Today is our first day in Dublin, so we can head off and see the place. We have tickets booked for the Guinness Warehouse in the afternoon, but at the moment we are free agents.
On coming out of the hotel, it's clear that Dublin is the most similar city I've ever been in to Glasgow while being in a foreign country. It rains the same way.
We head off towards the centre. We need to find an indoors pursuit to get out of the rain. My dad suggests a trip to Dublin castle, as the guide teaches you a little about history:
The next tour starts at 11am, so on returning after a coffee, we join the tour.
Although it's more of a country house than a castle, it has a checkered past which make it a good overview for getting some history of Dublin. The Viceroy lived here when Ireland was under British rule. Soldiers were brought here during the Easter rising(An Unsuccessful rebellion which attempted to start an independent Ireland in 1916)
Generally, it's a country house similar to the insides of several other castles:
By the time we leave, the weather is far better, and we head down to Temple Bar via a couple of shopping streets for some lunch:
The temple bar is an area of Dublin which has been renovated to provide lots of drinking establishments and traditional dublin nightlife. The truth is it has become a tourist trap full of Faux Dublin Stag nights and hen nights. It's not a bad place at night, it's just a bit of a characterture of reality.
We've opted for lunch and a Guinness in the Old Dubliner:
It's standard irish fare, with some good traditional music, hearty winter food, and a creamy pint. We sit at the window and watch the world go by. The lonely planets come out and we work out the best way to get to the Guinness Warehouse. we've decided it's close enough that we can walk. The walk takes us past Christchurch cathedral where we stop for a few photos:
Eventually, we walk down the wonderful alleyways of warehouses which lead us to the Guinness warehouse:
The Guinness Storehouse tour is a huge multimedia experience that cost 12 Million to build a few years back. It's very impressive and teaches you how they make Guinness, the History of Guinness and also some fun and games. You slowly make your way through the exhibits which move up the six or so floors of the tour, and then finally at the top you get a free pint of Guinness.
In the gravity bar, you get a panoramic view over the whole of dublin:
Far more impressive though was an american tourist on a beige and biscuit tour who had more tourist patches than I've ever seen on one jacket:
After the Guinness store house it's about 5pm, so time to head back to the hotel to freshen up before going out on the town.
We are heading out to Temple Bar to find something to eat and then to track down some live music and Guinness. You can see a recurring theme here. We've probably had about 4 pints of Guinness so far today.
Finding a restaurant that meets your needs shouldn't be too tough, but given that it's Friday night and everyone in Dublin seems to be on a hen or stag night, most places are about busy and noisy. We eventually find a little indonesian Rijsttafel place called the Cameleon.
It's a pokey little restaurant, so has a great atmosphere and homelyness. They bring out various dishes and let us try lots of different Indonesian dishes. There's various satay's, sambols, and rices, but the pick of the bunch is the aniseed pork:
After dinner, we have a walk along the Liffey to let our dinner digest and then seek out a bar which has some live music and Guinness on tap(Not exactly tough). we find a bar which has a live blues band. They're pretty good, and do a good rendition of Red House. Then it;s off home to bed in preparation for going further afield tomorrow.
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