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3/22/2009
Sunday morning in Dublin City! Boy did we have a lot on our plates! We wanted to go up above the river to see the post office, then the Guinness Factory, then the Kilmainhaom Gaol, then the Jameson's Whiskey Distillery, so there was tons to do.
Paul, Tom and I showered, dressed, and left Craig on the floor outside the bathroom while the three of us set off northward again, passing many newsstands full of rugby joy. We walked up past all the familiar sights (St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, Trinity College), then crossed the River Liffey to the foot of the Daniel O'Connell statue.
After another few blocks, we found the post office and took pictures of the lingering bullet-holes from the Easter Rising. After that, we hopped the metro-rail transport called the DART to St. James's Gate and the Guinness factory.
No surprise, the Guinness Factory is a magical place.
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| The 9000-year Guinness Storehouse lease |
The tour starts with the ingredients, with a giant sandbox full of barley and a waterfall representing....well, come on, you're smart.
They continue to the process of creation, all the roasting and mashing and such. Next comes the barrel-making, the transportation history and, my favorite part, the advertising. With our ticket came a free pint at the top of the building in the Gravity bar, a room with a 360-degree view of Dublin, but Tom realized there was a smaller room available, a room where YOU pour your pint. Since all of us adore Guinness, but had never poured one, we eagerly joined the line and received our marching orders.
1. Angle glass at 45 degrees.
2. Pull tap toward you
3. Fill until the level reaches the harp on the side.
4. Tip the glass back to level.
5. Now that the line is below the harp again, fill to the harp.
6. Shut off tap.
7. Let Guinness settle for several minutes
8. Put glass straight under tap.
9. PUSH tap away from you
10. Fill until the head is just above the rim of the glass.
We followed these orders to the letter, except when I spilled some trying to put an "I" in the head of the beer, and so I have a certificate confirming the accomplishment.
Guinness Count: 54
On my last trip, the best Guinness I had was at the factory, but this time, neither the one I poured nor the second one we got at the Gravity bar tasted as good as the one from Ennis on Wednesday. I like that one of the most specific but random stops on our trip gave us our best pint.
FINAL Guinness Count: 55
Sitting in the cafe at the factory, drinking NORMAL drinks and eating sandwiches to combat our early afternoon buzz, we discussed plans. Craig called saying that there would be a welcome home parade for the rugby team in the late afternoon and we all decided that was something we couldn't miss. Though a little tipsy and very tired, we all made the decision to skip the Gaol. At the gift shop, I bought myself a glass 250th anniversary Guinness tankard, which is a bit silly, because I'd never drink Guinness out of such a thing.
After walking back down to the DART station, we hopped a train that dropped us a few blocks from the Jameson's distillery, where we'd be meeting Craig. We found the building and took some pictures, but when we got to the tour entrance, the 13 Euro pricetag made the us balk, especially so soon after our last booze factory tour. Instead, we passed the time walking down to the Liffey and taking pictures of the Four Courts building. Then, we returned to the distillery bar, where Tom and I tried out a reserve Jameson's you can only get at the distillery (probably a boondoggle, but whatever).
After our drinks, we got on the DART one last time and rode back to O'Connell Street. From there, we began walking south toward Trinity College, near which people were congregating for the rugby team. Tons of people joined us in heading that way, all decked out in deep greens and rugby jerseys. When we got to the actual street of the rally, we found a sea of people halfway down it. We joined the back of the crowd, but were blocked in by people filling in behind us. Awaiting the rally itself, we chatted while they replayed the game on big screen TVs.
What an incredible experience. We had avoided Dublin on St. Patrick's Day because we didn't want to hang with drunk Americans (except ones we befriended), but we secretly wished to see a big crowd in the big city. Well, this homecoming was NUTS. Flags everywhere, green everywhere, people in the road, in the windows, on the rooftops. It was so cool to be a part of it. Soon, an MC took the mic and began building up the crowd before announcing the smaller units within the team. With every group came huge rounds of applause and we joined in whenever we recognized a name we’d learned the night before. Most of the role-players spoke, but we couldn't hear much from our place in the crowd. In fact, the only part we really got to hear was when one player led the crowd in "The Black Velvet Band.”
Eventually, the celebration ended and the crowds dispersed, sending us across the city towards the hotel. After that, Craig was heading back to Galway, so we bid our goodbyes. It was just the three of us again, but after the raucous celebration, we were done...Ireland had been wonderful to us and I'm sure there were corners of Dublin we would have loved to see, but we were exhausted and some of us (THIS GUY) had 6:30 flights in the morning. With that in mind, we went back to our hotel, stopping to raid a convenience store for their sandwiches. That night was a different kind of brilliant, as we bummed around our hotel room watching rugby and The Simpsons, generally letting our bodies rest. In the end, Tom set me an alarm for 3:30 (ugh) and we fell asleep.
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3/23/2009
On Monday morning, I woke up to the early, early alarm, showered quickly, finished packing, and left the room quietly.
It made me nervous to be walking through Dublin at that hour of the morning with a backpack and duffel slung over my shoulder, but Irish magic kicked in. As soon as I got to the bus stop and began nervously looking around at the desolate street, the bus arrived.
I can't remember much about the flights back, beyond sleeping my way to London and watching movies on the flight to the US. When I got to Dulles at 3 PM, I found myself with an unusual second wind after all that traveling, and with Paul and Tom getting in later, I had the afternoon and early evening to do my laundry first and collapse into the sofa.
And here I hear myself itemizing the boring stuff I do around the house, as clear an indication as anything that the Ireland tale has come to The End.
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