Big Adventures, Little World

Dublin was pretty awesome. It’s not a huge city, and everywhere is quite accessible by walking around, and being used to walking that we were after all the walking we had done throughout Europe, we walked. We were staying in the Temple Bar which is full of pubs and clubs with a lot of live music being played at many of them. It has a really awesome atmosphere, with people all around the streets, and buskers, and then the music coming from all the different pubs.

Our first day we went wandering a bit, and figured out what we wanted to do for the next couple of days and booked a few things online before finding our hostel. We were starting to get pretty hungry, so we found a place to eat where we had Irish beef burgers in an Irish restaurant. We had a really good waiter who even gave us some tips on where to visit so we went off and for a bit more of a wander through the city and then onto the Old Jameson Distillery where we got a tour and then a taste of Jameson whiskey as well. The tour is really interesting and there is quite an extensive process that goes into making the whiskey. After the tour we tried Jameson with cranberry juice and lime, which was surprisingly quite nice, and then we headed down to one of the other bars where we had Irish coffee (coffee with a shot of Jameson’s) and a Jameson Hot Chocolate which is just a normal hot chocolate with a shot of Jameson as well. They were delicious, though quite strong, which we weren’t really complaining about.

Our next day started with going on the Viking Splash Tour http://www.vikingsplash.ie/, which was recommended to us by our Irish cook Mark on the Topdeck Tour. I am so glad we did it as well. It was hilarious and so much fun. To begin with, once we got onto the bus/boat, we all had Viking helmets to wear, and then were told that as we were driving around we would do Viking roars as we drove past tourists (people looking lost with maps), tour groups, and the hop on/off buses that drive around Dublin. So whenever the driver would see anyone from these categories, he would count to 3, then everyone on the bus/boat would let out a loud roar towards them. For someone that isn’t a local, I am sure they would be wondering what the hell is going on! To tour went through the old Viking parts of the city with our driver pointed out different sights along the way. We even saw the president’s horse drawn carriage going through the streets for some reason. It then took us out on to the Grand Canal Basin, which links the Grand Canal to the River Liffey before heading back through the city to the starting point to drop us of. It really was a unique experience and very entertaining and also informative. Such a great way to see some of the sights in Dublin.

In the afternoon we visited the Guinness Storehouse, which is now a museum about the history of Guinness beer and how it is made. The building itself is in the shape of a giant Guinness glass and is 7 levels high. You make your own way around taking as much time as you want and finding out the history and processes of how Guinness is made. Included in the tour was a free pint of Guinness, which you had the option of pouring yourself. We did this, and now we have certificates to say we have poured the perfect Guinness pints. On the 7th level there was another bar, and surrounded by glass it gave some beautiful 360 degree views of Dublin city. The place was packed full of people though so we headed back down, and back to the hostel. We headed out around the temple bar area for a few drinks at a few different pubs and heard some live music. Some of the pubs were so packed you could barely move in there, it is just a popular area and has an amazing atmosphere.

Our last day in Dublin was really cool and a lot of fun. We went in the morning to do a one of the New Europe Walking Tours like we had done in London, and that I had done part of in Amsterdam as well. The tour took us to Dublin Castle, Dublin’s Medieval Walls, Viking Remains, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, The Ha’Penny Bridge, Spire of Dublin, City Hall, Trinity College just to name a few of the places. One of the funny things about it was that every time the Vikings from the Splash Tours that we had done the previous day, they let out their big roar and the tour guide thought it was funny but hated it at the same time, as he was trying to tell stories and would always get interrupted by them. It made it even funnier because Bel and I were doing the same annoying thing the day before! We stopped at a pub in Temple Bar for a break during the middle of the tour and we ate some more Irish stew. It’s delicious, and Bel especially couldn’t get enough of it. After lunch we finished the rest of the tour and then we went for a bit of a wander before having a bit of a rest as we had decided to go on a pub crawl that night.

The pub crawl took us mainly around the Temple Bar area which was great, and we went to 5 bars and then finished up at a nightclub. We got free beer for the first half hour at the first bar, and then everywhere we went we were getting free shots whenever we bought a drink, just because we were on the pub crawl. It was a lot of fun and we met some cool people. At one of the pubs they even had beer pong tables setup in the basement and you could get a jug of beer and ping pong balls and play beer pong. Bel and I played some Americans that had just finished college so thought they were pretty awesome at it, but we beat them, because we are awesome!