Dublin-Day 1

December 2, 2018

Well, my first ever day in Europe has been an unqualified success. I spent all of yesterday on airplanes in various time zones, and 18 hours later touched down in Dublin at 8:30 in the morning.

I dropped my big bag at my hostel in the baggage storage room since it was before check in, and just then a guy walked through the common area announcing it was free walking tour time.

I had no real plan. Why not.

Turned out to be an excellent idea. Adam our guide was fun and funny and told us tons about the history of Ireland and the specific places we walked to, tangents about those places, and tangents about his life. All together it was an excellent look into the country and an Irish point of view.

Dublin Castle, the (and I quote) most disappointing castle ever. Mostly because it burned down, and they rebuilt more of a Parliament building, rather than towers and turrets. Visiting important people do stuff here.

Here's what's left of the towers and turrets original building.

After the tour (which went a half hour over because he was having so much fun with our group) I headed back to the hostel to check in for real.

I walked across the Trinity College campus, mostly because  I got lost, but it was full of pretty architecture.

I reorganized my bags and got them stowed, (took a short nap because the 27 hours mostly awake were catching up to me) then took a whiskey history and tasting tour.

Again, it was excellent. Our guide Mark had tons of fascinating history wrapped up in Irish humor. I learned so much about how Ireland started making whiskey by accident, then illegally, then made it better by accident, then due to lots of circumstances including WWII and prohibition, fell from whiskey glory and Scotland took their place. But due to a different process and a lawsuit from Ireland, they have to spell their whisky without an e.

The more you know.

There were mocked up rooms we went to for each portion of the talk, this was the illegal drinking den.

Also they decided to focus on just one brand for marketing purposes, and Jameson won because of its green bottle. That's why Jameson is a household name and no one outside of Ireland knows Powers whiskey exists.

We finished in a legal bar setup for the final modern history part.

 At the end we got a tasting, and although I learned things about how the flavors vary and how the burning hits you different depending on what kind of Whiskey it is, I reaffirmed that I am definitely not a whiskey drinker.

Then had this beautiful backdrop for the tasting. I asked Mark later, most of the bottles were filled with tea, but it was a nice effect. 

Very hungry and slightly buzzed, I found one of the pubs Adam recommended, pub called O'Neill's, and had shepherds pie for dinner.

of course there are Guinness signs everywhere in the pubs.

The live music didn't start until later, so I took a walk along the Liffey

The famous Ha' Penny bridge

There's life preservers all along the river. Very civic minded and safety oriented. 

And back across the O'Connell Bridge

Then got an Irish cider and settled into listening to music.

I even knew some of the songs.

And there were a couple Irish dancers who were great fun to watch. After their first dance, I saw the floor has a board nailed to it, and the floor boards around were all marked up.

On my walk I had taken a spin through the Temple Bar district, which is where all the tourist pubs are. It may be overpriced and cheesy, but there was lots of live music. I heard music from one bar that I really liked, so after leaving O'Neill's I went back to see if they were still playing.

They were. I spent way longer than intended lingering over my glass of water and listening. They were playing modern songs, but a variety of genres, everything from Johnny Cash to Coldplay.

A sleepy and satisfying evening.

Tomorrow I plan to take the train down along the coast from Dublin and walk along some beautiful cliffs and through some cute seaside towns.

Cross your fingers for no rain!