The Journey Day 3

September 5th, 2016 Dublin Ireland

Christ Church and surrounding area

We were up and out in time to get breakfast at Third Space, one of the restaurants recommend to us by our host. It was the place that was closed the night before. I ate a mini Irish breakfast. It was similar to the one I had on the first day, but I thought the pudding was better at Third Space. This may have more to do with the fact that I had never ate Irish pudding before, now that I was familiar with it, I knew what to expect. However, I thought the pudding was spiced better. Also, the baked beans weren't quite as sweat, which I liked. Kelsi had granola and a muffin. She must have liked the granola because she talked about it a lot afterwards!

Christ Church

 After breakfast we went towards Trinity College, but we stopped at Christ Church instead. It was very beautiful architecture. The style seemed romantic to me, but it was too early for that to be the case. It was renovated with a romantic style. Inside, we also visited the crypts. It was kind of weird that the crypts were kind of like a museum. There is even a gift shop down there!

From church we went to college, but apparently we failed at our attempt. The line for the Kells book was so long!  Because of the length we decided to look at exhibits in the science and zoology buildings. The Zoology exhibit is only open in the summer, the science exhibit is not open Mondays! So we left. One thing of note, we talked to a college student at the information center near the Kells book. He was eating a Nature Valley bar and I told him they taste good heated a bit in the microwave. He told us about the exhibits in the other buildings, but he didn't say they weren't open! After my great tip and everything!

Park, and Clock Tower

We caught the bus from Trinity College to the street we were staying. That way we could navigate to Guiness Storehouse. We could spot Guiness above the buildings, so it wasn't hard to find. We ended up on the near side of the building which wasn't the entrance. So we had to walk around. From there we took tour, we learned the history of the beer, and history of the advertisements, we also learned how to pour the beer, we learned how to taste the beer and received complementary pint. After the tour we went up to the top of the building. You can see the most of the city from there. After we finished our pint we went to get lunch. It took forever because there were a few locations to eat. The first place we tried had a wait, so we went down to get hamburgers, but they only take cash! So we went back up to the first place. We both had burgers, but I didn't get the chutney on mine. The burgers were pretty good. We also had more beer! 

After that our plan for the day was kind of thrown off because we wanted to go to the Gaols, but it was booked. When I was planning the trip, everything recommended to wait to get to Dublin before booking any tours. Which probably is good advice, but once you arrive you should book your tours and not wait until the day of. Instead, we went to Phoenix Park which was beautiful, but we didn't end up spending a lot of time there. 

On our way back to our room, we took the bus, but we missed a stop or two...or several! So we had to back track! By the time we ended up at the room it was almost at the time for the pub crawl. We had to rush to the duke to make it there. Which would have been easier, if we didn't get lost on the first day. We did make it, but thanks to Kelsi. We were there right on time, and ushered in to the start of the show. We were supposed to arrive early to check in and pay, but at least we were there. At the Duke the guide performed a two person play Waiting for Godot. It was so funny, but the room was crowded and a bit hot! Also, because we were just barely on time, we didn't get a beer at the Duke!  Ah well, after the play we went down to the street to go to the next site. There we were able to pay up and so everything was all right. 

Guiness Storehouse, Waterfall

The tour was great! I highly recommend it. If you like literature then you will really like it, but if you don't it is still a good tour. The guides perform a few skits along the way. You get to visit historical sites and also historical bars. The tour group also do a Lit Walking tour if the pub crawl part of it doesn't appeal. There was also a quiz at the end, and Kelsi almost won the whiskey prize, but Jim Morrison got in the way!

When we finished the tour we stopped to get gelato, which was so delicious! However, when we left the gelato shop we weren't paying attention and we started walking the wrong way! We didn't exactly get lost, but we did have to turn around to get back to where we once belonged!

  

In conclusion the day was a bit of a scramble! We did somethings we didn't plan, and did other things we didn't plan! Oh well, the mixes ups were a bit entertaining. I also enjoyed the fact that we just laughed off mistakes, without getting upset. Tomorrow we will have to make up for the sites we missed and then we have to get to Belfast!

The Journey Day 1

The Journey, Day 1 - Dublin, Ireland

Early morning after long night on plane. I managed to catch some zzz, but not enough! Cloudy, rainy, cool. Just like I pictured. Made it through customs and airport fine. Had to buy a leap card. Took bus to meet airbnb host. Arrived 50 minutes early and had to wait. A bit more waiting at airbnb before we could put our stuff down. Our airbnb apartment is right on the river at Usher's Quay. Our room doesn't face the river, but it has it's own bathroom!

The host, recommended that we eat at Wuff for brunch. We only managed to get a bit lost. There was a wait for a table, but it was worth it. Wuff is a cafe that is average sized. They fit in a lot of chairs and tables. It was packed tight. I had my first Irish breakfast!!! So yummy! I am not too sure about the pudding yet, but I will give it ago later. The baked beans tasted very sweet. I don't usually eat baked beans, so I'm not sure how sweet they should be, but I thought they were sweeter than normal. Overall it was a great breakfast!

Came back to room for a cat nap, I only allowed a one hour nap. A short nap can help with jet lag, but a long one will make it take longer to adjust. 

After that we walked down towards The Duke, because when I researched things to do in Dublin, the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl was listed. I was of course interested in both the literary history of Dublin and also the pubs. So doing a literary pub crawl seemed perfect. 

First Guinness in Ireland

We decided to take a little longer route in order to have a look at some sites. We passed St. Augustine church. We went inside. It has beautiful arches and stain glass windows. Loved it! Then, we kept walking passing Christ's Church and other sites, that we will visit on another day. 

After that we got a little turned around on Grafton Street, but a nice girl saw us turning in circles and stopped to help! At least we had a good tour of the area. 

When we arrived at The Duke we found out that the literary pub crawl was full. The problem was that there was a college football game in town between Boston College and Georgia Tech. So there were many students and parents in town for the game. So not only were they booked Saturday, but Sunday as well so  we called booked for Monday, then we booked the The Cliffs for Sunday. After that we stayed at The Duke for our first Guiness in Ireland.

The Duke is a bar that dates back to 1820s. Many literary writes like Joyce and Kavanagah visited. There are two floors, we went up stairs to the second floor. There was college football games on there, but not the Boston College and Georgia Tech game. 

We took our time with our first Guiness, but eventually we wandered out and made our way towards Trinity college. On the way we scoped out where we needed to meet the next day, for the cliffs tour. It was kind of on the way. Because of this, we past by not only the entrance to Trinity College, but we went down the Pearse Street. From that side it doesn't look like there is a good way to get inside the college, though in the following days we did exit the Science Gallery onto that street. So we probably could have gone in from the Science Gallery, we just didn't know it. We ended up walking around the college, towards the sea until we reached the Grand Canal. It was almost night by that time, and with the cloudy sky it was pretty much dark. Growing up in Arizona, any sort of water, looks quite pretty so of course we liked the view. 

Picture from our table at H Bar, before we went inside.

We had dinner at the H Bar. We wanted to eat outside, however we sat out there for a while without getting service. It was much faster inside. I had fish and chips while Kelsi had pizza, we both had another Guiness of course. The Fish and chips were good, but the fish is plainer than the fish fry in Arizona. I think the fish is saltier in Arizona. Nonetheless, it was a good dinner. I am not sure how Kelsi liked her pizza, but later in the trip she says that certain pizza's are her favorite so far. So I'm not sure this one was all that good. 

Afterwards dinner, we walked to the river because we determined that once we were at the river we could just walk down it, and eventually we would get back to our room. The walk along the river was beautiful. The bridges are cute, and there were many restaurants and bars along the way. We took our time, but we wanted to get back to our room. We were tried from traveling, and we had to be up early in the morning. Tomorrow the Cliffs!