A Tall Blonde in a Black Dress

The boat ride into Dublin wasn't too bad. My stomach was feeling a little queasy for the first 45-minutes, but after that I was fine. My favorite part of the trip was walking into the gift shop. Now, this will sound odd, but when I was in there it felt they were always having an earthquake. You walk in and everything a rattling and making noise. It was fun! I kind of felt like I was at home. Anyway, they had a good set-up for us: nice chairs, a cafe, movies, video games, slot machines, etc. It was pretty cool!

I arrived in Dublin and hopped on a bus to get off the dock and to the main bus station. The bus trip was entertaining because the bus driver had a wild sense of humor. He was saying everything in a funny French accent. He'd say, "Okay, we are all on a bus to the bus sta-TION and if you don't want to go to the bus stat-TION then you are on the wrong bus. We stop at one stat-TION and that is the bus sta-TION. From there you can get to the train stat-TION. On your left you will see a crummy street. Don't walk around here at night." Yadda yadda yadda. It was funny. We I arrived at the station I walked to the hostel which was located in the Temple Bar area of town. Now, Temple Bar is basically the tourist drag. I wasn't too impressed. It was nice, but they were trying to sell Ireland too much. There were cute girls in the streets with menus trying to get you to go into their pub AND there were a ton of tourist shops. I also noticed a lot of young kids walking around and bar hopping. I felt like this area was promoting the "drunken college student image" which is not my thing. I like the local places. Plus, I'm a beer snob so drinking to drink is kind of pointless for me. Beer is to enjoy! I wasn't too thrilled with Dublin. It's nice, but it's another big city and all the nice parts are intermixed with the hussle and bussle of a big city. So, I changed my reservation from two nights to one. One funny thing happened when I checked-in to the hostel. The girl behind the counter handed me my key and then she handed me a Guinness. I walked around some more and then around dinner-time I find a nice pub. I ate some pub grab and told the bartender, "I need a tall blonde in a black dress". He immediately poured me a Guinness. Now, in Amsterdam, a Heineken tastes just like it does in the bottle back in the US. However, Guinness, and I've been told repeatedly around here, doesn't travel too well. Guinness tastes so much better out here. I only have two thoughts on this: (1) I'm not a big Guinness drinker to begin with so it's still not my favorite beer. (2) That first sip tastes like chocolate milk and that throws the experience for me....I can't seem to get past that.

I was going to go on a pub crawl later that night that hostel was organizing, but there were too many young people around the hostel who you could definitely tell just wanted to get plastered so I skipped it. I went to bed so I could wake up early, check-out Dublin some more, and then head for Waterford. I'm glad I did!

Today I woke up, showered, grabbed my free breakfast (toast & OJ), stashed my luggage and walked out the door. Dublin was much nicer during the day then at night. I liked it better. Around 9ish I made my way to the Guinness Brewery for my tour. While waiting I met a nice girl form the Netherlands named "Esta" who was also doing the tour by herself. We talked about travel and the Netherlands. It was pleasant. It was a self-guided tour and the first part was pretty cool, but it did get a little long near the end. Thankfully, it was self guided so you could skip a few parts. I must stay that the Heineken tour is far superior, but at Guinness I got the opportunity to be at the bottom of the worlds largest beer glass and see some stellar views from their Sky Bar. The Sky Bar was pretty sweet! It pretty much is the tallest building in Dublin with a 360-view. I much preferred Dublin from up there. You could see: The Wellington Monument, St. Patrick's Tower, Church of St. Augustine and John, Christchurch Cathedral, Trinity College, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Sky Bar

The bartender poured me a "chocolate milk", but it was only half way full. I picked it up to inspect it and both bartenders looked at me and said, "Don't touch it! You need to let it sit for 2-minutes." I said, "But, I'm impatient! Okay, you just let me know when I can drink my beer." She topped me off and then I could finally drink my beer and enjoy the view. The view was great! My best stop in Dublin to that point. While I was standing there I heard a quiet voice say, "Matt.....Matt.....Hey Matt". It was Peter. Peter was my roommate at the hostel. His actual name is Joel, but I wasn't saying it properly. He said that I needed to use my nose more to say it. He was from San Paulo, Brazil. He gave me another name to try that people call him; Pablo. I wasn't saying that one too well to his satisfaction either. He said, "you can also call me Peter". I said, "That, I can do". Our other roomie was a young guy from Germany named, "Sebastian" who was studying English for his Engineering Degree while in Dublin. So anyway, Joel Pablo Peter was calling to me from across the bar. We talked for a bit and then he says, "Hey, I don't drink. You want my free drink coupon?" "Sure!" I said.....and I had another Guinness (AKA Chocolate Milk for breakfast).

I made my way out of the brewery and caught a cab back to the hostel and then off to the train station. Sadly, I had to wait about 2-hours for the train because when I arrived the 11:20am train had just left. So, I said, "No problem, this means that I have another 2-hours in Dublin." So, I walked around some more and decided to get an early lunch since my breakfast was toast, OJ, and beer. I find a great little local sandwich shop off the tourist track. When I walked in I saw two girls waiting in line together. One was holding a tooth-pick with a pickled beet on it. The girl was shaking her head in disgust. Then the first words uttered as I walked in the door were with a very thick Irish accent from the woman behind the counter saying, "Go on, get on with it, eat it, it's not going to fucking kill you!" I knew I was in the right place. The girl takes a bite and spits it out and then walks out of the shop. I say, "What was that?" and the lady explains that she was trying to eat a pickled beet and then she hand me one. I eat it. I say, "Not bad". It was ok, I've never been a big fan of beets, but I didn't let her know. She says, "What part of Dublin are you from?" I laugh and say, "I'm not from Dublin". She replies, "I know that silly, I was joking with ya". We talked for a bit and she was a hoot! So funny! She says, "Ok, your traveling are ya? Are you going into Northern Ireland?" I say, "Yes". She says, "Oh, I'm a Dobb so I don't go up there. Ireland is much better" I say, "Yeah, I've heard Northern Ireland is safe, but very uncomfortable to travel in". She says, "Oh yeah, your a Dobb already!" When she asked what I wanted I said, "I'd like something local and good." She said, "Okay, but it's a breakfast sandwich with Brown Sauce on it". Perfect! We talked some more and she even recommend some good traditional local places for me to go if I ever came back. One was called, "Shea's" and I'd like to go see it one day. The other girl in the shop never said a word the entire time, but she made my sandwich and rung me up. Turns out she lost her voice the night before. Anyway, the sandwich was awesome!

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I'm on the train now and my next stop is in Waterford, Ireland. It will be nice to get back into a small(er) town again. One night in Dublin was plenty.