Yesterday morning, we were still in Galway and planned to take a bus in the afternoon. So we spent the morning in the Galway City Museum, which is actually quite good. It's free, and the first exhibit was a fantastic recollection of JFK's visit to Galway in early 1963. I liked it a lot.
The rest of museum wasn't as interesting to me, but it was still cool. There was a model of a Galway Hooker, which is one of the fishing boats. I laughed the first time I heard the name.
There was also other old artifacts they had discovered. I thought they did a good job of explaining everything on their signage.
After a short stop at a Celtic jewelry shop where we chatted up the guy at the desk, we took his suggestion and went to Charlie Byrne's bookstore around the corner. It's like a mini Powell's Bookstore in Galway. Two books that caught my eye were The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick and JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed a President by Ryan Tubridy. I'll have to find them and read them another time, I guess.
Our trip back to Dublin was nice, but it was a bit more crowded than when we went to Galway. There was, of course, free Wi-Fi on board again, so I checked email and did some work.
In the evening, we met up with a friend of mine, whom I had met in Greece back in 2009. We've stayed in touch ever since, and I saw her this summer too when I went back to Athens. She had just returned from Athens yesterday, so we were lucky to catch each other before I fly out tomorrow. At dinner, I finally got to try a Beamish Beer, which I had been asking for everywhere—nobody had it! It was alright. It's sort of like a Guinness, but a tad bit sweeter at the beginning and then more bitter of an aftertaste.
This morning, since it was our last full day in Dublin, we woke up early and headed out to breakfast at a cafe that was suggested to us yesterday. It was okay, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of just sweet stuff for breakfast. I'm used to having sausages, bacon, eggs, and toast now.
We strolled past Christ Church Cathedral, which along with St. Patrick's Cathedral, is one of Dublin's landmark churches. Sadly, it wasn't open for the public until much later.
So instead, we headed off to Kilmainham Gaol, which is Dublin's famous/infamous jail. While there, we got a tour for 2€ each (student price). Pretty dang good for all the history we learned. From the past few tours I've gotten in Dublin now, I have a much better understanding of modern Irish history. It's really quite fascinating that so much was happening in Ireland during the late 19th/early 20th century (especially between 1912-1924 or so), which I had never truly learned about in detail during my years of schooling.
I won't write a long post on Irish history now. You can read up quickly on Wikipedia. At Kilmainham Gaol though, a number of leaders of the Easter Rising were executed. We saw the "Stonebreakers' Yard" where they were shot. There are crosses on the ground now to commemorate the events and the tremendous impact they had on the future of Ireland as an independent republic.
Inside the museum, there was a fantastic part of the exhibit called "Last Words," which featured letters/correspondence from those sentenced to death to their families. It was really quite powerful to read the letters in full and realize that this was written nearly 100 years ago.
From Kilmainham Gaol, we took a bus over to the Guinness Storehouse, which is among the world's largest breweries (if not the largest). The 11€ ticket for students is definitely worth it, since it's a self-guided tour and includes a free pint of Guinness.
The first part involves all the essential ingredients of Guinness, including pure water. They had this awesome fountain in the room. I like it a lot.
One of the floors featured Guinness advertisements through the years, and I found this one rather interesting. It's a play off of the Bayeux Tapestry, which I had really wanted to see a few days ago at the National Museum of Ireland—Archaeology & History. 1066 to 1966. Funny.
For the free pint of Guinness, you can choose whether you want to pour your own pint or claim your free pint at the bar on the very top level (level 7). I definitely wanted to pour my own pint, and for my efforts, I even got a certificate saying that I am now officially certified to pour "a perfect pint of Guinness." Pretty stellar, no?
I had a bit of Guinness on the taste-test part of the tour, but I had it on an empty stomach. I figured I needed some food before my free pint, so I actually sat down at their cafe and had a BBQ Chicken Ciabatta sandwich and a cup of vegetable cream soup. Good stuff. Plus free Wi-Fi.
The view from the top is quite nice too. You have a 360 degree view of Dublin.
It was about 4:30 PM, and we wanted to try and hit up the Jameson Distillery too, so we headed out and walked quickly to the Old Distillery only a few blocks north. I'm not a huge fan of whiskey, but I can appreciate a few sips here and there.
The tour was not self-guided, but the tour guide was nice. The price was also 11€ for students. We got a free whiskey at the end, which I mixed with Ginger Ale (which is apparently what Londoners do). It was actually pretty good. Olivia volunteered to do the taste test, which involves tasting Jameson (Irish), Johnnie Walker (Scottish), and Jack Daniel's (American).
Nobody liked the Jack Daniel's (funny), and the 8 taste testers were split between Jameson and the Scotch. This was the first time I tried Jameson, but it's considerably smoother than other whiskeys I've had (which were mostly all crap anyway). In fact, all I knew about John Jameson before today was from the commercial I like.
After the Jameson tour, we headed to a souvenir shop and picked up some small gifts from Ireland. I think they appreciate it with the way their economy is at the moment...
We then headed to dinner back at the Old Storehouse, since that was probably our favorite place for dinner this past week in Ireland. There was live music, fresh Guinness on tap, and as always, delicious food. I had fish and chips. Yum.
The music tonight was a two-man band named Problematic, and I think the bartender said they were both 19 years old. Regardless, they were pretty dang good. Actually, really dang good. After an hour though, I was ready to head home, so I headed back to the hotel first. I did thoroughly enjoy their music though.
Tomorrow, I fly to Frankfurt and spend a night in Marburg before returning to Berlin. Lots to do this week, and I'm eager to get back to my research. With my last trip to Marburg, my family's vacation in Germany, and this past week in Ireland, I've been doing sightseeing stuff for nearly a month straight now. I'm ready to do work and just relax.
I will miss the relatively warm weather in Ireland though. I hope all the snow in Berlin has melted away and won't come back until after I've already left the country at the end of my Fulbright year. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen though. Oh well.
Until next time,
Sam
1 comment:
O I miss Irish live music!
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