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Saved: September 15th 2021
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This is the last message, as this time tomorrow my flight for Calgary will be
getting ready to leave Heathrow.
The weekend in Galway was heaps of fun--I am so glad I decided to go back
there instead of going to Westport. I think Galway City is the most fun city
I've ever been in.
Dublin is fun--it's strange to be back in a big city again, but I suppose it
is a good warm-up to being back in my real world in Calgary. I took the train
here on Monday, which was such a fun and comfortable way to see central
Ireland. After the dramatic landscapes of the west, it was strange to see such
pastoral scenery--they've just harvested so there were bails of wheat in most
of the fields, and fluffy sheep running around...
When I got to Dublin, I had a walk along the River Liffey to my hostel in
Temple Bar. The walk took me past the massive Guinness Brewery that is high
security and surrounded by a towering brick wall, so you really don't see much.
After dropping everything off at the hostel I headed over to Trinity
University to catch the
last tour of the day for the Book of Kells and the
university. To access the campus, you walk through an arch, out of the crazy
Dublin traffic (all of the buses are double-deckers and they don't slow down
much for corners) into the serene squares. It was pretty impressive to see
both the University, which is pretty well established, and the Book of Kells,
which is beautiful.
Yesterday I took a bus tour to Locke's Distillery and Clonmacnoise, in County
Offaly. Locke's distillery is the oldest licenced whiskey distillery in the
world (Bushmill's is older, but they got their licence later). It smelled
really good there, and it was interesting to be walked through the old process
of brewing Irish Whiskey. At the end we got a sample, and there was a test to
see if we could identify three different whiskeys based on their
descriptions. I won, and the prize was a sample bottle of whiskey (the
contents are gone, but I'll bring the bottle back with me).
Clonmacnoise is an amazing site on the Shannon River. It was founded as a
monastic city by St. Ciaran a long time ago, and it has incredible ruins:
two
round towers, three high crosses, and several churches. As I was walking
through the new cemetery to one of the churches, I had an interesting
encounter with the sweetest little Irish lady, who told me it didn't matter
that I wasn't Catholic, because we are all the same to Him (with a nod to the
sky at the end). She was quite charming.
Today I took it easy, walking around the center of Dublin, and of course
checking out the Guinness Storehouse, which was pretty cool. At the end of
the tour, you get a pint of Guinness (the best pint ever, because it is
closest to the source) in the Gravity Bar, which is about seven stories high
(they don't have skyscrapers here) and has panoramic views of Dublin.
It's been a long day, but a good end to my holiday!
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