Dublin

We took our first trip to Dublin this weekend to celebrate St. Patricks Day.  Got in Thursday afternoon and easily spotted an Irish pub adjacent to our hotel, the Bleeding Horse.  Finally got our hands on some chicken wings and a Guinness.  This pub was established over 300 years ago.  It is so crazy to think about how old that is for a pub!!

We were able to score some free tickets to the Irish Craft Beer Festival from the bartender.  We definitely felt like we were locals at this festival as it was not in the tourist area and a big afterwork type crowd.  Friday we hit the ground running.  First enjoyed some breakfast at a local, small business owner cafe.  Love these types of places that are not commercial.  And since all Brussels knows for breakfast is croissants and espresso, we were in heaven with an actual full 8oz cup of coffee and bacon and eggs with toast and relish.  We headed on to St. Patrick's Cathedral which had a gorgeous and really well kept up park next to it where tombs of Jonathan Swift and other famous writers exist.

We toured the Christ Church Cathedral which had an interesting crypt beneath the cathedral, and then headed to the Guinness Storehouse.  The brewery was crazy busy but we made our way through learning about the ingredients, brewing process, and then the most important, the taste test.  There is a gravity bar at the top where you get to enjoy a pint and look out onto the city.  We were good consumers and bought a couple souvenirs as well.  Here is a crazy fact for you, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate for I believe it was 45 Pounds a year in 1759.  This blew me away that he was able to lock that in for so long.


We then enjoyed some fish and chips for a late lunch, which tasted really good after a long day of walking all over!  We caught up with some friends from the EY program that night and enjoyed some oysters and mussels.  Brussels is supposed to have good mussels, but I honestly thought these were better.

Finally St. Patty's Day was here!  We started off the day by taking a trip to Talbot street and Talbot Memorial Bridge.  We didn't see any information as to how the bridge got its name but Wiki just told me that the bridge was named after a Talbot who protested for government regulation of alcohol (so I'm doubting we could even really be related).  We found a place to post up for the parade and watched the Irish celebration.  There was a science influence for 2012 and it was very interesting.  Didn't seem to have a whole lot to do with St. Patrick's Day but I suppose they have to change it up to avoid doing the same thing every year!  The city was full of green hats, scarfs, shirts, hair, etc.  We actually even saw someone spray painting their teeth green.  We enjoyed a biergarten and then some of the England Ireland rugby game.  Met some Americans from California and had a great time.

I really wish we would have been able to spend more time there.  The people were incredibly friendly and helpful.  It always felt like they were going out of their way to make sure you were ok.  The city had a lot of parks and even coming right out of winter the parks looked so green already.