The next place we went to was Kilmainham Goal (Jail), a place where people were imprisoned during the famine for stealing, and during the revolution for revolting. Fourteen leaders of the rebellion were executed at this jail, and for that they became martyrs. Our tour guide was really engaging, and was surprisingly very attentive to the needs of the people who did not speak English as their first language.
Our next destination was the Guinness Factory. For most people, this was the most exciting part of the trip, but for me it was just the third museum in a row, and I was kinda sick of the whole walking and reading thing. The free pint of Guinness on the top floor was well worth it though. They even made a touristy little shamrock design in the foam.
The top floor of the Guinness factory had walls made entirely of glass, so you could see out over the city. It was a great view, and a great drink. We then drove to our hostel, and on the way we saw a food fair in front of Christ Church Cathedral. After putting out stuff down in the hosetel, we walked over to the church. There were food stands for all different kinds of cultural dishes. I got chiken tikka masala, which was absolutely wonderful. It was interesting to eat food on the steps of a ruined part of the church. Felt very European. I also got a can of Pringles just for the hell of it.
Later that night, I followed four members of our group and some random short guy named Will into the streets. I didn't catch the name of the first place we went to, but that's okay since I didn't much care for it anyway. The front room had a dj that was overwhelmed by the surging crowd shouting requests. The back room looked a little more promising. There was a stage with a drum set on it. I ordered a Bulmer's cider and asked the bartender if there was any music going on tonight. His reply shocked me. He said, "No, it's salsa night." Salsa night? In Ireland? I didn't know whether I should run while I could or stay to watch the train wreck. Since I had a drink in my hand I figured it would be best to stay. Sure enough, the drums were moved back to make room for another dj table. The salsa night was very awkward. For the first several minutes, there was no one on the dance floor. Eventually, a few brave couples shuffled onto the floor and danced to what I guess they thought was salsa. We left the bar shortly afterwards and went to another place called Fitzsimmons. It was five floors of bars and dancing. The top floor was a rooftop that they claimed to be heated, but people were still shivering with their cigarettes. Emily, Theresa, and I left Fitzsimmons to try to find somewhere with live music. We found a place called “The Auld Dubbliner,” which seemed like a good name for a place that would have traditional music. The second we walked in, however, the opening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” began to play. We decided to stick it out, and went upstairs. I ordered another Bulmer’s, and we sat down in a booth. These two guys named Gavin and John, who had introduced themselves to Emily at the bar, sat down with us. They were two Irishmen who worked for eBay. They then preceded to play their own rendition of “good cop/bad cop.” Gavin, the good cop, is cheerful and somewhat oblivious in his drunkenness. He was born and raised in Dublin. He views it as the greatest city in the world and loves it with all his heart. John, the bad cop, has a very different point of view on the city. HE is on edge the entire time and apologizes continuously because he thinks Gavin is bothering us. He, like Gavin, was born and raised in Dublin. But he, unlike Gavin, thinks of Dublin as “a feckin’ leprechaun’s dream.” John then stood up, and to the great embarrassment of everyone within a 20 foot radius, has a temper tantrum and screams, “I feckin’ hate Dublin! All we do is DRINK! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!” He then sat down and chugs the rest of his drink. Poor, hypocritical soul.
The next day, we then had a historical walking tour that started at Trinity College. It was more of us walking somewhere and then getting a history lecture before walking somewhere else and repeat. We got to see the city hall building, Dublin Castle (or what’s left of it), and the old Parliament building (which is now a bank). We then went to a food market where I got a lamb sandwich on cibbatta with mint sauce. It was really good, though I wished afterwards that I had gotten the horse instead of lamb. I’ve never had horse before and I hate horses (they smell terrible and their heads are as long as my arm). We went outside the Christ Church Cathedral where I did some more reading. We then went back to the food market to get crepes. We walked further into the city and saw the Spire of Dublin, which just looks like a random gigantic pin that is there for no reason.
We saw a sign for the “Witch’s Attic” and I really wanted to check it out. What we didn’t know ahead of time was that we would have to climb up six flights of stairs to get to the small cramped store. It was an interesting store with naked lady tarot cards, Lord of the Rings DVDs, incense, and a cape. They had a guest book and I signed “Worth the walk up!” though my companions didn’t seem to agree with me. We went into a souvenir shop and I got some Christmas gifts for the family (which I won’t list here!). We were still pretty full from our crepes, but our group was going to see a play at 7:30 and we knew we would get too hungry if we waited till after the show. We went to a noodle shop across the street from our hostel called “Toki Doki”. I really enjoyed the name because I say "okey dokey" all the time. I split an order of spicy chicken noodles with Emily.
We then went to the Grace Theater to see Oscar Wilde’s “A Woman of No Importance”. I really enjoyed nearly everything about the show. My one disappointment was that it was set in England so they used British accents and I wanted to see a play with Irish accents, since, you know, I’m in Ireland and all. After the show, people wanted to go back to the hostel to pregame. Emily, Theresa and I popped into a pub called Gypsy Rose along the river instead. It was a cool little pub, with band posters covering all the walls and the ceiling. There was a lone guitar player in the back, and we decided to base whether or not we stayed on the next song. He then started singing, “If I Only had a Brain” from the Wizard of Oz and I knew I had to stay. That was the last song I was expecting. Right out of left field. I knew then that we had to stay at least for a little longer. I ordered a pint of Bulmer’s and sat next to an older guy. He told me a joke involving my thumb and the Mayo Gaelic football team. I didn’t hear the punch line, which was probably better for my young innocent ears. Things were going great until the musician opened his mouth and said, “This next song is aboot…” Great. I find a Canadian when I’m looking for Irish music. Surprisingly we were saved from the Canadian by a Frenchman who encouraged us to chug the rest of our drinks and join him and his friends in going somewhere else. His name was Marcielle, or Marcel, or Marceau, or something along those lines. I couldn’t really read the inscription on the silver bracelet he showed me when I asked him his name. He and his friends didn’t really have a destination, so we wandered around a bit, took some picture for which Marcielle and one of his friends wanted to take their pants off.
We eventually split from them and went into the Fitzsimmons, where we were the previous night. The two guitar players were looking for requests, and I loudly called out “Fields of Athenry”, which is a sad, sappy, national pride love song that everyone likes but no one admits to liking. I took out my phone and waved it over my head, rousing others to do the same. I then got the musicians to sing “Happy Birthday” to Theresa even though it wasn’t her birthday. She was lifted into the crowd and seemed to be having a great time. After hanging around Fitzsimmons for a while, we go out to wander and eventually find a pizza place where we grab a bie to eat before calling it a night.
For the final morning in Dublin, we had to wake up early. IWe went to a place where there were passage tombs: big mounds that were built before Stonehenge and the pyramids where they think people were buried. The passage tomb we saw was Knowth. We didn’t actually get to go inside, but the outside and the top were very pretty. Our tour guide was very cute and very clever. She talked about how the right wing of the tombs were where the important people were buried such as kings, queens, and tour guides. After Knowth, we went to an old monetary site called Clonmacnoise. It was very pretty and surreal, but other than that not much can be said about it that can’t be found on Wikipedia. Overall, although Dublin was fun. I prefer Galway much more.
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