Dublin

Top of the morning to you all from Dublin, Ireland!

This morning I got up at 6.30am and got ready. Lou drove me to the bus stop and I got the bus and tube to Heathrow terminal 5. I then flew to Dublin! My flight was delayed for an hour but the time passed quickly due to me having a really nice Irish woman next to me on the plane. She gave me good advice re transport etc!! The flight today from London to Dublin took 50 minutes which is the equivalent of flying Melbourne to Adelaide. So strange to think you can fly to another country that quickly with a different currency, different language etc!

Landed in Dublin and it was cloudy and 7 degrees here today. You don't notice it too much once you walk around though! I got the bus to right near my hostel and couldn't check in just yet so left my small bag at reception and headed off. 

My friend James (the one who showed me around Cambridge) has been here since Friday with a few uni friends but left tonight. So I went to meet them while they were still here at the Guinness Storehouse. This was a fermentation plant from 1904-1988 but is now a seven storey museum type place all about Guinness! The building is actually in the shape of a Guinness and if full it would hold 14.3 million pints of Guinness! 

I did the whole experience out of order due to going and meeting James and his friends after they had already been there a little while. So I started with them on level two where they were watching some live music. But we quickly went to level three, which was a really strange exhibition about the history of Guinness advertising! Then we went up to the top which is the Gravity Bar. Here you get the best view of Dublin and you get a complimentary pint of Guinness with your admission ticket. So here was the test. I've never tried Guinness and I wasn't expecting much, but...... I really enjoyed it! In fact, I may even buy it when I go out other nights here! Having a bit of a night in tonight due to the early morning and not wanting to go out by myself. 

Stayed upstairs for a while chatting to James and his friends, and then when they left I went back downstairs to do the parts I had missed. The ground level was all about the ingredients of Guinness. The ingredients are barley, hops (a plant), yeast and water. 100,000 tonnes of Irish barley is used every year to make Guinness. Guinness actually purchases 2/3 of barley grown in Ireland! The barley is malted, roasted, milled, mixed with hot water and mashed. Then it's filtered off and boiled with hops. Yeast is added and the fermentation begins! Over ten million pints of Guinness are produced every day!

I then went throughout the various other levels. Watched an Irish dance and fiddle show, then I got a taste on one level (even though I had already had my complimentary pint!) and then got to some other workshop thing where they showed you how to taste it properly! At this point I started to wonder how I was possibly tipsy after one and a bit drinks, and it was then that I realised due to my flight being delayed I completely forgot about lunch. So I bought myself a burger in the storehouse with beef that had been marinated in Guinness. It was delicious! 

I ended my trip to the storehouse by going back to level 2 where the live music was. By chance I noticed a board outlining which live music was on and realised that in ten minutes a U2 tribute band would be playing from 5-7pm. So I thought I would stay for a song or two. But they were so good that a song or two turned into three, four, five...I lost count of how many songs! I stayed for just over an hour and then walked the half an hour back to my hostel. On the way back I went via the Temple Bar district which had a really cool vibe. I'll go back there the next couple of nights when I meet up with some people I know :) I also stopped in some souvenir shops and bought my obligatory magnet and some Irish socks for St Paddy's. It's really cool here too, for the St Patrick's Day festival the city's main buildings are being lit up in green each night. Took some photos today but it wasn't too dark. I'll have to take some good ones when it's darker the next few nights!

Then I got back to my hostel and checked in. Would you believe after all the travel I've done - 42 countries now, countless months overseas, I have never once stayed in a dorm apart from when I've been on a tour and stayed with tour people! So tonight is officially my first night in a dorm. I arrived and no one was around, but about 20 minutes after I arrived a Croatian guy arrived. He seems fairly nice. He's moved here to work and is staying at the hostel for a couple of weeks until he can find somewhere to live!

Now I am contemplating whether I can be bothered going back out to buy something to eat a) because I'm feeling tired and lazy and b) because I can't be bothered spending money! I think my rumbling tummy will win the battle soon though haha. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox