Ireland: Day III (Dublin)

Sunday, July 10^th:

The Old Jameson Distillery:

            Today was yet another great day in Ireland, with (amazingly) no rain, and a lot of Irish traditions. As my hostel was near to the Old Jameson Distillery, this was my first tourist site of the day. I got there around noon and waited for a guided tour of the Old Distillery. Jameson is the fastest growing whiskey in the world, and it was brewed here for over two hundred years before moving to a place near Cork, Ireland. The tour was informative and cool, and topped off with a complimentary (read: included) drink of Jameson. It may not be my favorite whiskey in the world, but it sure is smooth. To continue the Irish theme of drinking for the day, I made my way towards the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse at St. James Gate next. On the way I got to see the Old City Walls and St. Audoen’s Gate and Church, which was cool. I stopped for lunch at a cool little place called Café Noto and ate a Chicken Pesto Sandwich with dried tomatoes, lettuce, and roasted pepper, and drank yet another tropical fruit smoothie.

St. James Gate, the Site of the Guinness Factory:

            The Guinness Storehouse is the biggest attraction in Dublin, as well as the city’s tallest building. It is the largest beer brewery in the world, churning out over three million pints per year worth of beer. The tour is very interactive and fun, and you learn what goes into each pint and how it all began. I personally enjoyed the floor of the building dedicated to over one hundred fifty years of advertising that the company has put out. All visitors get to taste a small sip of Guinness, then they can either redeem their ticket stub for a free (again, read: included) Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top of the building, or at the Perfect Pint Bar, where the workers teach you how to pour the perfect Guinness, which takes exactly 119.5 seconds. If you pour the best Guinness in your grouping, you are given a certificate, which I naturally earned for myself. I had another beer at the Gravity Bar, which offers a three hundred sixty degree view of Dublin through its windows before leaving to go back towards Dublin Castle.

Christ Church Cathedral and the River Liffey:

            Inside the grounds of Dublin Castle is another museum called the Chester Beatty Library. It is a free-entry museum, and it houses tons of old literature, including some of the first accounts of the bible ever found, written on papyrus strips. There were some truly remarkable things in this museum, however I only had thirty minutes inside before it closed. I was pretty hungry by now, so I walked over to the Temple Bar area again and found a restaurant called the Porter House Brewing Company. I was astonished that they did not serve Guinness at a restaurant in the middle of Dublin, but alas, they only sell draught beers that they themselves brew. I tried their Plain Porter, which is close to Guinness, as well as their Brain Blásta seven percent alcohol IPA. I enjoyed both of these, as well as a Whistable Bay English beer, with some amazing Irish Lamb Stew with carrots and potatoes (of course…). I hung out at this bar for a while watching some football (soccer) on TV before heading home for sleep before my flight to London the next day. Tomorrow my friend Max Weisz from Cornell comes to meet me in London for the rest of the trip. It should be sweet!