The traveling continues. After our Northern Field Trip, our next stop was Dublin, Ireland for the week of Thanksgiving. However, first, we had to get from Venice to Dublin. We ended up with a flight out of Bergamo, which is a small town about thirty minutes outside of Milan, because Clarissa and I were cheap and used RyanAir. After we wandered around Venice waiting for our 8pm train, we arrived in Bergamo by midnight or so, leaving us 10 hours until our flight took off for Dublin. Fortunately for us, there was a 24-hour cafe in the Bergamo airport, and there were plenty of people already there doing the same thing: sleeping in the airport. At first Clarissa and I were taking shifts sleeping, while we both fiddled with all of our bags to make sure they made weight and size requirements. We were forced to move around 4-5am, where we essentially just sat and watched the screens until we were able to check in. I took a small nap on the floor because I really couldn't stay awake, and with all of our bags, Clarissa got the impression most people walking past thought we were homeless. Not one of our better moments. After a few more hours, we finally were able to get on our two-hour flight to Dublin, arriving there around noon. After waiting for a while in the Dublin airport, Clarissa, Eric, Julie, Ed and I all set off for our hotel, the Lynams Hotel, right on O'Connell Street in the city center of Dublin.
Our first night in Dublin was a short one. Once we got to the hotel, we had some issues with the room where Clarissa ended up not having a bed. Once we had worked that out, we decided to go to a pub called Fitzgerald's and had some shepherd's pie and Guinness. However, because Clarissa and I were up all night in the airport and Julie, Eric, and Ed had an overnight flight, we all ended up in bed pretty early. We were all rested for the next day when we went to the Guinness storehouse. The Guinness storehouse was the only part that tourists are able to tour. The actual brewery, St. Jame's Gate, is closed, probably because they want to keep their exact processes and recipes a secret. The storehouse essentially takes you through a step-by-step process of how the beer is brewed, from ingredients to packaging. They showed us the malt, barley, hops, yeast, and water. The water they only get from the surrounding mountains in Dublin, and the yeast is kept locked away in a safe somewhere as its apparently the key to the taste of Guinness.
They also showcased several advertising campaigns for Guinness throughout the years. The entire museum was centered around a pint-shaped atrium that was several stories high. It was a really interesting space. The last part of the tour was a complimentary Guinness, which we drank in the Gravity Bar at the top of the storehouse. You could see all of Dublin from above. It was breathtaking. After drinking our Guinnesses, we walked around Dublin making stops at St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christchurch. We had to wait until Monday to actually go in because of their visiting hours, but we were able to spend some time in the surrounding parks. Dublin is an interesting city. Its mainly a mixture of traditional Ireland with a more modern global culture. They had a ton of Italian restaurants for example - which Clarissa and I made a point to avoid. That night we decided to head to some pubs. We had our first experience in Dublin's Temple Bar district, and we ended up finding a "regular" bar to go to while we were in Dublin - Busker's. We certainly gave them enough of our money during our stay in Dublin. It was a good night, despite the fact that we ended up at McDonald's at 2am just as if we were back in State College. Fail.
We started off the next day at the Jameson distillery. We also had a tour there, showing us how Jameson brews their whiskey, particularly in comparison to other types of whiskey. Jameson distills their whiskey three times, which is why it is so much smoother (and more expensive) than Scotch or American whiskey. They took us through the process of harvesting, mashing, distilling, and vatting. The five of us, Eric, Clarissa, Julie, Ed and I, all ended up volunteering to be whiskey tasters at the end of the tour, so we ended up being able to compare Johnny Walker (scotch), Jameson, and Jack Daniel's (American). I'm not a huge fan of whiskey, so I will say I liked the Jameson the most. We also got a complimentary drink here too, and I chose the cranberry and Jameson combination - Dublin's specialty.
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| Christchurch altar |
After our trip to the distillery (and our being tipsy at 11 in the morning), we ended over to the two churches - St. Patrick's and Christchurch. Christchurch was a huge cathedral, and it also included a crypt, baptistery, and altar. The crypt was pretty fascinating, and it had a mini museum about the church and its books. They also had costumes from the Tudors (Showtime tv show) down there, as most of that show apparently was filmed in Ireland and within the church. We also went to St. Patrick's, which wasn't as impressive as Christchurch. The main nave of any cathedral is very pretty, but it just wasn't as amazing as we were all expecting it to be. After visiting the churches, we ended up going back for a bit so Julie could finish her paper (I know, she's so irresponsible, hah). Later that night, after we were all rested and homework assignments (somewhat) finished, we decided to go on a ghost tour which we weren't sure exactly how serious it was when it came to believing in ghosts and whatnot. The woman who was leading it was very interesting to listen to. For the first half, we mainly walked around parts of Dublin and listened to ghost stories and the woman's humor. When we were near Christchurch during the tour, there was a dog that was crazily running all over the place while she was trying to tell a story. It was pretty adorable, though.
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| St. Patrick's |
The second half of the tour she took us to a church called St. Audeon's, which we had actually walked through earlier in the day. We were in this really creepy passageway, and she kept telling us all of these stories of things that people had seen, felt or experienced while on the tour. I wasn't really scared (though Eric was trying really hard otherwise), but it definitely was creepy when we were wandered around a deserted church at night. I mostly just felt uncomfortable, and every branch crunching or every branch rustling would freak me out a bit. All in all, it was an entertaining tour. For the rest of the night, we searched for a place to eat and a place to get a beer or two. We ended up with hot dogs and kebabs for dinner. Kebabs are pretty amazing, and I don't even enjoy that type of food usually. We ended up at a bar called the Mezz, which essentially was a little State College tucked in the heart of Dublin. It was crowded in there, and I essentially felt like I was in an American bar or club. We didn't stay there too long though; Eric, Clarissa and I had a 6:30am flight to London the next morning, and we had to make sure we were awake.
Next blog post will be our adventures in London, England for Tuesday and most of Wednesday. I'm falling a bit behind on the blog posting, but we have lots of work to do and I will be in Paris, France this weekend. More to come later. A presto.
It's less than two weeks until I'm back in the United States. This semester really has flown by...
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