Dublin

Hi blog, long time no see! I'll be trying to play catch-up for a while; today will be about Dublin, because I promised you that a while back.

Dublin was a slight disapointment. It was basically JustAnotherCity, nice, fun, but not spectacular. And expensive - everything is priced and pricy. Even the two cathedrals, St Patrick's and Christ Church charged for entry.


Claudia and I were there for three days, so we bought bus tickets that were super-handy: three-day passes for all city busses, and a hop-on/hop-off guided bus tour. And a whole host of other discounts. All of which would come in handy through the trip. Kelly and Claudia stayed at a hostel, and I CouchSurfed with Tommy. He's wicked cool, lives in the 'burbs.

We rode around on the tour bus a lot, because the different drivers had different commentary. Some of them even sang! We checked out:

• O'Connell Street, the main thoroughfare and site of the revolution, with its 'auful tower';
  
• The Wellington Monument, which was wicked tall. Wellington was not proud of being born in Dublin;
  
• The Guinness Factory, which smelled really great, but the tour was a tad pricy, and I'm the only one of the triad who drinks, so we just took pictures. It reminded me of Wonka's Factory;
  
• The scandalous Molly Malone statue, aka The Tart with the Cart;
  
• The Temple Bar area, in which there is a bar called, The Temple Bar Bar;
  
• The Cathedrals, which were pretty enough on the outside;
  
• Various other buildings, monuments, historical sites, etc.;
• and, Most Important, the Old Jameson Distillary!
  

That was the highlight, for me, of the trip. I think the other two were slightly bored. But, we took a tour, basically a mock-up of traditional whiskey-making; the real distillary is in Cork now. We had heard that you an volunteer at the begining of the tour to take part in an official tasting. Unfortunately we were about a minute late to the start, so I missed the selection. However, figuring it was my only chance, I asked the guidee to let me take part as well, using my name as leverage, and it worked! They were quite accomodating, oh yes of course! So at the end of the tour, we tasters sat around a table, in front of us were a glass of Johnny Walker Black representing scotch, Jack Daniels representing bourbon, and Jameson's. They talked us through the tasting, comparing the qualities of each, and we got a certificate proclaiming us official tasters. The tour came with a free serving of Jameson's as well, So I had that, and Kelly's and Claudia's, because they don't drink. I was slightly wonked... =D

I stayed three night at Tommy's. There was a French lesbian couple surfing as well. The last night we had a dinner party, with some of his friends and neighbours, everyone pitching in to help with the cooking. It was a great time! Early the next morning I flew back to Glasgow just in time to reach my 11:00 tutorial.

For another view on the trip, check out Kelly's Blog!