Chapter 4 : That’s Grand; Thanks a Million

After discussing with Elena and Alissa, we decided we were getting to Dublin one way or another so we each forked up 250 euros and boarded the next flight to Dublin. We flew Aer Lingus and the seats were so comfortable (definitely recommend flying with them), maybe not 250 euros worth of comfort, but it definitely helped. Once arriving at Dublin airport, we caught a bus to the city. We were supposed to get off at the second to last stop, but apparently we didn’t know how the bus worked and ended up getting dropped off at the last stop instead. Oh, and to make it better, we got off in the middle of a downpour! Nothing sayings welcome more than a downpour. We trudged our way to the hostel, having to stop in a bar to ask for directions, which was conveniently located in Smithfield. Elena and I were very happy to be “home.”

We checked into our hostel and then headed to dinner because by this point, we were all starving. We saw a pizzeria across the street from our hostel and headed over just to find out it was full and it would be around a 40 minute wait. We decided to keep looking. There was not too much for food options near our hostel, so I decided to ask a random person on the street where a good place to eat was. She told us of a restaurant not too far away so we decided to head there. The place was quaint and the food was delectable. Now that we were all full, we headed back to the hostel to shower and go to bed because we had a busy day ahead of us.

Different Aged Whiskey

Today we were off to the Jameson Distillery. It was a right out of the hostel, then another quick right and located directly behind our hostel. How’s that for location? We decided to stop at this adorable little breakfast place on the way to grab a quick bite to eat, then to start our day with a little whiskey. A tour guide took us through the process of how they make the whiskey, although, currently Jameson is distilled in southern Ireland. We ended the tour with a glass of Jameson on the rocks, with ginger ale, or with cranberry juice. I wanted to be a man and drink it on the rocks; I mean we were there to taste the Jameson after all. About halfway through, I couldn’t take anymore and had to add ginger ale. I guess I failed, oh well. We decided to eat lunch at the restaurant in the distillery and then headed to the gift shop. As we were checking out I started up conversation with the lady noticing her use of the word “grand.” She then sent us on our way with a “thanks a million.”

After the distillery we walked around Dublin on our own and stumbled upon Temple Bar, Trinity College, Christchurch, and the world’s largest clock. By then we were pretty tired and headed to the pizzeria for a second try. We had better luck this time. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel and passed out, well I passed out!

Temple Bar

Trinity College

Friday we changed hostels because the new one had a shuttle service to the airport. After checking in we did the free walking tour that the hostel offered. Our tour guide was a little crazy, but she knew a lot of history. We saw some of the same buildings and a few new ones too, such as the Dublin Castle and St. Stephen’s Green. After the tour we headed to the Guinness storehouse for lunch and the tour. I got beef and Guinness stew – delicious! After lunch we went on the self-guided tour. The Guinness storehouse was huge. We eventually made our way to the Gravity Bar where we all enjoyed a glass of Guinness. I was the only one to finish my pint. Dad, I know you’re proud! Afterwards we went to the gift shop and did some damage. We all spent enough money to get the free gift with purchase. Oops!

Dublin Castle

Church inside Dublin Castle

That night we went on the hostel’s pub crawl. We meet a lot of kids from Florida on the crawl. At the first bar we got a free welcome glass of Guinness. I decided I wanted a glass from Ireland, and what better than to have a Guinness glass, so I took the half-pint glass with me. At the next bars we went to we were given a free shot upon entering. It was a weird pub crawl if you ask me. Usually when you think of pub crawls, you think beer. If I ever make it back to Dublin, I would do my own pub crawl along Temple Bar.

Ironically I planned our trip during the same weekend as TradFest, a traditional festival filled with live music, traditional food markets, and Irish step dancing. On Saturday we went to one of the tents and watched some dancing. We then headed to the little fair at Christchurch where we met a guy from Newfoundland who was selling flavored popcorn. Afterwards we headed to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

For dinner we went to the Porterhouse Bar and had dinner while listening to a live band. I ordered the sampler of beer and ordered three different Porterhouse brewed beers : oyster stout, original stout, Porterhouse red. My favorite, by far, was the oyster stout! It was a pretty low key day because we had been going, going, going for a while by then. We also had to get up at 330am the following morning to catch the shuttle to the airport. We were not going to miss this flight too! Early Sunday morning we said our “thanks a million” to Dublin and headed to Paris, our last stop.