Month: April 2009

Dublin Update 17-April

Yes, I did remember our Anniversary. Yes, I remembered it was our Fifth Year. Yes, I eventually did get a card… on the 17th. =)

After eating a proper “Irish Fry” at our B&B we headed back into Dublin to… pick up our rental car. What a lovely way to start out our anniversary. They don’t call me Mr. Romance for nothing. 

So yes, we got our car, and I try to enter on the wrong side. Yes, I was the driver. The rental car guy was laughing at me. Good start! You are reading this, so you know I successfully got through the Dublin City Center back to Dun Laoghaire. Driving on the left was OK. The only trouble was veering to the left hand side of the lane. No worries, we paid for the extra insurance.
We came back to our room to find a bottle of Champagne waiting for us (thanks Mum & Dad). In order to celebrate making it back driving, we polished off the Champagne. 
After Champagne, we headed to a local pub for lunch – Eagle’s Head. It was a very nice local establishment, and close enough for Nicola to stumble to.
With enough energy to move on, we took the DART back to Dublin and went to Dublin Castle. Today it is a regular government building, and the Irish President is even sworn in there. It was still nice to see what used to be England’s. 
After the Castle, we made our way down to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. This place was impressive. It was VERY Catholic. On top of the tour, we got to hear their choir practicing. Take a listen below.
Our next stop was a stroll through Grafton Street. It is a shopping street… kind of like Santa Monica’s 3rd Street.
On a small side street I spotted Saint Teresa’s, served by the Carmelite Priests (I attended Crespi Carmelite High School)…
Once we were done Churching, we headed to Trinity College -The University of Dublin. We wanted to see the campus and see the Book of Kells. By the time we got there, it was closed. But the campus was really really really nice
After a long day of walking, we finally made our way back to Dun Laoghaire to go our for our anniversary dinner. Being we are in Ireland, we headed for Italian food.  We went to a seaside restaurant called Toscana. It was better than most of the Italian food we get in California (except for homemade of course… Love you mom!). Seriously, the Irish love their Italians. 
That was it. A lovely day. =) Great Anniversary. 

Dublin Update 16-April

After a satisfying night of Dublin Nightlife, we checked out of our hotel and made our way to our B&B. We took the DART to Dun Laoghaire (Sandycove if you want to be technical).  It was a nice 20 minute ride on DART. The name of the B&B is Windsor Lodge. When we checked in we were pleasantly surprised with an Ocean View Room (see below). Yeah…life is good.

After a bite to eat, we felt the need to celebrate such a great room. We headed to the Old Jameson Distillery Experience. Sensing that I was an expert drinker, they selected me as a volunteer to do a Whiskey taste test at the end of the tour. The tour was great, but the taste testing was better! They had me compare regular Jameson Whiskey, Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch, and Jack Daniels (which they labeled as “America’s Best Whiskey”). Yeah, I was truly in my happy place. 
To celebrate graduating, with honours, from Jameson, we headed over for an “emergency” pint per our instructor’s advice (Chris – our Jameson Tour Guide). We went to The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in dublin (opened in 1198). 
To finish off the evening, we headed to the Porterhouse Brew Company to sample some of Ireland’s microbrews and have a bite to eat. 
It may seem like all we are doing is drinking at this point…and there is certainly a fair amount of that going on. Keep in mind we are walking throughout the city and absorbing the Irish Culture. You’ll see more “culture” in future posts. =)

