More Dublin and Then Some

The last I left you, I touched on my aspirations for the rest of my time in Dublin. Overall, I would give my efforts a B+. I went on a walking tour of the city, which turned out to focus (oddly) on the country's history told through the perspective of food. My tour guide was discussing the cultural significance of cows one moment and telling us the story of Ireland's struggle for independence the next. The tour was rather enjoyable...until I lost my group. What happened was we were walking from one site to the next and had to traverse through the local farmer's market. Being that it was a walking food tour and all, I decided to make the experience an interactive one. I sampled some delicious little treats - samosa, cheese, fresh olives, what have you. After a minute or two, I looked up to find my group gone. Completely. Gone. I knew I was taking a chance by trying the food, but I guess I figured I would be able to locate the group (I mean, my guide was pretty tall). Anyway, I looked around for a few minutes until I realized my walking tour was now a self-guided one. I enjoyed walking the streets of Temple Bar just the same until I met my friend for lunch.

A number of us went to Dublin Castle on Sunday afternoon which was fairly enjoyable. It was my first (of what would later prove to be many) castle experiences. The structure was very pretty, and I really liked how functional the place still is. Ireland is hosting an EU Summit in a couple weeks and it's being held there. So that's cool.

Next, we went on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. This was a really cool concept, but it turned out to be a bit disappointing. Two actors led the tour, which consisted of stories and reenactments of various stories by Irish authors. The best anecdotes were from the works of Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce. The tour began on a high note at the night's meeting point. We ate and drank for nearly 30 minutes, while the actors performed a scene from "Waiting for Godot". It was really enjoyable, and set my expectations quite high for the next two hours. Unfortunately though, all of the reenactments from there on were performed outside...in the freezing cold. We would walk to a spot, stand and listen for a solid 10 minutes, then head into the particular pub upon which the story was centered (we went to 4 on the night). Once inside, we only had about 15 minutes to order and drink, so I found myself not getting much out of it. Plus, I was with two of my friends who are current Trinity College Dublin students, so I felt like they could have taken me to an endless number of pubs throughout town, saving me 10 euro in the process. I digress. After the tour was over, I stayed with my friends for a few pints and then found our way to a haven for drunk, hungry people.

I spent all day Monday in the Irish countryside. This was by far the most fun day I had in Ireland. I was on a 25-person bus tour which began on the south coast and made its way to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough Valley. The countryside was unlike anything I had ever seen before - it was so vibrantly green and peaceful that it was truly surreal. I knew we were in a different place when the weather began to change at the blink of an eye. It went from sunny, to cloudy, TO SNOWING, back to sunny within roughly 20 minutes. We stopped for lunch at a pub, where I finally was able to find traditional Irish food - they gave me a huge vat of beef stew, with mashed potatoes piled high underneath. It was a nice, light meal complemented well by a pint of Kilkenny, an Irish lager. Delicious.

The highlights of the tour included visiting Dalkey (where Bono and The Edge live), seeing glacial lakes, touring a 1000 year old cemetery and hiking through the mountains.

The rest of my time spent in Ireland was pretty crappy, mainly because I had to leave at 2:15 am to catch my flight and play by Aer Lingus' strict rules.

I will leave you with some fun facts I learned/noticed during my six days in Ireland:

- People drive on the left side of the road
- Steering wheels are located on the right hand-side of cars
- People invariably refer to beers as 'pints' (regardless of the size of said beer)
- Pubs stay open until about 12:30, but clubs remain open much later
- Every single sink I saw possessed two faucets; instead of shifting the nozzle from hot to cold, there was always a hot and a cold faucet separated by a few inches
- The 'hot' faucet was sometimes on the right, but not always
- Street names are posted high up on the corner buildings
- None of the bathrooms had paper towels; blow dryers had to suffice

- The Irish word for whisky is "uisce beatha"; translated, it means "water of life"

Portugal, here I come...