Yesterday was our last full day in Dublin, and we made the most of our time. We made ourselves get an early start, 10am! Hey, it’s our honeymoon we are allowed to sleep late! So let’s talk about the guest at our hotel – the Irish national rugby team was at breakfast & they were pretty massive guys, similar to football but in way better shape! They were amazing to see in person and the wait staff in “aww” as they were serving them. Our hotel is next to Aviva Stadium, so rugby is alive and well in the area.
Because we were told we “MUST SEE THE BEACH by the hotel,” we walked about 1/2 mile east & It’s not Bahama’s let me tell you. It’s the east most part of the country and about a football fields length of sand by the water. The park that accompanied the beach was a sight – fields for rugby, soccer and polo – but the beach not so much. The neighborhood across the street from the beach was perfect! Our favorite neighborhood thus far. Very quiet, clean but homely – the national school for boys was in the area. We allotted ourselves plenty of time at the beach but ended up not spending more then 10 minutes before we decided to start our day earlier!
We walked to the DART station and caught the train into the city. We could have easily walked into the city from our hotel but we enjoy taking public transportation – fun people watching.
Our first stop was trinity college. This place is gorgeous! Everything you think an old European university looks like – all stone buildings, statues everywhere, iron gates around the perimeter. I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed going to school where hundreds of tourist visited daily, but apparently the students are used to visitors. Our friends told us not to miss the Book of Kells and the Long Room at the university. Soo …. The book of Kells (in layman’s terms) is just the 4 Gospels (the 4 books of the Bible -Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for you non-Christian folk) written in Latin and made to look fancy! The books (4 in total) were all written on vellum (calf hide) and with colored ink made from stone dust, fruit and other natural ingredients. I’m glad my 4 years of Latin kicked in, because I was able to read a few lines when I could figure out what certain ornate letters were (See picture). The university keeps 2 books open on hand for people to observe, no photos are allowed in that room, but it’s just like it sounds – a big book, 2 magazines wide but DOUBLE the thickest text book you ever had in college! Above the book of Kells museum is the Long Room. The Long Room is exactly that – a LONG ROOM filled with books! Books, on books, on books! Remember Beauty and the Beast’s library!? This room was bigger! It holds over 200,000 of the world oldest books! We weren’t allowed to touch any but students continuously work to restore them throughout the year. It holds one of the last remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. My only confusion about the Long Room was the upstairs level. It was added on in the mid/late 1800’s but there seems to be no access point to the upstairs chambers. I concluded that one had to scale a post, jump over the rail to get a book! Not only are the Trinity students smart but they are dare Devils!
college/ text/materials/drawing
We then made our way to the North side of Dublin to shop & sightsee. We went to a shopping mall were Bowen bought me a beautiful dress form an Irish store. We bought some hiking essentials for our hikes this week and walked around, poking our heads in and out of shops and cafes. We then went to the Jameson Distillery to take a tour. We had an hour to kill so we headed to a local Burger joint! Bowen and I consider ourselves burger snobs because we have been spoiled at home by the best burger joint in the state – nay the country – company Burger. But this place gives them a run for their money! Bowen had the Lamb, which he said was Better than CoBu – sorry joe! – and I had the burger with apple, smoked cheese and Jo-burger relish! (See picture) I was in heaven! I will be trying to recreate this burger as soon as I get home! The atmosphere was chill & hip (they were playing the new Drake album from start to finish while we were in there).
The Jameson tour started & it did not disappoint. In fact It introduced me to my new favorite drink – Jameson & Ginger ale! Since we have been on multiple distillery tours before (Scotland last year) we knew how it all worked, but it was interesting to hear the differences between all the whiskeys. American whiskey is distilled once because we revolutionized the distillation process to make it quicker, Scotch (whisky made in Scotland) is distilled twice & with smoke producing coal that gives it a smokey taste, and Jameson is distilled 3 times, with a gas to give it a smoother flavor. We sampled all 3 and were able to tell the differences instantly. We received certificates that states we are expect whiskey drinkers and went on our way.
We headed to Christ Church and St. Patrick’s. Both are stunning and equally grand! Both taking up a few blocks. We didn’t get to spend much time in either because services were going on at the time.
With time to spare we decided to just wander around the city. We made our way to the oldest pub in the world – brazen head! A quant pub filled with locals and visitors alike. We walked down Temple Bar (it’s a street not just a bar – post from before) and it looked completely different from the night before. It was less crowded and the pubs were easily accessible. All the walking made us hungry again (shocker) so we decided to go to a place I had wanted to go to since Day 1 – CRACKBIRD! Low and behold, it’s the brainchild of the Jo-burger creators and it was the BEST FRIED CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD – Bowen as well! These owners were 2 for 2 & we later found out they have a steak restaurant and a pizza joint! I have no doubt that those 2 places would have changed my mind on the best pizza & would have probably made me love steak! It was on another level good! Bowen ate a whole chicken … WHOLE! We licked our plates dry and headed to the elusive bar from Tuesday – Gogarty’s!
Gogarty’s usually has a musical pub crawl every night but of course the day after st. Patrick’s day they took a break. But it was a blessing in disguise because we were able to hear 3 local Irish musicians & sang along & drank for a few hours. It was the perfect end to the perfect day – one of eight seeing, great food & tons of whiskey!
a NOLA girl in a Big world 
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