Dublin!

I went to Dublin this weekend with Kari. Mark didn’t go. He’d been twice and therefore had seen it all before. Before delving into the details of my weekend itinerary, I shall sum up my general impression of the city. Dublin is an odd little city with little discernable division between residential, commercial and industrial areas. While parts of the city centre are lively and full of people, there are plenty of other areas on the tourist path where very little seems to be going on. The pubs have plenty of beer on tap, and not all of it is Guinness (thank goodness!). While I had limited interaction with locals, for the most part servers were friendly, there was just a limited incident in which a passing chav randomly yelled in Kari’s ear.

We flew to Dublin on Friday morning. After hearing how Dublin had essentially been given up for gone after being inundated with English stag and hen parties, I found it somewhat amusing that there were two hen parties on our not too full flight. One had matching t-shirts with individual nicknames on the back, the others just had matching headbands with glittery clovers on springs (the bride had a giant leprechaun hat). Throughout the weekend we relied on matching shirts, sashes and the presence of blow-up dolls to spot other hen parties (we spotted a total of 14). Oddly enough, we saw no stag parties. One can only conclude that Dublin has been given up to the ladies.

So once in Dublin, my navigational skills immediately failed us and so it took a little longer than necessary to find our hotel. We then began the two-day of ordeal of seeing what the fine people of Frommer’s recommended we see, more or less in the order they advised we see it. On day one this meant wandering across the river, going to Trinity College (home of the book of Kells, I have no idea what this is but apparently it’s in demand), the National Library, the archaeological branch of the National Museum (I recommend giving the bog bodies a miss), then there was a highly recommended ‘moment’ involving having a coffee and a scone on the 3rd floor of an old café on the main shopping street (this involved spending a considerable amount of time watching the winged wizard, an elaborately costumed human statue type). At this point it was getting a little late to complete the day one itinerary, as many things apparently closed around 5pm, so we borrowed something from day two and went to the Guinness Storehouse at St James Gate.

Now I’m pretty sure that the Guinness Storehouse is in the top two for most visited sites in Dublin, along with Trinity College. You could tell it was set up for the receiving of vast quantities of people, luckily when you show up at 5:15 there are no lines and you have your choice of people from which to buy your ticket. I found this odd as this seems like the ideal time to transition from day-time activities that generally don’t involve beer to evening activities that generally do involve beer. Alas, apparently this only makes sense to me. Anyways, you can tell by the smell on the surrounding streets that they still actually make Guinness at this facility. It’s an interesting set up, where you learn about the brewing process, the history of the company, and see old ads while slowly moving upwards in the building. It’s all very architectural and a neat building in general terms. At the very top you get to enjoy your free pint of Guinness in the Sky Bar, which has panoramic views of pretty much all of Dublin. We didn’t finish our pints, free or not, it’s still Guinness.

After this we were desperate for food, which generally ensures you will never find any. Alas, we ended up dining at a bar called Toddy’s attached to a hotel. The highlight came when they only charged us for one of our drinks. We then hit the bar near our hotel for a nightcap. This was a vast improvement on Toddy’s as there was a lively ambience, centering on the live Irish music.

Day two started with a trip to see the statue of Oscar Wilde. Dublin has more than it’s fair share of life-size statues, but this one was by far the highlight. Not only was it reclining on a rock ‘gazing wistfully’ (according to my guide book) towards his childhood home, but he was also in color. Oooh. Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband was being put on at a theatre in town and was being heavily advertised, so Oscar was on the mind. This was followed by the National Gallery, a nice park, lunch at a place called Lemon that served crepes and waffles, Dublin Castle (which didn’t open until 2!), the Chester Beatty Library (where we saw really old books and learned about different religious traditions, and as it’s free, earns my recommendation), St Patrick’s Cathedral, and another deviation from the schedule in the form of a trip to the Jamesson Distillery.

I must say the Distillery was overall a more enjoyable experience than the Guinness Storehouse. While they no longer make Irish whiskey at the Distillery, they did up until 1971. Which I think is a long time ago, but whatever. Your tour starts out with a video on the history of the company, and you then get a guided tour where you learn how the whiskey is made, and how this process differs from American whiskey (aka, Jack Daniels) and Scotch whiskey. Apparently the primary different is the triple distilling, versus only single or double for the other folk. The tour ended with a tasting in the bar for a few select volunteers (including me!) of the three different types of whiskey, and a free drink (with mixer, thank goodness). For taking part, I was given my very own certificate with my name on it. And a tube to safely take it home in. Again, we had kept the alcohol portion of the tourist day to the late afternoon. Good call, us!

For dinner we made a late reservation at what seemed to be the only Boxty restaurant in town, located in the midst of Temple Bar, Dublin’s most infamous street. It’s basically just lined with bars and a few restaurants, and everything becomes packed once the evening rolls around. We were glad to be observing from the boxty restaurant instead of being stuck in the midst of it all! After dinner we again had a quick nightcap at the local. The next day we opted to head out of town and go to the alluringly named Malahide, but that will have to be another entry!