After leaving Canada we landed in Dublin, Ireland to an
overcast and slightly chilly autumn day, or just an autumn day as they would
likely say here. We spent and hour or so coming through the customs line where
we met Nick and Amanda – we had originally organized to meet them at the rental
car place but because customs took so long we ended up in the same line. Which
was good as the catch up helped to pass the time. So far Ireland C- on the
efficiency of customs officers.
We got the rental car and drove in to Dublin. The streets
were rather busy as the Hurling Final was on that afternoon. The street was a
mess of red, blue and yellow colours which one would assume was the colours of
the teams involved. Once we got checked into the hostel we decided to go get
some breakfast. This turned out to be a bit of a mission in itself with all the
local excitement. However, we found a crazy pub/restaurant that was serving a traditional
breakfast. We got in a line with about 100 others and made our way down the
line. The food was pretty much what you expected from an Irish breakfast eggs,
sausage, blood pudding, mushrooms, toast, tomato and bacon. It was awesome, the
restaurant was packed out and full off enthusiastic Irish men and women
literally stuffing their faces with food that would make a nutritionist cringe.
After breakfast we made our way down to the town hall
through the main street and joined a walking tour. The tours took around three
hours and covered some of the iconic and historically significant downtown
areas. The tour guide had recently completed a masters in Irish History and
with a dry local wit gave an excellent presentation of Dublin's checkered
history. It included a tour of Dublin Castle, Trinity College, Temple Pub (the
local bar area) and an overview of which pubs and hotels were owned by Bono or
other members of U2. It was an really fun day, which we capped off with a trip
to the supermarket and a hostel made spaghetti bolognaise.
We had an early night to make up for the red-eye flight we
had taken the previous night and kicked off Monday with breakfast and a drive
to the Newgrange monument. This was about 40 minutes tour of Dublin and is a
stone tomb or human made rock formation that pre-dates Stonehenge. The tour was
really interesting and discussed some of the rudimentary tools likely used to
make the monument and some of the fascinating aspects of its architecture.
Turns out that its build based on a three point alignment which allows light to
flow in to the chamber only on the 5 days surrounding winter solstice. We had a picnic lunch complete with wasps
before heading back into Dublin.
Our afternoon was well spent doing a tour of the Guinness
Storehouse. It was a self-guided tour which covered seven floors of the
building. The tour overviewed the process of creating the beer, how it was made
historically, how to taste the beer, how the beer has been marketed throughout
the businesses lifespan and concluded with a free pint at on the seventh floor.
This floors provided a 360 panoramic view of Dublin and is the highest point of
the city. Also, interesting fact for the day. The Guinness book of world
records was originally created by Guinness as a reference book to help solve
arguments that were commonly started over discussions in the pub.
We finished our evening with a traditional stew at Temple
Pub while listening to some Irish Music. It was a very touristy but thoroughly
enjoyable way to spend the day.
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