Ahh, Dublin! The homeland, the motherland, the land where Guinness flows like wine and Irish lovers flock like the salmon of Capistrano....
On a whim, Allyson and I decided to head up north to Dublin, Ireland, home to our ancestors. We left on a Thursday night (we had a three day weekend) out of Malpensa on my favorite airline, SleezyJet. Unfortunately, we were disappointed when we got to the airport to find out our plane was ritardo--late.
We managed to make it to our hotel in Dublin by 10:30. We stayed at a very cute B & B/hostel. For some reason the rooms were named. You can see ours below. I think we got that room because we are saintly girls :).
Determined not to waste any of our precious time in Dublin, we managed to make it out to our first pub that evening. We got brief directions from the hotel concierge to the Temple Bar, basically the party/tourist area in Dublin. As we made our way to Temple Bar, we began noticing several men in kilts. Now Ally and I aren't from Ireland, but we knew they didn't traditionally wear kilts, so we were a bit curious.
We wandered around Temple Bar for a little while deciding on our first place of entry into the Irish culture. We settled on an apparently famous pub, Oliver St. John Gogarty's. Walking in, we noticed even more kilts. It wasn't long before we learned the reason. Turns out we happened to be in Dublin on one of the biggest party weekends of the year, Scotland versus Ireland rugby weekend. The game was being help in Dublin, so all the Scots had migrated to the city for a weekend of dabauchery.
We learned all of this amazing information from the many Scots and Irishmen who happened to be interested in talking to American girls. We found out from one of them that American girls are known to be easy, although not quite as easy as the Australians. Don't worry Mom, we didn't fall into the stereotype :).
At Gogarty's, we met some interesting men, as I said. One of the most fascinating was Fat Bastard--yes, the Austin Power's Fat Bastard--a red-haired, enormous Scotsman. We originally admired Fat Bastard from afar. He was hard to miss. Soon I realized that he and I would have a much closer relationship.
I have not yet mentioned that Gogarty's had awesome music most of the time. One song they did play that didn't exactly fit into that catagory was "That's Amore!" Well, Fat Bastard loved this song and before I knew it he had pulled me from the bar (mind you, I wasn't even looking in his direction--I think I was the closest girl to him) and began dancing with me. I went along with it for a verse or two, but I had had enough, so I pulled away. Turns out Fat Bastard didn't like that at all and before I realized what was happening, he was lifting me off the ground by my upper arm and pulling me to his group of friends. Now, I have to say that was pretty freaking scary. I mean, it's just not everyday that a girl gets picked up by Fat Bastard. Apparently the bartenders and a few New Yorkers noticed the horror in my eyes and pulled Fat Bastard off of me. As you might have guessed Fat Bastard was three sheets to the wind and I'm pretty sure he had no idea what he did. After a few minutes of recovery, Ally and I began laughing and soon it turned out to be one of the best stories we have from this trip. Below is a picture of us enjoying our first pint of the weekend.
Another interesting tid-bit about that fateful evening at Gogarty's was that we met a group of Irishmen. Now, I can't tell you their names, but they were something like Patty, Sean, and some other perfectly typical Irish names. These guys particularly liked Allyson. Below is a picture of one of them (to the left of Ally). He was the old guy in the group and
loved Allyson. The other guy is some Scotsman who talked way too close. We didn't hang out with him for long.
Moving on to the next day--Allyson and I decided to take in
other parts of the Irish culture on Friday. We re-traced our steps back to Temple Bar and through the rest of the city. Below is a street sign (the street we stayed on). On top is Gaelic and below (obviously) is English. Every sign in the city has both English and Gaelic.
On our walk through the city we had to cross the River Liffey. Aren't the buildings awesome?!
Here is a picture of me in front of the river. As you can see it was a windy (but not horribly chilly) day.
This is the entrance to Temple Bar. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a very narrow passageway.
Because we saw everything in the dark, we decided to wander back to Gogarty's and see what the place actually looked like.
All throughout the city are these beautiful churches. Here is one below that we saw as we headed toward Grafton Street, the main shopping drag in the city.
After a bit of window shopping, we made our way to St. Stephen's Green, a park in the middle of the city. We were there late enough in the year that the flowers were blooming. The grass was soo green--just like I pictured it.
