Advertisement
Published: February 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
I visited Ireland for a very special occassion. The wedding day of two of my closest friends Naomi and John! We had an absolute blast in this luscious green country of lepricorns and four leaf clovers... oh and not to forget GUINNESS!! 😊
We were staying in the heart of Dublin, such a pretty city, and so easy to get around. We really enjoyed being able to walk everywhere and see everything and not have to worry about being tucked away underground on the tube and minding any gaps 😊
Na and I had decided to spend our first day in Ireland together, just the two of us. We had a fun gals day/night enjoying each others company, food, wine and laughing lots! Standard!! We discovered a lil Spanish bar/restaurant that we instantly fell in love with. The service, the food, the atmosphere, amazing!!
Na and John's special day was magical! It really was such a wonderful day. The entire day, from getting our hair and make-up done to the reception, a delicious wine bar and an exquisite dinner! WOW, what a day. Full of laughs, drinks, gourmet food and fabulous company. We; Na, John, Sam, Clayton, Uncle Gerad
and myself had such a fun and memorable time all together! Na looked so elogant, very Audrey Hepburn, just STUNNING, and John, well what a handsome man he is! I guess I scrubbed up pretty well too 😊
We really loved wining and dining in this (not so cheap) gorgeous city. The people we met along the way were so friendly, happy, warm and helpful. Ireland is so beautifully lush and green. I can't count how many times I said, "I just can't get over how green it is."
We visited Trinity College, which was a beautiful oldy world college on vibrant green grounds. In some ways it reminded me of The University of Melbourne, however more grand and historical. I loved all the bikes everywhere, lots of people cutting emissions.
We also visited the Guinness Brewery, which I really enjoyed. To be honest it was very different to what I had anticipated. I thought it would be a beer smelling brewery, where you have a personal tour guide who takes you through and talks about the beer, whilst tasting it along the way. I guess I didn't think about just how popular and famous Guinness is
and how many people a brewery like that would need to employ to do personal tours 😊 Though it really was a fantastic set up. The inside of the building is on many levels and in the shape of a pint glass, very appropriate. We learnt about the different ingredients that go into the beer and why it is so unique and has the delicious creaminess. It was really interesting learning about how they HAND made the barrels for the beer, the coopers did it all by HAND. You should have seen the process they went through to make one barrel. Quite extraodinary if you ask me! I was also gobbed smacked that someone (Arthur Guinness) would sign a 9,000 YEAR lease for a building. Imagine the faith he had in himself. Wow, to have that kind of confidence in yourself and your ideas is remarkable, as far as I am concerned. We also enjoyed a delicious lunch of which all of our meals were made from guinnness, in some aspect even if it was meat marinated in guinness. MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! At the end of the tour we sipped on (well Na and I did, as we are not such huge
fans of the famous creamy, smooth substance) a pint of guinness each whilst marvelling at the stunning 360degree view of Dublin.
Na, John, Clayton and I took a day trip out to Malahide Castle, a unique medieval castle about 20mins by train from Dublin. More greenness!! Love it! It was a really beautiful castle that was owned by the Talbot family for over 600years (in fact am just reading about it again now and it says it was owned for 791yrs). WOW! We went from room to room learning about how they lived back in the day. The history of the Talbot family is recorded in the Great Hall,where portraits of generations of the family tell their own story of Ireland's stormy history (taken from website). So different to our lifestyles now. Na and I were trying to imagine wearing a corset and big puffy dresses on a daily basis, sitting straight backed and talking in Shakespearean language. Hmmmmmm think I'll opt for trackies and lounging around 😊 hee hee!
We had such a fantastic 5days together in the home of Guinness! An unforgettable trip with wonderfully special friends. I am sure we will reminisce about our time
together for many years to come!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.126s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 17; qc: 77; dbt: 0.0858s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb