a pub called Farrington's and found they had Beef and Guinness Casserole (basically stew) on a Rugby weekend special with a pint of the liquid gold to go with. The food was great, the drink was great, in all a great start to the weekend. We went for a walk around the city to find the Guinness Brewery and let me tell you the scenery changes quickly! It is in a bit of a crappy looking area with lots of scummy kids hanging around the off licences and making out in lane ways, alright.
The following day with Shaun and Krystal now on board, Emily, Shaun and I headed to the Old Jameson Distillery fo a tour. (On the way from our hostel we passed a street market which consisted of great big piles of clothes thrown on the footpath and people scavenging throught them!) Now I know the way to
Dublin
View of the Liffey River make the perfect Irish whiskey I might start my own home brew! The tour was excellent and made even better by the whiskey at the end. Emily was lucky enough to be selected for the whiskey tasting at the end. shaun and I helped here polish off the drinks. In true Irish form "nothing compares to" Jameson.
Once we finished with a whiskey tasting we met up with Krystal at a market, sampled all the great foods on offer, had some lunch and headed to St. James's Gate for the Guinness Brewery tour, this time the scummy area had a market type thing along the footpath selling cheap make-up and bulk packs of toilet paper. When we arrived the line was massive, but luckly we booked ahead and went straight in. The tour was pretty cool as well, it was self guided so you could go at your own pace. They had a section with all the old Guinness ads, including some classic animated TV commercials, My goodness, my Guinness. When we were all toured out and full of cheer we headed to the Gravity Bar at the top of the brewery with a fantastic view over Dublin for
The Spire
Giant spire in O'Connell St a tipple. One thing about Dublin is you can never drink enough Guinness, or anything for that matter!
Full of creamy goodness we then made our back into town for the rugby match. We went to the first pub we found showing it and grabbed a Bulmer's (cider) and watched the first half. As we found there was no atmosphere in this pub so we made our way to Temple Bar, fought the crowd and got a good possy for the second half. Plenty of drinks later it was dinner time and then we met up with a friend of Shaun's to go to a club.
Well lets just say I danced my self sober for the next day. On Sunday Em and I only had a few hours before we had to go to the airport so we wandered through Trinity College and went and saw the Oscar Wilde statue and a few well kept and very green parks. We bid farewell to Shaun, Krystal and Ireland and headed back to Old Dreary.
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