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| Jameson Whiskey Distillery |
After Jameson, we went to the next logical place...the Guinness Storehouse! The place was absolutely massive. When you first walk in, you're standing in a giant pint glass. The women who gave us a quick introduction said that you could fit over 7 million pints of Guinness in this one glass. Here, we learned what ingredients go into the Guinness and how it is actually made. The rest of the storehouse is used as a museum type place where you can see previous advertisements and how the Guinness gets from the Storehouse in Dublin to the rest of the world. It was pretty cool stuff. After that, I learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. These people have it down to a science! First off, you have to start with the logo facing you and the pint glass tipped to 45 degrees and touching the tap. Then you pull the tap forward and fill it until it touches the bottom of the word Guinness on the glass. Then you hold the glass straight up and down until the Guinness reaches the middle of the harp. You have to let it sit for 119 seconds and then you hold it straight up and down again while pushing the tap backwards and filling it to the top. When you push the tap backwards, no gases come out with the beer so you can fill it over the top without it spilling over...who knew?
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| My perfect pint of Guinness! |
On Saturday, we decided to take a tour of the Wicklow area. It was seriously the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my life! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the grass was green...it was perfection. I saw the Irish sea, and it was clear enough that I could even see over to Wales. The first stop on our tour (the tea break) was in a small area called Glencree. The British built barracks there during one of the wars, and today the barracks is still standing, but there are really pretty lavender flowers growing on the stone. I saw my fist bog on this trip too. I never knew much about them, but our tour guide, Joe (the most adorable and friendly Irishmen you will ever meet), told us how dangerous they are. After hearing that I think I'll be staying away from them. Our next stop of the day was definitely my favorite. For those of you who have seen P.S. I Love You, we stopped at the bridge where Gerry and Holly meet for the first time. After being there I can totally see why the producers chose that spot to film at. It was gorgeous! The stone bridge was sitting just over a small creek with little waterfalls. It was so peaceful and pretty, I can't really even describe it in words, so here is a picture!
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| The bridge from P.S. I Love You! |
The next stop was at a lake that looked like a pint of Guinness. The Guinness corporation must have figured this out because they had a ton of beach sand brought in and put at the one end of the lake to look like the foam of the beer and then used it in an actual advertisement. At first I didn't see it, but after Joe explained it to me, it suddenly appeared to me. The house in the bottom right corner is where the Beatles stayed when they were in Ireland. Joe told us that Paul McCartney was wandering around the lake one day when the song "Yesterday" came into his head. Pretty cool stuff.
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| "Pint of Guinness" if the picture was a little wider, the house the Beatles stayed in would be on the bottom right. |
Next on our drive around the Irish country side was a little place called Glendalough. It is a town where there used to be a monostary. It was almost creepy because there was a huge cemetery and then the remnants of an old church. Only the walls were left standing, but I'm sure it was a beautiful church in its day. There were 2 lakes around Glendalough and our group walked to the first of the lakes. The lake was very pretty and peaceful and there were some pretty adorable sheep running around.
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| Remains of the church |
The last stop on our day trip was at a restaurant for lunch and a wool mill in Avoca. The restaurant was used to film the show Bally Kiss Angel. I had never heard of it, but I guess it was a really popular show. The food was really good. The wool mill was awesome. There were so many different colors of yarn and the scarves and other things that they were making were so pretty. I would have been dangerous if I would have taken my credit card in with me.
That night, we decided to go to the Arlington in Dublin for some live music. We went a listened to a cover type band, and they were pretty awesome. We also met some super nice people. Everyone there was just dancing around and having a great time. After the Arlington, a few of us decided to go to Temple Bar. This area is really famous but I'm not exactly sure what for besides having a lot of bars. We went to the actual Temple Bar in the Temple Bar area, and it was huge. It was covered in twinkle lights and there were places to stand outside with heat lamps so you didn't have to worry about getting cold. We were sitting there talking when we met this guy from North Dakota...small world!
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| The Temple Bar |
On Sunday, we decided to head to the National Leprechaun Museum. We learned all about the different myths and such that led to leprechauns. We walked through a magic tunnel where we 'shrunk' and then into a room where all of the furniture was giant so we felt like leprechauns. Then we found a rainbow and even the pot of gold. At the end, we got to color our own pictures and then hang them up in the museum.
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| On some 'giant' furniture |
The last part of the day was spent at St. Patrick's cathedral. I was a little bummed that I didn't have time to get inside, but we had a plane to get to. The cathedral was so beautiful though. It was huge and there was a really pretty park next to it that had tulips blooming everywhere. Who said that leaving Pella for a semester had to mean going without tulips. Overall, Ireland was amazing! Someday, when I'm rich, I'll have to go back for a few weeks so I can make it to all of the places that I missed during this trip!
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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