Guiness Tour

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Today I spent quite a few hours hours more catching up on some bloggin! I was feeling super shitty about eating all this crap food and drinking all the time and not getting any exercise. Quite the change from before when I left. I was down about 20 pounds!! So I had to kickstart something new to feel a bit better about this whole ordeal so I did some pushups and sit ups. I did enough to feel pretty sore the next day and jumped in the shower. Wicked showers. Here they have like an instant hot water heater on all of the showers i've seen in ppl's homes. Remember the switch as well or else it will be a cold one!! My plan today was to find the Guiness Factory!! One thing that sucked is that my Ipod erased all my songs. Found that out when I left the house. I must have not ejected it or whatever. Went to the computer shop to ask about fixing it and he wanted 25 Euros and he recommended just doing it myself cause it was easy to do.

So I took the Laus line which was conviently right acoss the quay from Marcus's place. Payed my 1.80 Euro and got to James stop within like 6 mins. Turns out that no one checks tickets on these things. Kinda like the sky train in Vancouver but on the ground like! Got to James and was lost right away. Tryed following the map and got really frustrated because I was walking through this industrial block for quite awhile not being able to find a main road at all. Well I took the long way the REALLY long way around the block, got back to the station I came from and went the opposite way. I thought I was good at reading maps!!! Turns out im not but to be honest Irelands roads end very quick normally and they never join the way they look on the map so that confused the hell out me.
Finally I got to the big wall that said Guiness and actually I could smell the Barley way before I could see. Nothing is easy to identify from the sky at all!! I was looking for this big fancy building but nothing. I got to the main entrance and bam instance Tourist mecca!! Got my student discount and I was on the tour. Cost what like 11 Euro still so not like I got a great deal or anything. Its a self guided tour with tonsa cool effects and things. First floor you will see this wicked waterfall with water flowing above your head. Cue the pic! They say that the perfect water is the secret to Guiness taste. All the water is collected from the mountains above Dublin and no where else. I forget how much they said but Millions of gallons a year.
Every floor had a different theme the first was making it. The second was the science and history of the brewery. Third was the commercials and all the merchandise. Fourth was cartoons and buisiness structures of Guiness. Another thing I forgot to mention and have a pic of is how they made each cask by hand. How quite the procedure. Really cool to see them just schucking the wood like it was an orange or something. These guys were amazing with their hands. Used steam to bring all the boards together and three rings to bring it together. Then they made the water tight top. All the tools were on hand and you watched the video from a cask. Really funny to watch everyone around gazzing into these casks like they were mesmerized.
Saw tons of the old Guiness makes you strong commercials from the 50's all the way up to sophisticated approach taken today. 180 seconds it takes to pour the perfect pint and its always worth waiting for perfection right. Must have spent three hours at least there. Had a couple taste testers inhaling it and all at the test part of the tour. They had this video thing on what alcohol does to your body. I wonder how good that is for marketing!! Got up to the top floor after what felt like forever. BEAUTIFUL view from up there. WOW you can see for miles and miles. Its all glass as well. The day was amazing yet again so I was ready to have a couple pints. I gave my card in and got my pint but there was like 6 extra so I got another one as well when she wasnt looking!! It was the end of the day up there anyways didnt want it to go to waste or nothing right!! Ended up meeting two girls from LA. Were talking blagh blagh blagh about travelling and that and some chick pulls the fire door to open it!!!!! CAN you believe it what a dumb blonde it set off the alarm for no shit 10 mins which was terrible on the old ears not mention ruining the conversation. They had been in Barcelona they told me just yesterday and had been in the streets when Barca won the Eufa Cup Final. They said it was a riot everywhere you looked. People beating each other up senselessly. Glad I wasnt there.
We were the very last ppl up there and they told us to beat it, so we took our time walking down the stairs and using the facilities. They had no clue where to go but after being lost I was more than willing to show them the way. It was obvious they were going to Temple Bar cause every tourist does. They were fretting about getting a good meal that wasn't sick and deepfried. I had a Dublin book of Marcuses and I think they found something in there. One of the girls and I never paid for the train but the other one was a goodie two shoes kinda deal. Got to temple bar and they started whining about walking so much. Then shes like oh nevermind its shorter than I thought. HA oh well said goodbye and that was it.
Got back to Marcuses and he had just goten home from the day of work. He was going out to a going away party and wanted me to come with him. I was totally down to see some nightclubs!! So the plan was to meet his friends at this place just down from Trinity college. Problem was that all his friends hung out in the smoke pit the whole time. They were super friendly though. Asked me if everyone was treating me nice or being typical Dublin pricks. One thing I didnt know about Ireland was that Thin Lizzy was from there and they all loved em. They were talking about the time they got to see em. I was kinda cracking up because I thought they would be talking about U2 because they are one of the biggest bands in the world, but no it was all about Thin Lizzy!
Couldnt really handle the smoke too much longer so i set inside for a couple drinks and some sociable bullshitting. Met some other cool ppl about. Place was packed could hardly move in there. No one was really dancing either it was more just about drinking. Great place for a guy who cant dance at all not saying thats me!! LOL ended up dancing with a girl who was going to Galway which I was planning to do the next day as well.
Marcus ended up finding me and grabbed me to go to the next bar down the road. Said goodbye and off we went.
The next bar was super shite though turns out. We grabbed a bite to eat from a hot dog stand on the way and grabbed a couple cheeseburgers. Got to the club and it was 10 euro to get in. Jesus i wasnt really into that because it wasnt anything special thats for sure but in we went. Got Marcus his vodka red bull he wanted and it was like 8 euro just for that so I settled for a Heineken. Wondered around the bar and got in trouble for going on the dance floor with my drink!!! haha huge black guy eyed me down and made sure i got off. Went upstairs to see if it was any better but sadly no! By the time i got a couple dances in I was whiped and wanted to get the hell out of there. Some older ladies started giving me a hard time cause they wanted to dance with me. I said I was tired and I think that kinda pissed em off a bit. I wasnt lying tho. One of em grabbed me and started to dance and I kinda went along with it for a min but that was enough! haha i got my coat and bounced. Marcus was luckily in the same position so we took off as soon as he got his coat.
We stopped off at a famous Chineese fast food place called Charlies on the way home. Met two Irish girls beside our table who were just smashed. One of em invited me to try her soup and she spilt it all over herself haha. Didnt even put it back in the bowl she just ate it off the tray ughgh. She started asking me what part of the states I was from and by now I was used to this question. I said the northern part. Ha she knew what i meant surprisingly and went off about how much Americans suck. I was trying to tell her dont just say that about all of em when thats only a few. Didnt work. These gay guys started singing some Beyonce song or something behind me. Oh man it was time to leave and get some sleep. Thats all that happend.

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Photos

Laus Line
Thanks for the free transport

Document
Signed by Albert Guiness leasing the Brewery for 9000 years

Photo 12
they get the water from the mountains up top of Dublin