Dublin: Guinness, Fake Tim Hortons and Guinness
After a wonderful nap on the bus I arrived in Dublin ready to explore. While Dublin is famous for many things, I was most excited to check out the Guinness Brewery. I found my hostel and booked my ticket for the Brewery tour before heading out for the always essential free walking tour. As usual, the guide was wonderful and told far too many stories for me to recount. He took us around the touristy centre of the city where streets are lined with Irish pubs all the while filling us in on the local history.
The tour ended at Trinity College. The campus is beautiful, however for many the main draw is the Long Room and the Book of Kells. The book of Kells is arguably one of the most famous religious texts from medieval times. Beautiful calligraphy and vividly coloured drawings fill the pages telling the story of the four Gospels of Jesus Christ. While I’m not a religious person, I was impressed by the craftsmanship and history the book presented. Unfortunately I can’t show you any of the craftsmanship as photos weren’t allowed, sorry! At the end of the Book of Kells exhibit you walk up into the 300 year old library named the Long Room. Running nearly 65 meters in length the Long room is aptly named.
Unless you are lucky enough to get private access to the Long Room, there will always be people in your photos. I recommend quickly googling “The Long Room” to see what it looks like without people. Star Wars fans might recognize this room as the Jedi Archives shown in Attack of the Clones. George Lucas has denied that the Jedi Archive is based on the Long Room. However, when viewed side by side, the similarities are undeniable.
Marble busts of famous philosophers and writers line the long room and watch as you pass by. After wandering around and resisting the urge to climb some ladders, I left the Jedi Archive and headed to find a post office to finally mail some postcards.
The pub scene in Dublin is certainly a fun one. All I wanted was to hear some live music while drinking a pint of Guinness and eating Irish stew. Turns out, that’s not a tall order. Joined by Nicole, an American studying abroad in Madrid, I found a lively pub, ordered some stew and learned how to sing The Wild Rover. The song includes clapping in certain points of the song which, while simple enough at first, can quickly become confusing after a couple pints.
The next day I headed off in the rain to find the Guinness brewery. While I wasn’t yet feeling up to another pint of Guinness I made it to the brewery and got to skip the very long line out front as I had already purchased my ticket. The brewery tour wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it was definitely fun. I was hoping to see the manufacturing process and the actual brewery itself, but Guinness has set up more of a museum than brewery tour.
Floors of history on the famous brand are accompanied by information on the brewing process and even a floor dedicated to Guinness’s advertising throughout the years.
Naturally, the tour concludes with a full pint (not the tiny one shown above). You can choose to pour this yourself or have it poured for you. I poured my pint and sipped away while watching some Irish dancing.
Before exiting the tour you are led through the Guinness gift shop where everything from Guinness themed glasses to Christmas ornaments are available. As my Grandpa loves both golf and Guinness, I picked up some Guinness golf tees to send home. Meandering back to the hostel I saw a Tim Horton’s sign, and thought I was hallucinating. I quickly ran into the small shop with the sign only to find an automated Tim Horton’s coffee machine and some sad looking doughnuts tucked away in a corner store. Slightly devastated, I continued my walk back to the hostel. If anyone can find a way to mail me a maple dip doughnut to and a couple chocolate tim bits (and have them still taste fresh) I will be eternally grateful.
That night I went out to another pub with a group from the hostel. While we were in the pub we began to see news flash across the small corner TVs with information about a shooting. Surrounded by the warm pub atmosphere we didn’t fully comprehend the severity of what had happened. The next morning reading about the Paris attacks we sobered quickly, but I still don’t think I fully understood the severity or impact of the attacks until arriving in Paris. More on that in a couple posts.
On my last day Nicole and I left the hostel early, partly to get away from some of the people in the hostel, and partly to get a good breakfast. At some point I will write a post with tips for staying in hostels but for now have to quickly say: if you and your friends are travelling together and you are put in a room with another person you don’t know, be respectful. Unfortunately for Nicole, the group of 5 guys that were in her room decided to come home at 5am, throw on the lights and start blasting music. When she asked them to stop they refused and told her that since she was the only other person in the room that it was her tough luck and she should complain to the front desk to try to get a refund… If that is the kind of hosteller you are, please either quickly learn to not be an asshole, or just book a private room.
After packing up and checking out, I boarded my bus to Cork. It was time to go kiss a stone.
More to read
- Coimbra & Porto: Cloaks, Bats and Delicious Food
- Madrid: the City Built on Water, Surrounded by Walls of Fire
- Lisbon: Fado with a Friend and Failing to be an Adult
- Madrid: the City Built on Water, Surrounded by Walls of Fire
- Tilloy-Les-Cambrai Canadian Cemetery
- Paris: The Louvre, the Tower and Cafés galore
- Cork: Kissing the Blarney Stone and Visiting an Art Gallery with Lord Voldemort
- Barcelona: A magic fountain, bubbly and a lost credit card
- Belfast: the Giant’s Causeway, the Titanic and the Troubles
