I was so excited that I could barley sleep the night that Nick left Boston to fly to Dublin! His plane was supposed to land at 5:20am so I woke up at 4:30 and caught a taxi at 4:50. Little did I know his plane was way ahead of schedule. The whole ‘see you as soon as you clear security at the airport’ idea didn’t work out, and I arrived at the airport to see him sitting in a seat waiting! Ahhhh! Luckily, he had just sat down so we grabbed his stuff and went to catch a cab back to DCU’s campus.
Once we got back to my apartment, we both went right back to sleep. Nick had traveled all night long and missed out on a full night of sleep and I didn’t get much either, so we slept until about 11. We decided that it was a perfect day for a Guinness! We made our way into the city, stopped for a quick lunch at O’Brien’s, and then got on a bus to take us to the Guinness Storehouse. It’s self guided tour- I’d been to the factory once before but I didn’t really take the time to read and understand the process of making Ireland’s most famous brew. Nick and I took our time as we went through the factory and we had an absolute blast! J We both agreed that the Guinness in Ireland is far superior to any canned or draught Guinness you will get in the States- it’s just so much more fresh!
Arther Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for his factory! That was in 1759- we've still got plenty of time to go!
After we were finished with the Guinness Storehouse, we took a bus back to the city centre to find somewhere to eat dinner. After walking near Henry and Grafton St, we made our way back onto O’Connell, where Nick spotted an Eddie Rockets. Modeled almost exactly after America’s famous “Johnny Rockets,” we decided to eat there for dinner. It was pretty good, but I’d choose Johnny Rockets any day!
We made our way back to my apartment, hung out for a little while and then started to get ready to go out for the night! My roommate Aidan and his girlfriend Aoife came out with us, and we were also joined by Diarmaid, Alex and Deanne. Wanting to show Nick a good time during his short visit, we went to Copperface Jack’s, a club that is open late and really fun! We had a great night overall, and got home around 3ish!
Friday morning, we wanted to get a jumpstart on the day so that we could do as much as possible! Waking up at 10:30, we made breakfast together and enjoyed a nice meal of scrambled eggs, rashers, toast and orange juice. Far from an Irish breakfast, but delicious still! After breakfast, we met up with Alex, Stacie, and her friend Lindsay who was visiting from her own study abroad homestay in Barcelona. We went into the city and made our way to Dublin Castle for a tour. It was really interesting to hear about all of the history and stories that come along with the site of Dublin Castle and I think Nick really enjoyed it!
Since Dublin Castle is still used for official government meetings, the complex around the castle has been built up
original tower of Dublin Castle
A whole section of pathways was discovered once they started excavating the site of one of the towers that had fallen!
After the castle, we hopped on another bus that took us out to the Jameson Distillery. We had to wait a bit for the 5:30 tour, but it was really great once it started! Stacie, Lindsay, Nick and I were all chosen as volunteers to do a whisky taste test at the end of the tour that consisted of Scotch, Irish Whisky, and American Whiskey. Here are some photos from the Old Distillery:
At the end of the tour, we each got a complimentary Jameson drink (mine mixed with Coke!) and sampled our whiskeys. The Scotch was Johnny Walker Black Label. The different between Scotch and Jameson is the way it’s brewed and the amount of times it’s distilled. It’s brewed with a method that uses smoke, giving it a more smoky taste overall and it seems a bit harsher because it is not distilled as many times, only twice compared to Jameson’s three times. The American whisky we tried was none other than Jack Daniels. Jack is only distilled once, so is also harsher than Jameson, but has a more oaky flavor too because it is aged in brand new oak barrels. Jameson is usually aged in barrels that have previously been used to store sherry or bourbon, which gives it a smooth and kind of vanilla taste. We also got diplomas from the distillery for being the taste-testers!
After our Jack, Johnny and Jameson were finished, we went home for dinner. I made some Italian chicken and pasta in a pink sauce with sautéed veggies on the side for Stacie, Lindsay, Nick and I. It was delicious if I do say so myself! J After dinner, we went over to my friend Katie’s apartment. Katie, Maggie, Ryan, TJ, Stacie and I (all kids from the same American CIEE program) had friends visiting on this particular weekend, so Katie had a sort of ‘American party’ for us all to hang out before we went into the city! After staying here for a while, we went into the city center and found ourselves at Flannery’s, a really popular young-ish kind of bar. It was fun, but really crowded! Nick and I ended up going home around 2ish and going to sleep to prepare for another busy day on Saturday!
Saturday morning, Nick and I made our way into the city by 11ish and started looking for a place to have breakfast. He pointed out a place that looked like a typical Irish pub that was advertising a full Irish breakfast. We went in, and the place ended up being really really cool! There was a whole section of floors and ½ floors with plenty of seating, and then down below, a full serve buffet and menu to order from. There were even tables with a Guinness tap and a Carlsberg tap where you could pour your own pints! We both got a “Full Irish Breakfast” which consisted of a fried egg, rashers, sausage, black and white pudding, beans, toast, and a roasted tomato and mushroom. I was really excited that he was able to have a typical Irish breakfast while he was here! It was absolutely delicious (and cheap!). After breakfast we just walked around the city- we went to Trinity, to a tourist office that was actually situated in a really old church, to a park in the middle of the city- all over! It wasn’t a particularly nice day, it rained every so often, but that’s just Irish weather for you!
O'Neills- where we ate breakfast and dinner!
Trinity College
We stumbled upon the Natural History museum and walked around there for a while too. It’s commonly referred to as the ‘Dead Zoo’ because it has almost four full floors of stuffed animals native to Ireland and also from around the world. After this, we decided to go the Porterhouse, a pub that I’d wanted to bring Nick to in order to being our unofficial Dublin pub crawl. The Porterhouse not only brews their own beer, but has pages and pages of beers from all over the world. We sat at a table and watched the soccer game while we tried beers from Belgium, the Porterhouse themselves, Australia, Scotland, Singapore, Italy, Ireland and England. It was a lot of fun! We ended up meeting up with Stacie and Lindsay again to have dinner back at O’Neills- the place where we had breakfast- and then headed into Temple Bar.
With Cobblestone streets and pubs lining the sidewalks, temple bar has a feeling of it’s own when it comes to Irish neighborhoods. The first pub we went to was ‘the Auld Dubliner’ where we spent a little bit of time taking in the atmosphere. As we made our way down the street, we also went into St. John Gogarty’s, The Temple Bar and then ended up at Fitzsimons, a five-story bar/nightclub/café. We kept it low key for a little while with a few drinks on the first floor, but soon made it up to the third where there was a DJ playing dance music. We spent the rest of the night here and eventually all the kids we hung out with the night before met up with us there too!
Not wanting to be out too late because Nick had a long day of travelling ahead of him, we left around 2 and came home. The next morning, we shared a cab with Lindsay to Dublin airport where unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Nick for another few weeks. I think he got a pretty good taste of how I live and who I hang out with while I’m here, and I hope that it’s getting him excited for his semester in Galway beginning in January. I’ll have to visit him then too J
Slainte!
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