We woke up and made our way to our new breakfast spot, Connor and Allie ordered avocado toast and I got pancakes. Connor also ordered a chocolate raspberry brownie which came with cream and looked decadent. We then walked up to the closest Hop-On Hop-Off bus stop and took the bus to the Kilmainham Gaol. Which is pronounced ‘jail’ they just like to spell it like that because they’re fancy over here. The Gaol has a rather infamous reputation in Irish history from what I gather. Many people were held here during the Great Famine in the mid 1840’s because they were able to get food here, although they were ripe targets for disease. The executions of the 1916 Easter Uprising leaders here also sparked the move to Irish independence which was only realized after WWII.
Next we took the bus around a little bit, saw the Testimonial to Arthur Wellesley who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Didn’t snag any pictures of it because my reflexes were too slow. It looked like a shorter, squatier, Washington Monument. After a couple stops we got off the bus and walked to the Guinness Storehouse. The experience/tour they have here is pretty slick. They go through the brewing process like all brewery tours, but my favorite part was definitely the videos of coopers at work. It was something I hadn’t thought about how they’d need thousands of oak barrels a day to ship their beer. We all managed to pour a perfect pint, although mine was definitely the most perfect. We waited until we got into the Gravity Bar to drink them and then grabbed some beef stew in the cafe area.
We got on a different Hop-On Hop-Off bus then and made our way to the Jameson Distillery where we did a whiskey tasting. Since I don’t like whiskey I pretty much just wet my tongue with it and made funny faces. The tasting took place in the old office of John Jameson and we were able to try four different whiskeys with a pro taster who told me all sorts of magical things I was tasting as fire poured over my tongue and down my throat. We left the distillery and took a last bus to the city center area where we grabbed some authentic Irish donuts and walked to a plaque where a potential very distant relative of Connor’s died in the Easter Uprising.
I’ll add more pictures but the internet was being uncooperative at this time
We then did a little bit of shopping and played some board games. One thing we have learned about our place of living… the water is very inconsistent. Burning hot water will come from the sink and sometimes the bathroom sink will spit water at you. I had managed to avoid its ire until now. Hopefully it won’t get worse. It’s slated to be an early night tonight so we can be rested for our trip to Glendalough tomorrow!