Dublin Update 15-April

We’ve been lagging with Blog updates. I’d apologize, but it is our vacation! I’ll try my best to cover everything. I know…the world has been waiting with baited breath… so here we go!
Arrived in Dublin 15-April
We flew into Dublin and took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at The Clarence for one night. The Clarence is owned in part by Bono & The Edge of U2. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Anyways, we had a room overlooking the River Liffey. Here is the stunning view we had (yes, I said stunning… I’m rubbing it in!)
Upon our arrival, we headed straight to the Guinness Factory. In a previous blog entry you already saw about my Brew Mastery Skills.
After such hard work, we decided we needed some nourishment. To care for our bodies, we headed to Farrington’s for a proper Irish Stew and a Pint of Guinness.
After a break, we headed out that evening. First we headed to the Octagan Bar at our hotel for our complimentary glass of Champagne. Yes, I did call it the Octomom Bar while I was there… these jokes write themselves.
We then headed out to the Temple Bar Area and did some pub crawling. Our first stop was an un-named bar (it had a name, but we dont remember what it was) to grab a pint and watch Manchester United beat FC Porto. Later we headed out to The Temple Bar Pub and Oliver St. John Gogarty’s, to name a few. We dont have a lot of pictures of the evening, but we have a clip of some of the live music.

Dublin Is Great!

We will post tomorrow. Today we went to the oldest pub in dublin, toured the Jameson Distillery, and had more pints.

Highlight of the day for me was being chosen as a volunteer to do a whiskey/scotch taste test. Too much drinking…not enough time!

Royal Yachts, Ghost Tours, and Haggis!

Today was a pretty good day. After breakfast we headed out to the Port Town of Leith and saw the Royal Yacht Brittania – the Royal Family’s huge yacht built in the 50’s and just decommissioned (1997).

After lunch, we headed back to the Royal Mile and took a quick look at Hollyrood Palace, and ran the mile to make it to our Ghost Tour – The Real Mary King’s Close. It wasn’t real scary, but it was fun and informative. They take you underground and tell you real stories about people who lived there and what happened to them (during things like the black plague). It was fun.

We then went to dinner at Jackson’s – a place for traditional Scottish cuisine. Our main course was the Aberdeen Angus Beef.

I know…everyone is waiting for the Haggis. As our appetizer, I ordered the Haggis. It wasn’t bad. I mean, its not my favorite dish…but I ate about half of my plate. It tasted like spicy ground beef. Below you will find videos of me eating it…and even Nicola! Please leave your comments. 🙂

Some Pictures

We are getting ready for breakfast. Before we go to the dining room, I thought I’d post a few pictures from yesterday. Will try to post more later.

When we arrived on Sunday, a decanter of scotch was waiting!

Nicola in front of Edinburgh Castle.

Nicola & I on the Whisky Ride (yes, RIDE).

Some Local Music… the red hot chili pipers.

The Elephant House – Where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter.

The Bow Bar

Ass-clown (not me for once) in a Kilt.

Scotland, Day 2

We had another awesome day. It didnt start out great, i had to work a couple of hours…but hey, i wasn’t in the office. We headed out toward the royal mile at about 230P. We started out at Edinburgh Castle and did the tour. Then we headed to the Scotch Whisky Experience. This is the greatest thing i have ever seen!!!! I’ll post a video below…but the tour is like Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. You sit around in Whisky barrels learning how they make scotch. After that, you learn about the different regions in Scotland. Then…. you get to see over 3000+ bottles of Scotch (biggest collection in the world) and get to do some tasting. They haven’t had the official opening yet, so no pictures of the collection. Greatest. Tour. Ever.

Afterwards, we headed to the Bow Bar for a fresh pint…as we were thirsty. Nicola also had 2 bags of crisps.

After whiskey & beer, we needed some caffeine. We headed to the Elephant House. That’s where JK Rowling’s Harry Potter was born.

After our caffeine…we needed another pint. So…we headed to Frankensteins. Yep, another good beer!

After that, we needed some nourishment, and more beer. We headed to dinner at Monster Mash where we had “monster” mash potatoes, bangers (sausages), potato and leak soup…and…yes… beer.

After nourishment and beer…. we needed more beer. We headed to Sandy Bell’s and loaded up on liquid nourishment…and listened to some live folk music.

Yeah… its a very difficult lifestyle to live…but we press on. See the video below. Cheers!