(Days 1-3 here; day 4 here; days 5-7 here; days 7-8 here)
We drove into Dublin on day eight, Friday night, which was also Good Friday. PSA: They don’t sell alcohol in Dublin on Christmas Day or Good Friday. This was a significant piece of information to have missed, since pubs were pretty much the reason we were interested in the city of Dublin. I was frustrated. Let’s move on to day nine, shall we?
Day nine: Saturday morning. Breakfast at the Queen of Tarts (yum!) before heading out to the Guinness Storehouse. This is the longtime site of Guinness brewing in Dublin, and the adjoining property still brews beer; the Storehouse itself, where the public can buy tours, is no longer a working brewery, but a museum of brewing and (more so) of Guinness the brand. This was not entirely what I had in mind going in; perhaps in a different state of mind I would have been more interested in the museum setting, but at this point we were not sure we were actually going to get the full day in Dublin (for reasons relating to our flight arrangements) and having missed out on any chance to drink on “Dry Friday” the night before, I was frustrated. We drank our pint of Guinness, toured around some, and headed out to probably my favorite pub of the trip: the historic Brazen Head, oldest pub in Dublin, attached to the old city wall; Barrett tells me this is one of the pubs (just outside the wall) that used to lodge those travelers who hadn’t made it in before the gates closed (or those foreigners not allowed in). A lovely place. We saw a few pubs and took a nap before the evening’s big event:
the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. Barrett had been on it before but liked it enough to repeat with us, especially considering my literary inclinations. It turned out to be perhaps a little drier and more literary than Husband was promised but he maintained his good spirits. This crawl is led by actors who perform selections from the great works (ahem Ulysses) and sing songs as well as imparting local lore and showing us around local landmarks (Trinity College) as well as pubs. I haven’t actually read much of the big Irish names, so it was less a familiar review of literary knowledge for me than it might have been, but still it was a good time. And as a bonus, towards the end we made friends with a German couple and an English one, and stayed out too late for our early morning flight the next day… whew! Home on Easter Sunday to prep for the week to come.
I made a map to indicate our travels
Weather-wise, we were so very lucky! We saw more sun than anything else; minimal precipitation, and what we did see was fleeting and light, more a novelty than an annoyance.
Highlights:
Oh boy! Inis Mhor in general… Westport as a town… Dunluce Castle… Belfast taxi tour of the murals… Saturday night in Dublin. Good times with good old friends and loved ones. Coming home to our little dogs.
Here’s hoping you make it to Ireland soon, too!
Filed under: a walk about town, musings | Tagged: personal, travel |
pagesofjulia 
So don’t go anywhere near it on Christmas or Good Friday…got it. We once went to a friend’s wedding in Ocean city and found out it was a dry town. When I ordered a drink the waitress said, “You don’t know this is a dry town.” I didn’t, and if I did, I would have come prepared. I think I would have liked the Literary readings, but my better half–well not so much.
Yea, Dry Friday was perhaps the low point. My better half was pretty tolerant… way to go Husband. It was a fairly friendly beer-to-books ratio really.