Dublin

Let me tell you about my night because it was kinda funny. I fell asleep pretty fast and then woke up and it was silent. Then later after falling asleep I woke up again to people talking really loudly outside. I thought, "Shoot...it is morning already." I started psyching myself up to getting up and taking a shower and stuff until I looked at my clock. It was only 0200. I just found that kinda funny because I would still be sleeping.

I decided today to stay in Dublin and see the what's up around. After getting up I ate some breakfast from the hotel. My first mission was to pick up my train tickets in Heuston. I used the Luas which is my new favorite thing in Dublin. It is only about 15 min from Connolly Train Station to Heuston so it is a good deal. After I picked up my tickets I figured it wouldn't hurt to take the Luas all the way to the end. The end being Tallaght. There were some pretty awesome things I saw along the way. One was the prison. The barbed wire at the top really wasn't barbed wire but metal pieces with points at the end. Still looked painful...if not worse than the ones back home. Another was a creek or whatever they call that over here...channel? It had locks so I decided on the way back that I wanted to do some photography of it. I also saw some of the countryside way far off in the distance.

When I arrived in Tallaght, I did some walking around. There was a shopping mall there so I headed in that direction because I figured there were more people there. As it turns out, over a bridge across a highway there was a park (named Sean Walsh Park) so I walked around that and shot some pictures before heading back to the Luas.

I rode the Luas back to Black Horse where I shot some photos by those lock things and then rode back all the way to Abbey St. From there I started making my way to the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse. I kinda got lost but found some more things that way to look at later. I finally made it to the St. James Gate. It was awesome. The factory was good too. They showed the process and the difference in preparing Guinness stout vs a regular stout. A few things that were particularly interesting was that Arthur Guinness made his own kind of yeast. There was some stored in a safe somewhere in the brewery just in case something happened to all the rest of the yeast. They also use water from the Wicklow Mountains (which I will be visiting in a few days) rather from the river (which is where the water is rumored to come from). At the end we got a complimentary pint with a 360 degree view of Dublin. I was kind of shocked that people would not finish there Guinness. After taking that whole tour and seeing how much time and effort it takes to make it, they just dump it? It just didn't make sense why you would come to see how it was made and not finish it. Maybe I should have offered to finish it for them.

From here I dropped some stuff off at my room before heading back on the Luas to the Jameson Distillery. I really liked this tour. It was really interesting and the tour guide was fantastic. They had really good presentations and ways to help you understand the process that makes Jameson's whiskey. I volunteered (which is something that I am pretty good at) to be a whiskey taste tester. I am glad I did. Like the Guinness Storehouse, we received a complimentary shot at the end. However, the whiskey taste testers were able to compare whiskeys. So I tried scotch, Jack Daniels and Jameson. Scotch tasted smokey just like the said it would. They use smokey woods to dry their barley and Jameson does not. They also use a different barrel I believe. Jack Daniels tasted weak. They are aged less and they use new barrels for every time they age their whiskey. I definitely like Jameson the best out of all three. I gave my scotch to some person across from me. I also got another shot of Jameson (the complimentary one). I am now an official Whiskey Tester as evidence by the degree I received from the factory. I think I will frame it and put it up next to my Nursing License. I learned a lot from those two places and am glad that I visited it.

Tonight I had dinner at a Traditional Irish Restaurant and had some Murphy stew which was good. Their Irish Soda Bread is very different than the ones back in the states. I was thinking that it would be similar to the one that we have from Great Grandma but theirs is not very sweet at all. In fact you taste more soda than anything else. And the one I had did not have raisins in it. Anyway, got to wake up early for my 0700 train tomorrow. I go to Cork for the day!

Margaret