Going the Distance

This weekend I went to Ireland with Andrea and Jessica, and it was quite the adventure! Andrea and I left for the airport and arrived at around 6:30PM...and we were so worried about missing our flight -- but we ended up having more than enough time. Anyway, when we arrived in Dublin...we were pretty much beat, so we went to bed. The next day is when things finally got interesting(er). We started off the way by going to two of the National Museums of Ireland (the archaeology and natural history ones), and they were really cool! The natural history museum was full of animals that were native to Ireland on the first floor, and the second floor was animals from all over the world! The most impressive animal was a tiger that was given to the National Museum by George III as a gift...it was a really old and well preserved tiger! In our adventure to the museum of archaeology, we walked through St. Stephen's Green, which is a big park full of statues. The next museum was also very, very cool because it had ancient remains from Ireland and some random travelling exhibits! Very informative. Afterwards, we decided to end our sightseeing at the Old Jameson Distillery, which was my personal favorite. As you may or may have not read, I am taking a class on traditional alcoholic beverages, so the distillery tour was an interesting explanation of how whiskey is made. I was also chosen to be a whiskey taster, so I now know the differences between Irish whiskey, scotch, and American whiskey...and believe me, they are different. All whiskies are made with barley, and this barley is roasted. So scotch's barley is roasted using wood...thus giving it a smoky kind of taste, but on the other hand, Irish whiskey is made with a fuel source that emits no extra taste so the full taste of malted barley is presented. It was REALLY cool! We ended our day in Temple Bar until Jessica arrived and then like the night before...ended up being really tired and going to bed. The next day, we woke up super early and ate breakfast at the hostel...a lot of breakfast. We were planning on saving tons of money that day (which kind of got negated by buying souvenirs...but, hey, I would have spent more had I not done this). So we did a little bit of this (that may save you money if you're travelling!)

1. Does your hostel offer free breakfast? Do they have bread for toast and jelly/peanut butter for topping? Sounds like you should be eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, eh?
2. Sandeman's tours are amazing...they're free tours in major cities like Paris, Dublin, and London (and more...) where the guides work on tips, so you're going to (idealistically) get an excellent tour!
3. Bus passes are overrated. That is all.
4. Don't forget (well, unless you're not a student) that you're a student...so I think "Can I get the special?" should be numero uno on your phrases in another language!

A view of the north side of Dublin from the bridge.

Our itinerary for the day included going on a walking tour of Dublin and then the Guinness Storehouse! The walking tour was free, and is number two on the short list above...we saw most of the main attractions in Dublin and got a lovely historical background on its history! We ended the tour back in St. Stephen's Green and began our trek to the Guinness Storehouse which was okay, but it should have been a guided tour instead of a free for all..in my opinion. We ended the day in the Temple Bar area again so we could listen to some traditional Irish music, and it was GREAT! As we were walking home, we saw this street performer that was dancing with fire and it was so entrancing.

Anyway, that's all I've got about Ireland. Unfortunately there's no exciting trips this weekend, but later I'll post about the kilo vintage sale I went to this afternoon! I'm done with midterms, so life will be back to normal until finals.