An Englishman, a South African and a Canadian Walk Into a Bar!

4guinness We are back from Dublin! We survived! We got back on Sunday but it was late and I didn’t sit down at the computer that night. Yesterday was spent going through the pictures and videos and processing them for sharing and now I have left this post until late at night, so I will try to keep it short, at which I will fail. We had a great time and the weather helped make it that more enjoyable.

We had our car pick us up to bring us to the airport, which is where the insanity began. After getting through security, we came to the airport bar which was filled with green-clad partiers downing drinks like they were Irishmen. What were the chances they were on another flight other than ours? Pretty much nil. Sure enough, our flight ended up being a scene from some college road trip movie with large groups of drunk people encouraging each other to be louder. I have never been on such an insane flight and the only thing to compare it to is the buses in Ottawa on Canada Day. We wouldn’t have minded it so much since it was only a 40 minute flight, but I was on the verge of getting up and going a few rows forward to shove the loud, high-pitched whistle that one bitch insisted blowing the entire time down her throat.

After landing and biding our time in the non-EU customs lines, we grabbed a taxi to get us to the Hilton. The driver was a very nice bloke who had quite a few ties to Canada – even though it seemed that everyone he knew that went there died young. His chattiness made the ride go quickly and next thing we knew we were at our hotel. We checked in and simply dropped off our bags as we had a concert to get to and still needed to grab a bite to eat. Food being the first priority, we made the 15 minute walk to the city center and found a lovely Japanese restaurant, thinking it was a sushi place but it having only a sushi sampler on the menu. Nevertheless it was very good even if it was expensive, just like everything else in Dublin, and I got the chance to taste a delicious green tea beer. It is very light and summery and I will be keeping my eye out for it locally if I can find it. Next stop – The Button Factory to see the Q-Tip concert.

What a great concert it was! The doors opened at 19:30 and we got there about 20:30, stood in line to get our tickets that were waiting for us and made our way inside. First things first, we needed a drink! After having procured the necessary spirits, we proceeded to try to find a spot to settle in for the show. The opening act was wrapping up their set and the main floor was starting to fill up. With neither of us on the tall side, limiting our view at concerts, we headed up to the balcony to see what was there. What was there was a fantastic spot on a side balcony right over the stage. We had a great view for the whole show and Q-Tip rocked the joint, mixing it up quite well with his solo stuff and some old A Tribe Called Quest stuff. Here is one of the videos that I took during the show and more can be found here. Quality has suffered quite a bit in the conversion and upload to Youtube as the originals have a much better picture.

After the show we made our way back to the hotel to rest up for the next day and night, as we new they would be a long one. We woke up and had a very good buffet breakfast at the hotel and then started to make our way towards the city center. On the way into town was St. Stephen’s Green Park and so we made our way inside to enjoy the sunshine and green, and it was quite deserted at 9:00am-ish. Next, we wandered through the streets towards Trinity College, which was the meeting point for our tour. This time we decided that we would take a historical walking tour of the city to learn more about the history of where we were visiting, and it was a great tour. It was a large group due to the holiday celebrations, but our tour guide, a Trinity College phD student, did a great job of showing us around the city and giving a 2.5-hour history lesson at the same time. Well worth it and I think we will seek them out wherever we go.

After our walking tour we grabbed some lunch and then wandered around some more in the Temple Bar district before meeting up briefly with a friend of Cindy’s from Harrogate. They went their own way and we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening festivities. We were supposed to meet Cindy’s friend Kat, who she went to high school with and now lives in London, but due to a passport issue (her not having it back from renewing it) she could not make it. Nevertheless, we met up with Kat’s boyfriend Ollie (the Englishmen), his sister Nicole (the Englishwoman), her boyfriend Dave (the South African) and Ollie’s friend Adam (another Englishman, a last minute substitute for Kat) at Busker’s Bar to watch the Ireland vs Scotland Six Nations Cup rugby match. Man, I have a new appreciate for rugby after that, watching it with knowledgeable people (Nicole plays) and getting a better understanding of the game – I really enjoyed it. The rest of the evening after the game was filled with Guinness flowing out of the tap and enjoying the spectacle of people making complete fools of themselves as the place transformed from a sports bar to a nightclub very quickly.

The next morning came a little too quickly, but a hearty breakfast filled the soul for some more sightseeing, the main focus being the Guinness Storehouse factory museum. It is seven floors about how Guinness is made and the history of it, with a small sampling on the third floor (shhhh, it was before noon). The seventh floor is the circular Gravity Bar with 360 degrees of windows giving you a panoramic view of the city, and a free pint of Guinness (this time it was 12:15), although I am quite sure the pint is worked into the price of admission. I really enjoyed the place and got myself a Dublin souvenir from the shop which has some exclusive items that can’t be found elsewhere. I really did grow a fondness for Guinness after the 7-8 pints the night before and then the tour. It is a mighty fine porter!

After the Guinness factory, we made our way back to the Temple Bar district for some lunch at Elephant & Castle where I had a tuna and avocado club sandwich and homemade ginger ale – oh so yum! We were both tired from our days of walking and partaking in the Irish spirit at the bars that we decided to head back to St. Stephen’s Green Park to relax on a bench and enjoy the weather before heading to the airport. I took the opportunity to pull out my telephoto lens and got some great shots of the ducks that seemed to be in a playful mood, one of which I have entered into a photo competition and it is getting a good response – see it here. With our relaxation mission accomplished, we headed to the airport and hopped on the short flight home, which was pretty uneventful except for the drunk woman behind us that proceeded to explain to the poor girl beside her about how she hates taking off (not the landing) and how when flying crashing is part of the risk – throughout the entire flight!

Another fantastic trip to add to the memory books, and maybe even a real book. I am not sure if I mentioned it, but I created a photo book with pictures from the Prague trip and I think I will do the same for this one. The quality is fantastic and it is a unique way of documenting our adventures. And now my short post is done haha. Here are some photos to chew on that show our trip – for night time pics look at Cindy’s as I left my camera in the hotel and we just took the compact with us.