Dublin - Into the Emerald Isle

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  Dublin, Ireland
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Terri, bless her heart, is always on the lookout for good deals. She is by no means cheap, she just takes great pride in being able to find great prices for everything. Since she is planning this trip, it'll be just about as inexpensive as it could possibly be. Now having said that, she planned it so that we would sleep in the Belfast airport upon arrival, the logic (that I really can't argue with) was that since we would blow our daily budget just on the flight over from Scotland, we could partially make up for it by sleeping on some airport benches. This seemed like a smashing good idea. Well...

After an uncomfortable few minutes of "sleep", punctuated by being caressed by a Polish gentleman when my eyes were shut, and incessant security alerts over the PA all night, we had a rather expensive breakfast at McDonald's, and set off for downtown. We were both rather ruined from lack of sleep, but wanted to get started on touring around

01 Drunk Willie

.

Dublin is a pretty compact town (especially the bits tourists would want to see) and everything seems to be within easy walking distance. Monuments are everywhere, and a giant shiny metal spire dominates the city's skyline (which isn't tough - I haven't seen a building here over 5 stories.) A river bisects the downtown, so several bridges span the gap along the way. Temple Bar is the main touristy area, with pubs and restaurants everywhere. Supposedly it is one of the best bar scenes in Europe.

We walked around Trinity College on the south side of the river. The college was created by the British several hundred years ago to (and I swear I'm not making this up) "civilise the Irish and cure them of Popery." Apparently the Catholic Church considered it a cardinal sin to attend that school up until the 1960s! The ground were extremely nice, and we ended up wandering into an exibition on the "Book of Kells", which we apparently should have paid for (much to our surprise), but somehow were able to walk right past the ticket taker.

We picked up a tour of the Jameson whiskey distillery, where we learned all about making the stuff.

02 Custom House

Terri won a bit of a contest in our tour group, and was selected (with three others) to go up in front of everyone and taste 3 different Irish whiskeys, a Scottish whisky, and an American. After downing all of them, she was given a 6th! shot of whiskey, and we were sent on our way. What a way to spend an afternoon. We were going to visit the Guinness brewery, but it was more expensive, and apparently the Jamison one was better anyway. I did, happily, get to have some Guinness, so all is right with the world.

We met up with a couple from Boston, and one from Germany (didn't get the city) and we headed out to check out the pub scene. Along the way, we met "Drunk Willie", apparently a fixture of this particular bar. The picture will say it all...

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03 Tim Horton's	04 Anti-Popery U	05 St. Patrick's Cathedral	06 Whiskey Tasting
07 Statue	08 O'Connell St.

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