Dublin: Have a pint of Guinness every time you sit down!

After all the posting I did during Reading Week to catch up so that I could post about Dublin IMMEDIATELY when we got home, this happened:

For the last two weeks, the reading has been non-stop (and it's not over). 
- two novellas by Henry Green (Nothing and Doting)
- Ulysses, that classic tome by James Joyce (plus his short stories, Dubliners)
- two books about photography (not pictured since I got them from the library)
- readings on Impressionism (also not pictured)
- two novels and a biography on Virginia Woolf (due next week)

And oh yeah, my Harry Potter article revisions are due at the end of this week. And so is my first major paper proposal. And we're hosting Thanksgiving tomorrow (yes, on a Sunday).

So, yeah, there's been a considerable delay and instead of taking me a day or two to get to telling you all about Dublin, it's been closer to two weeks. ::shame::

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After nearly two months on a shelf,
the peacocks were ready for some adventure.

We arrived in Dublin on Friday afternoon. Joe had spent the last seven days in a row working closing shifts and fighting a cold, ultimately losing his voice during his final shift before our vacation. All day on travel day, I had to do all of the speaking for both of us: all of the direction asking, order making, question answering, and checking-in everywhere we went. Because of this, we decided to play our first night extremely low key. We went to lunch at a gastropub recommended by Anthony Bordain called The Chop House (where there was a private office Christmas party happening on November 8) and then retired to our hotel for the rest of the day and night.

Food was good but pricey.
Turns out London is not the only expensive city.

Our hotel room was AMAZING. After months in a tiny double bed that requires the inside sleeper to crawl over the outside sleeper to get in and out of bed, our excitement at our king-sized, I-swear-it-was-bigger-than-our-bedroom bed was kind of ridiculous. We stayed at the Schoolhouse Hotel based on a recommendation from my friend Colleen. Located in a converted school house (duh), each of the rooms is named for a famous Irish writer. We stayed in Brendan Behan's room. William Butler Yeats was next door. James Joyce was down the hall.

a little out of the way for most sites but worth it

I could stretch my arms out completely on both sides and barely touch the edge of the bed on one side and Joe on the other. It was heavenly to have so much room to sleep.

Dublin was much more about experiencing the people and the feel of a place than specific attractions and historical sites for us. Neither of us is very familiar with Irish history and we weren't in the mood for museum-going or the bike-touring this time. Instead, we spent a lot of time in pubs, listening to live music (mostly Irish), drinking beer (mostly Guinness), and soaking it in.

I really wanted to see more of Ireland than just the capital since there is usually so much more to a country than it's biggest city. Our travel destinations so far have been capital-heavy (Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, London, Dublin), so it's important to me to break out of that and see more when we can.

We were expecting rain during our trip, so we booked a coach tour of county Wicklow for the day we anticipated the best weather. The bus picked us up in the morning and headed south along the coast making several stops on the way to Glendalough. We drove for several hours in the Wicklow mountains, the national park where Holly and Gerry have their meet-cute in the movie P.S. I love you. We saw (and smelled) peat moss growing on the side of the roads. There were sheep and cows and green rolling hills and it was exactly as you'd expect Ireland to be and more.

shamrocks!

on the P. S. I love you bridge!

visiting in autumn added another layer to our experience of Ireland: orange!

Glendalough is known for it's tenth century monastic site, visible in the distance

The last stop on our tour of Wicklow was at the oldest hand-weaving mill in Ireland, Avoca. There we learned about the history of the mill and got a demonstration of how weavers still make things today. Joe and I were both a bit surprised by how much we loved the products at Avoca. We quickly knew we had to set a price limit for the store attached to the mill and were thrilled when the shades-of-blue blanket we had been eyeing on the tour fell right into our acceptable range! 

Charlie getting cozy in one of Avoca's trademark brightly-colored blankets

Charlie and Bert blend in with our blanket! And they made a new friend: Murphy!

That evening, Saturday, we were dropped off in Temple Bar and made our way to Porterhouse Central, one of two locations of Porterhouse brewing recommended by friends and our Top 10 book alike. The place was packed due to the Ireland v. New Zealand rugby match happening that night in the city. As Joe ordered at the bar and I hunted for seats, I was lucky enough to catch the eye of a gentleman who offered me the two free chairs across from him and his wife. We were lucky to be met with the hospitality of this couple, with whom we chatted for more than two hours, but their behavior was rather typical of Dublin. Everyone we talked to was friendly, open, and accommodating. They wanted to help, to get to know us, and to make sure we had a lovely time in their city. From the customs agent on the way in to the taxi driver on the way out. Everyone was nice.

Pat and Susan, our hospitable tablemates

Pat and Susan even helped explain rugby to us and told us about the important players

Sunday was a bit of a bust in many ways. We started out later in the day but had an awesome plan. Knowing that corned beef is an Irish thing, I had been looking forward to mounds of it everywhere I went, especially in sandwich form. But the restaurant I had looked up didn't exist where it was supposed to, and it's sister restaurant was closed. We were stuck in the wrong part of the city to change the plan, it was getting dark, and everything was closed. We gave up and headed to the other Porterhouse bar for consolation drinks.

When it came time to eat, we headed to O'Neill's, another pub I'd circled in the Top 10 book. There, we were excited to find American football on tv for Joe, and corned beef (not in sandwich form) for Sarah!

and it was a CHARGER game no less - do you see how excited he is?

the orange mushy vegetable is... carrots! and the mustard is burn-your-sinuses spicy but oh-so-good!

Monday was all about getting to the Guinness Storehouse. Because it was a nice day, we decided to walk instead of taking the bus or getting a tour. On the way, we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, another Dublin must-do. The cathedral was built in consultation with the architect of Salisbury's cathedral and there were many similarities.

The Guinness Storehouse is like a beer-themed amusement park. Actually, "beer" is too broad, as there is literally only one variety on tap here. There are 7 floors to this site open to the public (this does not include the actual brewing or bottling facilities on the 50 acre Guinness campus); 1 floor is the Gravity bar (with a 360 view of Dublin), another includes a souvenir shop, two include restaurants, and 3 are part of an extensive, self-guided beer tour. The tour includes many features. We rushed a bit in the "how beer is made" section since this is old news for Joe, but the sections on the history of Guinness advertising and the interactive Drink IQ game were pretty good.

Look! I have hops on my shirt (Stone Brewing) and there are hops in this case! We match!

Charlie enjoys a drink.

What we learned in Ireland: 
* The River Liffey (pronounced with a short i) should totally be pronounced Lifey. It'd be better that way.
* Do not order cheesecake or vegetable soup in Ireland. The cheesecake is disgusting, oily and mousse-y. The vegetable soup is pureed and tastes like baby food. Both of these things happened at multiple locations.
* Corned beef sandwiches, which should be in abundance, are elusive in Dublin. Very disappointing.
* The people make the place. Dublin was lovely because the people were lovely.
* Guinness really is better on draught in Ireland than anywhere else.

Dublin was friendly and relaxing, a welcome break from our routine in London. We were also surprised to find that when we were ready to leave Dublin and go home, both of us were thinking of our tiny flat in Camden and the comforts it affords us. Ireland was a beautiful break, but we were happy to get back to the cozy life we've established here.