I jumped on the bus from Cork to Dublin and was on my way to the last stop in Ireland.  I arrived at around 6pm and luckily the bus dropped me right in front of a brewery and obviously the best thing to do after getting off a longish bus ride is grab a pint.

It was the JW Sweetman brewery and the offerings were all pretty standard stuff.  I enjoyed my pint but quickly moved on towards my hostel.

After checking into my hostel, I was off in search of some food and right across the street there was this small little mexican place.  I am always down for a burrito so i stopped in and was pleasently surprised that the two guys working there barely spoke any english so i was excited for a hopefully authentic Mexican burrito.  It ended up being pretty decent but not amazing (I really can’t wait to get back to California so I can get my proper burrito fix)

After finihsing the burrito it was back to couchsurfing to see if i could find some people to hang out with for the night.  I ended up connecting with a middle aged woman from France.  We met at the Temple Bar and grabbed an overpriced tourist drink before heading to a more authentic place elsewhere in Dublin.

The Temple Bar area of Dublin was pretty lively although pretty touristy.

We made it to a quieter part of town in a small pub that had some really cool traditional music that was performed by a group that seemed to just be jamming together with no real specific songs.  They were telling stories and it ended up being really cool.  At this bar we were joined by a few french friends of the woman (again i forget her name) as well as my friend Rory who i had met in Dingle.

We hung out at this small pub for a while until the band was finished at which point Rory suggested we go to the Pour House (his dad’s brewery) where they had an excellent cover band playing.  We headed over there and he was not lying, the band was excellent and we had a great time.

I was apparently really bad at taking photos this night so I only got one group shot at the end of the night.

We called it a night after the band finished at the pour house and I headed home as I was trying to get up early and get to the Guinness factory at a decent time before the crowds showed up.

It was a great coincidence that a running friend from California just happened to be in Dublin at the same time and so we planned to meet up for the Guinness tour in the morning.  Gaurav was even nice enough to bring me a pair of running shoes for California because I needed them while I was going to be in Canada and i struggled to find a retailer that would ship online to Canada with the shoes I wanted and it was just easier to chip them to have them sent to California and then brought to Ireland (I know that sounds weird but it worked).  Anyways, we met up in the morning and then headed to the Guinness factory.

The tour had recently been redone and so all of the exhibits were pretty new and polished.  They obviously went through the how to make beer but also touched on the history of Guinness which is the part that I enjoyed more.  The history of their advertising campaigns was one of the cooler ones.

They also showcased the history of their cooperage facilities and how they made barrels in house for the distribution of the beer before kegs became a thing.

Then we went to the Guinness Academy where we were taught to pour the perfect Guinness pint!

I think i did pretty well.  We even got certificates to bring home.  I opted for a message home rather than my name.

We then took our beers up to the gravity bar which gave a 360 degree view of Dublin.  It was pretty nice to sip on a beer and enjoy the view.

I did not participate in some of the other high profile brewery tours on my trip but decided that this one if routed in history and was kind of like the original big brewery.  At $19 Euros it was a bit pricey seeing as how you only got one beer included but the museum was nice and the bar was cool.  Only thing I would have liked was to see more of the actual brewery.  I would say that even though it is in the same property as the brewery, you don’t actually get to see any of the brewing equipment or where they are actually making the beer.  It is much more of a museum than a brewery.  It is located in one of their old malting buildings (i think) so there is still some leftover equipment but in general you do not see ant of the actual brewing.  Was it worth it, probably not but it was for sure one of those check mark items that i think in the grand scheme of things was worth it to say i’ve been their and done that.

After having the first beer, it tasted like more and being both extremely into beer, we decided to check out some of the recommended beer bars and breweries in Dublin.

The first stop was Against the grain which was another location of the Galway Bay Brewing company for which I had visited another location in Galway.

Next stop was The Bernard Shaw which was supposed to brew their own beer but apparently they were out and the rest of their beer selection was not ideal.  They had a nice patio though so that was enjoyable.

I also enjoyed the ad on the side of this building, which also was the next stop on our little crawl. Devitt’s

Gaurav was still working at this point and had to head back to his apartment to join some meetings as other parts of the world were starting to wake up and he had to do some work.  He headed off to his meetings and I connected with Rory who was planning to go to a comedy show that night.  We met up a little bit before the show and met up with some of his friends for a few beverages.

The comedy show ended up being a comedic play/reading with a lot of different participants.  Some of the jokes were very Irish humor where they made fun of different parts of Ireland which wasn’t as funny to me but i had spent enough time in Ireland to get a few of the rivalries and inside jokes that they mentioned.  It was a fun show and I am glad I went.

after the show Gaurav messaged me and said he was done his work and wanted to grab a drink somewhere.  By this time it was almost midnight and it was surprisingly hard to find somewhere that was open after midnight on a Wednesday.  We ended up at the Capital lounge which was a bit overpriced and completely dead, but it was open and that was all that mattered. They had a two for one drink special on as well so we shared it.

We didn’t make it a very late night but did have a good time.

The next morning we had made plans to get up and go exploring, and so we planned to meet at St.Stephens Green which would allow us to both check out the green and have a meeting point nearish to each of our accommodations.

The next morning i arrived early and laid down on the grass reading my book while i contemplated life and waited for Gaurav.  It was a solid way to spend the early morning and I really enjoyed the chill time.

We had discussed previously that we both wanted to wander around a bit then check out the Library of Trinity College which has the book of kells (an old version of the new testament) and is generally just a really cool library.  We wandered along the river and ended up grabbing lunch at one of the remaining breweries on my list, called urban brewing dublin.

It was pretty new and they actually had a really cool basement which has a cavernous feel to it.  The brewery is down there as well as really cool seating.

After finishing our lunch and beer, we headed to the library to check out what all of the fuss was about.  On the way, we passed by the Molly Malone statue which is a fictional character from a well known Irish song.  The statue has been groped so much that the Bronze has started to wear away.  I guess it was only proper to join in.

When we arrived at the library we were told that the tickets were timed and that we would have to come back in an hour when our tickets indicated we could go in.  That didn’t seem so bad, so we wandered around Trinity college for a bit, enjoying the buildings and general college life.

We finally were admitted to the library and the Book of Kells exhibit.  There were no photos in the exhibit but it was permissible in the library upstairs.  So of course we took advantage and had some photo ops.

The books are super old!

After finishing up at the library, Gurauv had to head to some meetings and I had to head up north to meet up with Lindsay and Christopher again who had driven down from Belfast to see me off and go to a theme park the next day.  I took the bus up near the airport and we went to dinner at a delicious pizza place nearby.

It was so nice of them to see me off and I am hoping that we will be able to find each other somewhere in the world.  It was amazing to make such connections with people and will for sure try my best to make a special trip back to Belfast to see them!

The next morning I was supposed to have an early morning flight, but upon arriving at the airport it turns out it would be over 4 hours delayed.  Apparently the incoming flight had been delayed and crew rest required the delay on the outgoing aircraft.  Luckily I had lounge access and hung out in there with wifi, food and booze!  I was flying from Dublin to St.John’s and luckily i had a 7 hour layover there.

However, due to the delay it went from leaving the airport in St.John’s to explore a bit, to walking on to my next flight as they were preparing to close the boarding doors.

I eventually made it to Toronto and my mom was waiting for me!  Time to spend a week at hommme!