10/27-11/2 IRELAND

Ireland was great. I had a blast… I have a few pictures I’ll put down below so you can see them.

Places I visited:

·         Guinness storehouse: this factory is huge about 7 floors high and they have a cool rooftop bar call Gravity Bar. FUN FACT: Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.

·         Trinity College

·         Stephens Park: absolutely beautiful and everything is green with all the rain they get.

·         Temple Bar: we went to temple bar almost every night; it’s a street in Dublin with tons of pubs, bars, and clubs. All the pubs we went to had great Irish music and good local beers.  

·         Christ Church

·         Jameson Distillery: I preferred this to the Guinness storehouse, it was much smaller but it was a guided tour and the distillery was more personal and interesting. Believe it or not but I learned a lot about the whiskey. If you ever go on this tour be sure to sit in the front of the room when watching the first introduction movie. After the movie is over they ask if anyone wants to be part of the whiskey taste test. It’s pretty cool; at the end of the tour you test Jameson, Jack Daniels, and the scotch John Walker. But they only take a few volunteers so it’s best to sit in the front so you get picked first.

·         James Joyce center

·         National Gallery of Ireland: saw many painting by the artist Jack B. Yeats. He is one of the most well known Irish painters. I found his later work to be a bit disturbing but I enjoyed the gallery.

·         Kilmainham Gaol: be sure to go on this tour, it was great. It reminded me of Alcatraz but with an Irish twist.

·         Adam and eve’s church: Alicia and I attend mass on Sunday at the church of the Immaculate Conception.  They call it Adam and Eve’s church because during the time when Catholicism was forbidden in Ireland they had to practice their faith in secret.  In order to go to mass one would have to walk through the bar call Adam and Eve to get to the church, so even though the name is Immaculate Conception, everyone still refers to it as Adam and Eve’s church. Even from the road one would not even notice its church but once you walk in a little bit the actual church is huge and beautiful.   

The local Irish fare:  

·         Irish soda bread: I had to try this naturally but I must say it was horrible and it’s not even in the same ball park as yours grandmere. I was very disappointed.

·         Irish stew: 

·         Irish beef and Guinness stew: This one was my favorite stew. It had large chunks of potato (side note: even stew had potatoes in it, and almost every meal comes with some side of potato. Mashed, boiled, chips (those are fries hahaha), roasted, fried, the list goes on) But any way the stew came with chunks of potato, carrots, and celery and large pieces of beef. The stew also came with a large serving of mashed potatoes directly on it. That was a bit interesting. Needless to say but by the end of the trip I felt like one large potato.

·         Fish and chips: as most of you may know but I’m not a big fan of fish and chips but I tried it any ways, still not a big fan but the chips were scrumptious.  

·         Guinness: I did have a pint at the Guinness Storehouse, its ok still not my favorite beer.

·         Bulmer: this is an Irish cider. I drank this most of the time while I was over there and every time I ordered one at the bar all of the bartenders felt it necessary to correct me in the pronunciation. Apparently I don’t say quite right with my American accent. But they always took my money but just always gave me a hard time.

·         Irish coffee

·         Jameson

Accommodations:    

Laura, Alicia, and I stay at a hostel in the city. It’s was called My Place Dublin. It was 8 Euros a night and we slept in a room that held about 20 people.  Our room was really tiny and there were about 10 bunk beds. Alicia said it looked like an orphanage. She’s right, it did. The bathrooms were located in the basement and it reminded me of a bomb shelter or gas chamber. It was really creepy and the majority of our bathroom trips were taken in groups. There were some interesting people there as well, a few Australians (apparently you can find an Australian anywhere), Romanians, Brazilians, South Africans, and a few other places.  We didn’t really have any problems but there was a thief lurking around the hostel, someone from our room got his iphone stolen and another person in the hostel got their laptop stolen.  We remained lucky.  On the last night the South African drank a little too much and had to be kicked out of the hostel. He was so paranoid that someone was going to steal something of his; he wouldn’t let anyone sleep until he found out who the thief was.  But other than that the room was clean and the place was cheap. I rate it a 7.5 out of 10.

Dublin

The city of Dublin was expensive but what city isn’t. I think it’s probably one of my favorite cities and I definitely prefer it to Paris. I think it’s in my top 3 with New York and San Francisco. I would recommend this city to the Fogarty side of my family especially; I really think you all would enjoy this city so much and really appreciate the culture and history as much as I did.

Kilmainham Gaol

This one is for you Dad

9,000 yr lease