Of course Ireland is known for several famous authors, poets, and play writes, the most famous being James Joyce. This is just a small statue in tribute to him in the green. We learned a lot more about James Joyce that evening, but more on that later.
After meandering around the green, we made our way to Trinity College and the Book of Kells. here is yet another beautiful church.
Here is Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells--a famous and ancient illuminated text.
After our tour of Trinity, we had to go to one of the most famous spots in Ireland, St. James Gate, better known as the Guinness factory. On our long walk there, we walked by this bar, which made me think of my future in laws.
And another beautiful church we passed on our walk
Finally, we made it to St. James Gate. We couldn't pass up this great picture opportunity.
We entered the Guinness factory and bought tickets for the self-guided tour. Before we entered we had to get pictures in front of this famous advertising piece.
Ally and I happy as clams to be in the factory
The tour, like I said, was self guided. It walked you through the steps on how Guinness is made, the history of its inventor (below), the many advertising campaigns, and of course, the Gravity Bar--the best pint of Guinness and the best view of Dublin all in one.
Allyson with her first ever pint of Guinness--go Ally!!
Definitely not my first pint, and surely not my last :)
Ally and I at the Gravity Bar, the final stop on the tour. You get a free pint of Guinness up here with your entrance fee. You can see the city (kinda) behind us. It's really not a gorgeous city, but the amazing people make up for what it lacks in beauty.
We managed to find seats in the very crowded Gravity Bar. Here we met another group of Scotsmen in kilts. This time they were much older and just friendly. They answered a lot of our questions about Dublin and the whole rugby bit. We found out from them that the big game was going to be on Saturday night. We had our plans for the next evening! BUT, before we get there, let's finish Friday.
In our wonderful Lonely Planet Dublin (thanks Baby!) we found out there there was a literary pub crawl each night beginning at the very famous Duke Pub. We again wanted to take in as much Irish culture as possible, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and learn about Ireland's literary geniuses and enjoy a pub crawl. Here is a picture of The Duke.
The pub crawl was led by two knowledgeable Irish actors. They began the evening with one of the famous scenes from "Waiting for Godot." Thanks to Brother Aquinas I actually had knowledge of this famous play.
Throughout the evening we would walk around the city, stopping at famous spots. The actors would do some sort of skit and then tell us about the author/poet/play write. Here they are performing another skit.
Ally and me enjoying a pint on the pub crawl at The Old Stand
Our final stop was the famous Davy Burns, a pub made famous by James Joyce's
Ulysses.
The pub crawl ended about 11, leaving ample time for us to continue enjoying the Irish pub culture. We found another bar, The Hairy Lemon, and met a nice group of Irish boys. After the pub closed, we made our way to find something to eat. We couldn't pass up the opportunity of enjoying a kebab at this chain restaurant. Don't you just love the name?!
The next day, Saturday, was sadly our last full day in Dublin. Knowing we had to leave at 5am the next morning to catch our flight home, we decided to make the most of the day. We wandered around the city again and actually found The Hairy Lemon. Looks like a classy joint, huh :).
After a bit of shopping (not just through the windows this time) on Grafton Street, we found Gallagher's, a restaurant/pub and enjoyed some traditional Irish food. We decided to go home and nap, then head out again in time to watch the rugby match that everyone came into town to see. We decided to go back to a place that would surely be fun, Gogarty's.
Here are me and Ally and I at Gogarty's
While watching the match, we met Martin, a.k.a. Bob. Bob was an English guy living in the South of France, captaining yachts for the rich and famous. Bob took a great liking to Allyson and decided to join us (and then pay for our) dinner.
After dinner at a random Malaysian restaurant, we headed back into Temple Bar to
the Temple Bar, the pub the area of the city is named for. Believe it or not, we ran into the infamous Fat Bastard. Take a look!
We had another wonderful evening and made it back to our hotel. We had ordered a taxi to take us to the airport before heading out for the evening, which turned out to be a great choice. The concierge ended up waking us because I had knocked the phone off the hook in my sleep, so we didn't get our wake-up call. It was a little crazy for that first 15 minutes, but we promptly fell back asleep in the cab, at the airport, on the plane, and then for the rest of the day once we made it back to Lugano. It was a fantastic trip that I know Ally and I will never forget.
LONG LIVE DUBLIN!!
