Traipsing around Dublin

I arrived! I've been here since Thursday morning of last week. I'm staying with my friend Derek and his family about 30 mintues from the city center by bus. I've been enjoying my time with him here, but the cold weather definitely is a bit of a shock to the system! I didn't do too much on Thursday or Friday, but on Saturday, we had plans to head into town.

In typical Irish style, it decided to piss down rain ALL DAY Saturday. Fabulous. We were going to grab brunch, walk around a bit and maybe take in the Jameson Distillery, but due to the rain, we ate and then walked around for all of about 30 minutes before landing in a pub to keep warm and to have a pint or two. The Foggy Dew was the pub of choice, and about 20 minutes after we arrived, the Ireland vs. England rugby match started. Derek wanted to stay to watch it, so we ordered up another round of pints and I got a lesson in rugby rules. Sorry Americans, but it's much more intersting and fast-paced than American football. I've heard it for years, but I've finally got to agree with the Brits/Irish/Aussies who've been telling me that.

Three pints after we entered, the game was over, and the Irish had a very poor showing, losing 10-33 to the English. Unfortunately, while we were in the pub, the rain did not let up. We decided to go home to change before going back into time that evening. That evening, we went to Whelan's to check out a couple of bands. Although the music was not really my type (heavy rock/metal-ish), it was good to see live music after only hearing salsa, merengue and reggaeton for so long. We also met up with Derek's brother and a few friends of his out.

Sunday was spent doing next to nothing until the evening, when we were going out to meet up with a few more friends of Derek's. St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday in Ireland, so most people have the day off. Since it landed on Monday, folks seemed to be going out on Sunday night; most people had to work on Tuesday. We had a few pints, first at the Blue Haven, then at The Morgue's before we called it an early night in order to avoid a hangover on Patty's Day, when I wanted to head out into town. However, before heading home, we had to stop off at the local chipper for me to get some "chips" (fries) and Derek a hamburger.

St. Patrick's Day, we went out to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dunn Leery), which is on the coast and has a long pier to walk along. Lots of people were out and about, and we strolled for a good couple of hours along the coast before grabbing some pub grub at the Purty Kitchen. Great food! I had corn fritters on top of a great salad.

Afterwards, we walked back to the car, stopping to get some green ice cream along the way. No, they don't do green beer on St. Pat's Day here in Ireland, but I guess they do green ice cream. And they sometimes will put the shamrock on the top of a pint of Guinness, but mostly only at the touristy places, and only on Patty's Day. We drove over to Dun Drum, dropped off the car, and hopped on the tram into town. We managed to miss the parade (intentionally), but when we got off the tram, we saw masses of people decked out in green with crazy hats, spray-painted hair, and Irish flags draped across their shoulders. Many were about 16 or 18 and already drunk at about 4pm. I guess everyone of age had to work the next day or were already in the pubs. We walked around taking in the madness for a little bit before we ducked into the Turk's Head for my token Guinness on St. Pat's Day. We stayed for one then slowly cruised back to the tram and had a quiet evening at home hanging out with the fam and then watching the last movie in the Bourne series.

Yesterday when Derek was at work, I decided to get more familiar with the bus system and cruised into Dublin town by myself. I bought a new ipod (80gb!), poked around in a few of the shops, then went to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. It was packed! Surprise, surprise, though really... what were all of the foreigners in town for St. Patrick's Day suppoesd to do the following day other than cruise through the Guinness and Jameson factories? Despite that, I managed to get myself chosen to be one of the 6 whiskey tasters in the group at the end of the tour, which meant that in addition to my free shot of Jameson, I also got to compare 3 different Irish whiskeys, one Scotch whisky (Johnnie Walker Red) and one American (Jack Daniels). They also gave me a nice certificate for it. That certainly made the €12.50 tour worth it!

That's all for now... next weekend, it's off to Killarney in the southwest, and next Wednesday, it's off to Rome!