Oh Dublin...

Our first full day in Dublin didn't get off to the greatest start...but at least we had one good night first.

After we got to Dublin we headed out for dinner at a restaurant I had seen on a Rachel Ray special about the food in Dublin. It is called Gallagher's Boxty House and the food looked delicious on TV. It turned out to be even better in real life! Shawn enjoyed it too. A boxty is a potatoe pancake with some kind of meat and sauce filling. I had beef in mine with mushrooms and onions and a mushroom cream sauce. Shawn's had ham I think and the sauce was like honey mustard kinda. Hard to describe, but delicious

After dinner we headed down the street to the Palace Bar. They were having live Traditional Irish Music in their upstairs bar, so we listen there for awhile. It was really nice music with an Irish flute (almost looked like a recorder), guitar and fiddle. After that we headed to Oliver St. John Gogarty's Bar (which is a very famous bar in Temple Bar) for more music! These guys were playing much more upbeat Irish tunes! The accordian player looked like he was 80 but he was drinking and jamming with the other guys! Part way through the banjo player had to leave an a young guy joined in to play the bagpipes! So cool! He had a kinda air hand pump contraption so he didn't actually have to blow in it. It was a leather bag that he pumped with his elbow as he was playing. Different. It was a fun night out.

I wish the morning had started out so well! Our whole schedule got off because Dublin streets are a maze designed to keep people in. The streets aren't labeled and if they are they are labeled with tiny little signs! They don't warn you which lane you need to be in for upcoing turns or merges. It is terrible! We had to take the car back to the Dublin Airport and it took us a lot longer to get there than I expected. But...on the happy side we no longer have to drive in Ireland! Yay! We picked up our Dublin Passes at the airport and headed back to start our day a bit later than expected. Also, we had a bit of a delay in the morning because the power was out on our floor at the hotel when we woke up. There was some kind of problem with the guys doing construction on the building across the street. When we got back from the airport the problem was fixed, so we showered and headed out.

There is an old church and wall left over from a long time ago from the Wall of Dublin. Really beautiful. We walked through on the way to lunch.

We had lunch at The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland! Seriously! It was established in the 1100's! No joke! I got some delicious Irish Stew and we had a drink. The pub looks funny sitting inbetween apartment buildings now, but it has survived the test of time!

We decided to check out the Jameson Old Distillery after lunch. Neither of us are whiskey drinkers, but it was a really interesting tour. We volunteered to be whiskey tasters after the tour which was fun! We compared Irish Whiskey, to Scotch Whiskey to American Whiskey. They explained how the whiskey is made and showed us kind of machinery that has been used over the years. They also explained what is different about each type of whiskey. It was really cool! We got nice little certificated afterward that make us official whiskey tasters now! haha! There was a stone on the tour that is supposed to give you 10 years of good luck if you touch it. I hugged it...that must be work 30 or so right?

St. Patrick's Cathedral


Shawn wanted to be sure to stop by Captain America's Restuarant. We sat at the bar and had an appetizer. The bartenders were really nice and we started talking to them. Turns out one of them is from Evansville! Seriously! We talked to him about Southern Indiana and how you can't buy alcohol on Sunday. Funny stuff! The Irish bartender was asking us where we'd been in Ireland. He described Limerick and the New Jersey of Ireland, and I think that's pretty good!

We hit up Temple Bar for a bit again for dinner and then went to be pretty early. Time to catch up today!