Dublin

(Be warned, this is a long post, but I put in pretty pictures, so I think you can handle it.)

We had an absolutely fabulous 3-day weekend in Ireland. For those who aren't familiar with bank holiday weekends, let me just say, they are the greatest invention ever. In the UK we still get the same number of public holidays as the US (8 per year I think), but since the British aren't too fond of celebrating Thanksgiving and other such American holidays, they spread out the public holidays throughout the year with a fantastic invention called a bank holiday. Basically, the banks decide to close and everybody else does too.

We've got another bank holiday coming up at the end of May, but no formal plans thus far.

Anyway, back to Ireland. We had planned this trip a few weeks prior, booked a flight, a hostel and a fun day tour around the island. A few days prior to the trip, the weather forecast was looking grim and we were preparing ourselves for lots of rain (which really just meant more time in the pub drinking Guinness, so I wasn't too worried). Instead we had beautiful sunny skies the entire weekend, as evidenced below.
Those are the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most iconic spots in Ireland. More about that in a minute.

So, we had a RyanAir flight (only £0.99 - until you add in the £30-40 of taxes and fees) that left WAY too early on Saturday morning. We got into the city and checked into the hostel around 9 am and then started wandering around for the day.

We went by Trinity College (below), the oldest university in Ireland (1592 or something, beating Laura's alma mater of W&M).

The campus was beautiful, and I couldn't even imagine trying to go to school there with all of the tourists wandering around (as some of you know, Virginia Tech isn't exactly a beacon for tourists around the world). Anyhow, we wandered around the campus, then proceeded to wander around the rest of the city for the rest of the day. Highlights include: my first taste of true Irish Guinness, shopping on Grafton Street, walking through St. Stephen's Green park, and some true Irish food.

Sunday we decided to take a day-trip with Paddywagon tours to the Cliffs of Moher.


It was a great trip, we had a great tour guide and learned a bunch about the history of Dublin, Ireland, the potato famine (i.e. "the great hunger") and lots more. The highlight of the trip was obviously the cliffs.This picture above doesn't show how deadly close we were standing to the edge of the cliff, and Laura is masking her fear pretty well in the picture I think.

They're not supposed to let you get this close to the edge either, but we're obviously rebels.

Nearby the cliffs is a place called The Burren, which is basically a huge wasteland of rocks and more rocks. It's got a definite "I'm on the surface of the moon" type of look (aside from the clouds in the picture below of course).


On Monday, our flight didn't leave until 8pm, so we got up, checked out of the hostel and then made our way to the Guinness factory.

There's an interesting and telling glimpse about where our priorities stand. When we walked through Trinity College, there was the option to check out The Book of Kells, a manuscript from 800 AD and one of the most cherished relics in Irish history. But it cost €8 to view, which we thought was way too much. Then there's the tour of the Guinness factory, which is €14 per person, and obviously completely reasonable (it does come with a "free" pint at the end).

The tour was pretty fun, but nothing compared to the great view from the bar on the top of the building. The whole bar upstairs was packed with people, all drinking their free pint of the black stuff and taking in the 360 degree view from the glass-enclosed bar.

"But Bob," I hear you ask, "how much better was the Guinness?" A fair question. The pint at the factory was definitely delicious, and tasted noticeably different from a normal pint in the UK, and definitely from the US. But there's the distinction. Drinking Guinness in a pub in London, and drinking one in a pub in Dublin, I don't think there's a difference. However, there is a huge difference from drinking a pint in the US. Either way, it's fantastic.

Also, I think the following picture should be part of a new advertising campaign for Guinness.
So that's our trip. We had a great time, and it was a great way to kick of the next few crazy months of visitors and trips around Europe.

It also seemed to kick off a much deserved break from the freezing cold winter over here, which I will be celebrating by drinking as many pints of Guinness as I can in the glorious sunshine.

Cheers!