Read about St. Patrick’s Day here and here.
See our photo post here.
Learn the details here.
Dublin buildings along the Liffey
The next day we woke up slowly with strong coffee and sunlight along the River Liffey. My previous experiences with Dublin have been solely literary, mostly from James Joyce‘s Dubliners, which is a rather depressing book. As my professor said when we studied it in my undergraduate degree, the “moral” of the story is: life sucks, and then you die.
But today’s Dublin is vibrant, colourful and despite the party of the day before, rather clean. A stroll along the river alongside the rainbow façades of the buildings was a perfect way to wake up after a night of stout drinking.
We were in for more colour at Dublin Castle, a totally adorable castle with the stereotypical turret, a gothic cathedral, and bright colour blocked walls.
The weather was beautiful, and many hungover Paddy’s Day partiers lay sunbathing in the grass in Dubh Linn Gardens. Though it was the day after St. Patrick’s Day and we expected hoards of tourists, it was a very peaceful morning.
St. Patrick blesses Adam.
Then we were ready to discover Dublin’s other great kingdom: that of Guinness. On our way, as I hinted at before, we learned the true benefits of demonstrating our Canadian-ness. As we entered the Guinness Brewery through St. James’s Gate, we heard someone call out, “Hey you’re from Canada, right? Here, take my Guinness voucher!” So in addition to the two pints we got with the tour, we had an extra free pint!
Turns out our kind samaritan was a gentleman from a Toronto radio station popular in our hometown, 102.1 The Edge. As some of our friends mentioned, he ended up shouting out to us, the fellow Canadians he gave a free beer to! We are basically celebrities now.
The Guinness brewery was positively sprawling (which is why I’ve called this post “two castles”), with towering brick buildings, mazes of pipes, bridges stretching from building to building and climbing tankards. Having learned about Heneiken in Amsterdam and Pilsner in Prague, we were ready to learn about stout in Ireland.
We learned that Guinness is apparently good for you, and how to properly taste Guinness.
Listen, look, swirl, smell, taste!
Then we made our way up to the Gravity Bar, the top of the Guinness Brewery and the highest point in Dublin. The bar was crowded but the Guinness was fresh and the view was sweeping, taken in through large windows emblazoned with Joyce quotes about various landmarks around Dublin, which excited me perhaps more so than the beer.
Then some hearty Irish food was in order to soak up the Guinness: Irish stew and Dublin Bay mussels.
Nom nom nom.
Read about day three here.
