Goodbye Dublin, Hello Kilkenny

We began our day early. About 9:30 am Ireland time, which means we're pretty much over our jet lag—hooray! We grabbed a "light breakfast" and "sweet cakes" which are not metaphors for a fruit cup and your sister.

Apparently light breakfast comprises a rasher of bacon, a sausage link, an egg, and toast and is part of a standard English breakfast and sweet cakes are something like thin pancakes (thick crepes?) covered in sugar and whipped cream. I'll leave you to guess who got which ("no thank you, Turkish, I'm sweet enough").

PassePartout had organized a tour of the Guinness brewery and we headed over there after breakfast.

The tour was pretty amazing, running our hands through a huge mass of barley, seeing a massive waterfall a-la Willy Wonka.

If they actually used the water to brew the beer, I would have seriously expected oompa loompas. We got to learn how to taste the beer from the self-guided tour, and then we got to do the tasting. It was interesting to be surrounded by beer propaganda while tasting the beer...

I think it tasted better than usual? Perhaps it was just drinking beer before 12 pm reminding me of happy college days.

The 7 floors of tour led us around through the various historical bits of Guinness, learning that at their peak, they created and filled 1000 barrels a day. We got to watch a video of a man carving wood and sculpting it into a barrel.

Imagining so many people carving and producing barrels at that pace was staggering.

Finally, we opted to pass up learning to pour our own pint to go to the top of the brewery and drink a freshly poured pint overlooking all of Dublin.

It may very well have been the highest building in all of Dublin, or if not, it's darned close. The whole room was ringed in glass and the day was gorgeous, giving us a view of the whole city for miles and miles, all the way to the dark green hills (that shadowy place beyond the East border. Mufasa says we can't go there). We couldn't have asked for a better day to go.

Eli had forgotten her favorite ring at home, so we got something a little different to remember the trip by. She picked out a beautiful golden ring that fits her thumb perfectly in a little shop near Grafton st, so we stopped by and picked it up.

Afterward, we went to say hi to Miss Molly Malone and her enormous... cart wheels.

Or, as Eli would sing to me,

"In Dublin's Fair City

Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone"

We stopped by the place we had lunch yesterday, picked up a pair of lost gloves, and then grabbed a quick lunch at Burger King. Not a whole lot of excitement there, let me tell you, though, the Whoppers are bigger in Ireland—much like they used to be in the US before people realized you could charge the same amount for less and then charge more for the same. Repeat this process for more profit.

We were still a ways from home so we decided to grab a double decker bus back to the place we were staying. We felt a little Harry Potter-esque riding on it, but I don't think anyone noticed.

Once we got home, we headed out to the car rental place and that's where the fun began.

What did we learn today? One: Rent your car in Ireland ahead of time. We had heard the bit of wisdom to rent once we'd arrived, but our plans coincided with a wave of tourists who all rented on Friday afternoon, same as us. My usual rental company, Enterprise, was completely booked, as were the 3 adjacent agencies. When we finally got back to the airport to try to rent from another company, we found that the people who work for Budget rentals are wankers. I understand that gouging me for money is part of the deal, but come on, do you really have to be so blatant about it? We paid 25 euros more to deal with Avis and got a nicer car out of the deal.

Passepartout got her taste of driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car, in the rain, at dusk, with a stick shift on the wrong side, during rush hour on a Friday. I have faith that she can now drive anything anywhere. The car's an Opel Insignia (opel autocorrects to "pork") pretty comfy, the drive is smooth, and we're just hoping that it does better than the initially quoted 6.6km/l (15 mpg).

After driving around about 15 roundabounts (some of them more than once, and one of them more than 3 times), we finally made it to Kilkenny, found our place, and then... couldn't find a buzzer, a key, a phone, or a person to ask how to get in. So, rather than sleep in the car, we headed to the local pub, asked to borrow the phone, called the matronly innkeeper, and got let in through the large wooden gate and down a very nature-ridden path to a tiny cottage. After a quick respite, we heded back to said pub for a pint, and to use their free wifi, from which we now post to you, dear readers. Until tomorrow.

Oct 14th Dublin

 Today we woke up pretty late... no surprise there I guess, since we were up the about equivalent of 2 days..

  We managed to get to our viking splash tour on time by catching a scary bus..

The bus itself was very nice actually.. I'm just scared of buses.


