Kels and Caro Take on Dublin!

Hello all!

I know I said my next post would be about Rome, but I ended up visiting some people in Dalkey, just outside Dublin, and I just needed to share!

If you've never met my mom, she is a) the coolest mom in the entire world, no lie and b) a preschool teacher in Rochester.  She has a child in her class whose parents emigrated in Ireland and her grandparents still live here.  I got in touch with them and they invited me to stay with them for a night!  It was so generous and I had a fantastic time.  Here's what went down:

On Friday, my friend Kelsey and I headed to Dublin by train at about 11 that morning.  We arrived by 1 and headed to the Guinness Storehouse, as we felt it was necessary to the study abroad experience.  For science!  It was a bit outside of the area that I had been in in Dublin, but you can literally see the storehouse when you walk outside the train station, so we were in good shape.  We had bought our tickets ahead of time because we had heard it was more expensive if we bought them in person.  They were already 13 Euro so I don't even want to think about what it would have been if we hadn't known this vital information!

The museum is in the form of a giant pint.  The bottom level is a gift shop and from the center you can see up 7 floors. It basically takes you through the process of brewing Guinness and for your viewing pleasure I have included the process and ingredients.

Hops, not barley!

There was a waterfall!

Underneath waterfall selfies with Kels.

Everything is so precise.

View of the actual factory from the 2nd floor window.

Important tools used to mill the barley.

This was too cute not to include!

Trains to show how Guinness was exported back in the day.

Not a clue what this is but it was pretty cool looking.

This is on the fourth floor, where we were given a taste-testing lesson.

The room had four of these vapor things to represent the four ingredients of Guinness.  If you smell them, you can tell the distinct parts of the beer.  One of them smelled like chocolate coffee and was heavenly.

Here's how to properly taste Guinness.  Stand straight up, feet slightly apart.  Inhale, take a sip, swallow, and exhale.  It was super swanky.

THE Guinness Harp!  It was so cool.  If you touched your fingertips to the glass, you could "play" the harp as it made the same noises as a real one would.

Dear Mom, please frame this.  

Some famous Guinness lovers.

On the fifth floor, we were given a lesson in crafting the perfect pint.  In order to do this, you had to have an official Guinness glass and hold it so that the gold harp was pointed away from you.  You have to hold it at 45 degrees, and fill it until the beer touches the bottom of the harp.  After that, you have to let it settle for about a minute, and then fill it up the rest of the way, this time without the 45 degree angle.  I went first in our group and was actually nervous because I thought I was going to completely screw up.  Of course, it turned out fine!

After we were done, it was official! We had crafted the perfect pints!

Afterward, we enjoyed our drink and went to find some lunch, as we were starving by this point.

The view from the lunch area.  So gorgeous.

There was also a telephone booth.  Not really sure on why that was a thing, but regardless, photos were necessary.

After we had poked around in the gift shop for a bit, we decided to go to Dalkey and meet Ros and Alan, who we were going to stay with.  I knew almost nothing about Dalkey except for that it was about 30 minutes outside of Dublin by train and that it was along the coast.  It turned out to be extremely beautiful and well worth the trip!  Dalkey is also a hot topic because Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama had lunch at Finnegan's pub in the village.  Apparently everyone was pretty excited about this!

We took the train from Connolly station in Dublin and left for Dalkey.  If you sit on the left hand side of the train, you get a spectacular view of the bay.  Luckily, we already knew this as Ros told us to do this in an email.  When we arrived in Dalkey, they were already there waiting for us.  It was so nice to finally meet them after having talked for a few months.  They were both so warm and inviting and it felt really good to actually be in someone's home, not our dorms at UL.

Their house is absolutely gorgeous.  This is the view from their 2nd floor window; I know you can't really tell because of the fog, but it was a great view of the ocean.

That night was nothing terribly exciting unless you count a homecooked meal exciting, which Kelsey and I did because we have not had one all this time we've been in Ireland.  There's something so much better about a real adult cooking food for you.  Ros and Alan's daughter, Ellie, also joined us.  We had some delicious pasta with vegetables, salad, and garlic bread.  For dinner there was a truly amazing cheesecake with blueberries on top.  It even gave my mom's a run for her money! (Sorry Mom it was super tasty).

The next morning we awoke bright and early to take a walk on the coast.  Ros and Alan had told us that they were going swimming, and I was very confused because it was only about 45 degrees Fahrenheit and the ocean was probably much colder than that.  Apparently this is something they do all the time. Wild!

We got a fantastic view of Dublin Bay.

This pool was so cool!  How creative that you could swim in the ocean without fearing the choppy, rocky water.

Excuse my face, we literally woke up 15 minutes ago

The view and village reminded me very much of Cobh and I was really pleased that we decided to go!

After the walk, we grabbed breakfast and chatted.  I cannot emphasize enough how nice it was to relax in someone's actual home.  After breakfast, we packed up and left to go back to Limerick.  We hated to leave so soon but we both had a paper due on Monday and we were a little behind on the game.  After saying our goodbyes and thanking Ros and Alan a million and one times, we took the train back into Dublin city centre, where we grabbed coffee quick and did a little shopping in Penney's before heading back into Limerick.

I am so happy that we made the trip out, as it was such a great experience.  I realized as we were going back to UL that this was my last solo trip to Dublin, a city I have come to truly love.  I will be back for a day with my parents when they arrive, but I feel like being with them will be a different kind of experience.  I'll let you dear readers know when it happens!

Now, I promise, the next blog will be about Rome and the Amalfi Coast!

Love to all.

Slainte!

Caroline