Dublin!

14/05/2009

We woke-up bright and early, it’s impossible to sleep late when you know your going to explore a new country as soon as you walk out the door! We had a wonderful Irish breakfast, and went to the Tourist Centre. We bought tickets for the Hop-on Hop-off bus which took us to all the places we wanted to see without us getting wet as it’s a rainy day in Dublin, who would have guessed!

Our first stop is Christ Church Cathedral and from there to Dublinia and the Viking World. Whatever you do, don’t waste your time going to Dublinia! You can thank us later for the tip. It’s filled with fake stuff and there is not a single actual artifact or any original Viking things. It’s more an information centre for kids. The only nice thing was the view from the top of the building, also the only place there were no kids. We learned to write in their old style and dressed up as Vikings at the fake “carnival”. It might have been more amusing if we were drunk.

The highlight of the day (and knowing Leon probably of the

Irish breakfast

Awesome way to start your day

rest of our tour) was the Guinness Storehouse! The tour of the storehouse takes you through the steps of the brewing process in detail, you watch old video clips of people constructing wooden barrels by hand, then you get to taste and smell a small sample of Guinness. There were huge displays of the antique Guinness bottles of yester years, they look more like medicine bottles. Then in another room you watch a couple of rather sad movie clips about the dangers of drinking (bit of a downer). After that the cherry on top, we got to pour our own Guinness draughts and received certificates as proof that we can handle the pressure! We also had the opportunity to go to the Gravity Bar on top of the Guinness Storehouse where you have a 360’ view of Dublin. Dublin is an old city and when looking from the Gravity Bar looks quite industrial. This is only in the area of the Storehouse.

The weather cleared up and we had a nice walk through the city. We were starving by now and stopped at the most cozy pub we could find for lunch. This was not a strenuous task as

Melinda in hotel reception

there are over 1000 pubs in Dublin City! Leon had a Full Irish Grill with almost every meat you can think of, but worth mentioning is the black & white pudding. Black pudding or blood pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. White is very similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. Consequently, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage. How gross! Melina had Irish Chowder! Devine! Nothing beats good seafood! The highlight of the pub visit must have been the bartender, no we didn’t eat him, but we had our first real conversation with an Irish Man. The red heard with freckles Irish man made me promise to mention him when telling all my friend about Ireland, he referred to himself as the sexy barman. His girlfriend is in South Africa helping with an Irish Housing project for the poorest of the poor in our country. Cheers Ireland! Thank you so much.

We got back to the hotel and wanted to nap for a few minutes before going clubbing,

Melinda in front of our hotel

The night club entrance is just the gorgeous lady

but after a cold bath (since for some reason it was the 2nd day the room had no hot water) we decided to stay in bed and watch a movie, by this time it was 23h30 and needless to say after cuddling-up in the warm cozy bed, we didn’t leave the room again until daybreak.

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