 


We put on our horned helmets and roared at the passerby (the celts) and we took a little tour of the city with a bit of history and a few groan worthy eye rolling jokes thrown in..

                                                             

Saw a lot of places that U2 have been, saw the same for Jonathan Swift.  Our bus, a DUKW then went INTO the lake and took us in a quick circle before dropping us back off by Grafton street - shop central!

 We went to a mall,  had lunch/dinner at "the kitchen" and on a dare, I tried on a 600 euro dress with some 1/2 off shoes -they were only 15 0.    

  We bought me a ring, since I left my favorite one at home, and had more guinness at a little pub. A pint of guinness every day keep the doctor away?




Well, it does seem to be helping my knee.. I hurt it before we left, and today, barely a twinge. I think I must have sprained it? I still couldn't do any handstands yet today, so Morgan did one for me.

 Also we decided that it would be a good idea to name a child Phileas Fieval Engel. So we could say that his name was Philly...AND Fieval. American tale fans will understand.



Tomorrow our plan is to take a Guinness Factory tour -which will take care of our daily Pint quota, and then see a viking museum, go back to to kitchen to see ifI lost my gloves there, and then pick up the resized ring -for my beefy finger, rent a car, and then head to Kilkenny! Medieval center of ireland! Yay! 









More architecture pictures headed your way folks, so prepare!  

Dublin sightseeing Oct. 12

Yesterday, we braved jet lag, and and wandered the streets of Dublin.

       

  

                                                               

           






We circled st. Patrick's cathedral, twice.. while wandering around looking at churches and antiques shops. We had several lattes..  and admired the architecture.


The churches were beautiful. spectacular really. Very ornate.
I lit a candle for abuelita in one.





After a a quick nap,we headed back out and saw the river liffey.
Pretty at night, and it didn't smell.. no sniffy liffey.

We had dinner at the brazen head. The self proclaimed oldest public in Dublin.apparently from the 1100s.
                            

Finally, home to sleep!

Laggy McLaggersen

Jet lag's a harsh mistress. PassePartout is passed out next to me, the result of too many hours awake and not enough coffee. We walked a bit around western Dublin today and saw some of the many cathedrals the city has to offer. I'm not a religious person, but when you're in a place that was built in 1200 AD and has housed so many of the faithful, you get this feeling that you better behave and that taking pictures is pretty disrespectful, despite the amazing architecture and art.

The town has a feeling very similar to other cities I've been in, though the layout is very different. The whole place is laid out based on a river that courses through its center, and so the streets follow that, and have, apparently, for hundreds of years. The weather is like SF, the buildings are like parts of older new york, and the advertising is a cross between Vegas and Oakland. Ireland's deep in recession right now, and everyone's feeling the pinch.

The people seem friendly, and are, in general, akindly happy sort, somewhat interested in our out of towny accents. We visited many an antique store today and they all were very nice. My mother would have loved about 300 boxes I found for sale, all built of various beautiful Irish hardwoods some of which had intricate inlays or gilding. Eli was enamored of an antique writing desk complete with a bronze bust of some forgotten woman.

It's now time for a jet-lag fighting nap. We have to get up again, otherwise we'll never be on a schedule that fits, but for now, it's been 2 days with 5 hours sleep, and I think we need a little respite and pick us up. More pictures to follow.

And In the Rain!

We are HERE. it is 735am tomorrow!  We are in the future 7 hours ahead of you guys. I spent my 7 hours from Chicago to Dublin watching movies and chatting with one Mary McGuigan. Spunky grandmother of a 17 year old, and mother of Steven the fbi agent in Arizona. So, the flight attendant who wouldn't bring extra cream and sugar just better watch herself. She was amazing! 50 years of living in Chicago, and still sounding straight out of Scotland.

By the way even the air smelled new and exciting when we got off the plane. We had the friendliest cabby ever... Though the one in Vegas who gave me a recipe for pasta is a close second.. And on the way out of the airport, what did we see but a huge patch of Clover...Thats right, .Clover! We arrived at Echlin street..make that eck-lyn.. And met Adrian, our first air bnb host. He had maps all ready for us, as ell as an umbrella, and food stuffs..now the challenge.. Stay awake long enough to beat jet lag.. Wish us luck.

With some pain..

<p>I did something to my knee yesterday.. No idea what.. Hyper extended it, maybe? It crept up on me out of nowhere, and now I'm hobbling through the airport while morgan dances around me..

On a plane,

5 hours to Chicago!