Thoughts on Dublin

After all the little relaxing places of West Ireland, I made my way on the motorway to Dublin. It was a great town and I thought of many of my friends while I was there. It would have been great to have some of you along, but it was fun to explore on my own as well.

- Sadly Dublin is an extremely expensive city. Not just food and lodging, but also to see their sights. The Book of Kells, which is a fantastic find for all mankind, was too steep for me. It is 8 euro just to see two pages of this book and another impressive room. While I'm sure it is great, 8 euro was 60% of how much my hostel that night cost. I'll research the site sometime.

- Dublin is also one of the few cities I have been to that makes people pay for the churches. And by pay, I don't mean a suggested donation. To go to St. Patrick's Cathedral it was 11 euro. I thought I'd scam the system (I know, I know) by going to church on Sunday morning but really it was just a eucharist service and I didn't get to see the whole cathedral because the service was held in the back part behind the altar. It looked amazing though.

- I did though, pay to go to the Jameson Distillery. the tour wasn't that exciting, but I was picked to do the whiskey taste testing at the end. Jameson really is better than Johnny Walker black label and Jack Daniels. Jack just hurt going down. Maybe a past bad experience made it less enticing, who knows. I also ended up meeting some fun people at the Jameson distillery that I hung out with all that night. There are perks to traveling alone.

- As I was walking to the distillery I passed a foccacia bakery, I was sad I didn't buy one of them that day because when I went back on Sunday they were closed.

- I found a gelato place in Temple Bar that was reminiscent of the places in Italy. Naturally I ate there twice in my stay.

- I also found a super cute coffee shop that looks just like one I'd like to own when I'm filthy rich and retired at 35. While it was also expensive, it was time enjoyed. It was called the Queen of Tarts. Clever.

- I ate fish and chips 3 total times on my trip to Ireland. The second time I had it served with mushy peas, while they don't sound good, they really were. The last time I had fish and chips, the fish had been smoked before frying. Really really yummy.

- I also did a free walking tour while in Dublin. I was thinking about doing a bus tour because they are fantastic ways to see cities if you don't have much time, but I heard about the walking tour and it was fun. Our guide was a lot of fun and I decided if I ever live in a city that has multiple tourist sites, I want to be a tour guide.

- My final sight seeing adventure in Dublin was the Guiness Museum. It was awesome. It reminded me of designing pages for yearbook in high school. The place was designed amazingly and it didn't hurt that I got a Guiness to drink at 11:30am on a Sunday morning. WHAT?? I went to church that morning. Plus, God owed me for making the next 3 days of my life Kate vs. the Volcano. This pic is of the 9000 year lease that Guiness signed when he bought the grounds where the factory is. Foresight huh?