Visiting Sir John in Irlanda!

After having another fun filled week in Barcelona, I headed to the airport early Friday, November 13th, with Hank to catch our flight to Dublin where I was going to visit my buddy John who was spending the semester there. After we landed, Hank and I headed down to the central spire to meet Hank’s friend Shippy. We decided to go to the Guinness factory and take the tour there as our first experience in Irlanda. We wandered around the museum learning about the surprisingly intensive beer producing process before engaging in a lesson on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. We sipped our perfectly poured pint while enjoying a beautiful view of the city of Dublin. Upon leaving the skies opened up and it started down pouring and unfortunately we got drenched on our way to catch the bus. We made our way back to UCD (University College Dublin) where both John and Shippy were studying for the semester. Hank and I parted ways agreeing to meet up at some point the next day. John and I decided to take it easy that evening and get an early start the next day. We had a blast and enjoyed catching up about life and WashU things since I hadn’t really seen many people since I had left the previous May. As we had planned, we woke bright and early Saturday morning, chowed down a quick breakfast and headed into the city for a full day of touring. We started at St. Michan’s church where we rubbed the hand of an 800 year old mummified crusader before heading over to take the tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. I was selected as a taste tester and after the tour got to try the different types of famous whiskeys! After downing our whiskeys, John and I headed to more of the famous sites of Dublin. Where enjoyed a delicious lunch at a small café near Christ’s church before going inside and exploring this beautifully built religious place. We tried walking through the four courts (the judicial building) but it was closed. Unfortunately so was St. Patrick’s Cathedral (as well as Marsh’s Library) for a graduation which was a major disappointment but gives me good reason to return to Irlanda! We walked along the streets of Dublin and through the grounds of Dublin Palace to the Chester Beatty Library which housed a magnificent collection of religious artifacts and works from various areas around the world. John and I wandered around the museum for a while contemplating life, religion and art before heading over to the old and famous campus of Trinity College Dublin. The campus of this heart-of-Dublin-college was absolutely beautiful but unfortunately they are starting to add in some more modern looking buildings which look very out of place. Nonetheless it was nice to cruise around one of the oldest universities in the world. After, we walked to Church Bar and grabbed a Guinness before heading to O’Neill’s Irish Pub to grab dinner and watch the Ireland versus France World Cup Qualifier. Church Bar was beautiful. Situated in an old church, it had a long island bar in the middle with a restaurant up in the balcony and a club in the basement. Great atmosphere as most people were there in preparation for the game. I thought Church Bar was packed but it was nothing compared to O’Neill’s. This pub was packed with people cramming food and brew into their mouth in anticipation of the game that would give Ireland the chance to go to the World Cup this upcoming summer. I myself got the traditional fish and chips while John indulged in some Irish stew. Both meals were surprisingly delicious and more than filling. We weaseled our way in front of one of the larger tv’s and settled in for a long and intense game. Unfortunately, Ireland couldn’t hold it together and lost the game 1-0 to everyone’s disappointment. After, we all headed to Dublin’s smallest pub (which I think was called Dawson’s but I’m having trouble remembering right now) and shared stories about our common friends (my how small the world is). Hank and Shippy decided to head home but having taken it pretty easy the previous night, John and I tried out Porterhouse. Jammed pack and way too smoky and noisy for us we headed to International Bar. Unfortunately, the case was the same there so we wandered down to Stag’s head where we grabbed drinks and chilled on the street catching up about what we had been doing in the time since we had last seen in each other. A very fun atmosphere, even in the street, after a while we decided it was time to head back since we wanted to get an early start again on Sunday.

Sunday we woke bright and early again, ready for another day of exploring. We checked online and unfortunately St. Patrick’s was going to be closed again. Guess it just wasn’t my chance to see that church this trip. Unconcerned, we headed downtown to check out Merrion Square, the beautiful park of St. Stephen’s Green, before grabbing sandwiches and heading out to the coastal town of Howth for the day where we were meeting up with Hank and Shippy. After cruising through a beautiful farmer’s market right in the heart of the harbor, we watched the playful seals respond to people throwing them food and other treats. We walked all the way down the pier to see the eye of Ireland and get our first views of the coastline. Next we picked up a map and with Hank and Shippy started our hike along the beautiful Irish coast. It was magnificent to see this nature in comparison to the city that I had seen the previous two days. Filled with waterfalls, drop-offs, lush green grass, the ocean slamming into rocks, and the houses overlooking Dublin bay we thoroughly enjoyed our roughly 3 hour hike. Pretty tired from all the exploring, we made our way back into ‘downtown’ Howth and ate fish and chips in the harbor. Shippy and Hank took the train back to Dublin but John and I decided to stop by this pub called Fisherman’s for a few drinks before our bus was to leave for the city center. This was one of the top things I did in my time in Ireland. We walked into this small but stereotypical Irish pub and were greeted by friendly locals and the sweet sounds of traditional Irish music. We grabbed two chairs towards the back, ordered pints of Guinness and absorbed the amazingness of this pub. A few hours later still enjoying the pure bliss of this pub, we realized we had to catch the last bus back so we could make it to John’s place without having to take a cab from Howth. We parted ways with our new favorite place (though I fortunately didn’t have to part ways with an amazing Smithwick’s pint glass) and rode the bus back to UCD. Our flight back to Barca was really early in the morning and our best option was to grab the AirCoach. Around 4am we headed down to the stop and right as we exited the gate, the bus went zooming by. We turned down a number of cabs hoping that it wasn’t the right bus but after 45 minutes of waiting and an offer to pay the same price for a cab that we would have paid for the bus, we decided to test our luck and take our chances. Turns out it all worked out perfectly and we made it to the Dublin Airport and onto our flight back to Barcelona.