Thurs, August 4, 2005 (Day 65)
Greetings from Dublin's Heuston Rail Station where Northcott and I are currently awaiting departure to the west coast of Ireland and the city of Galway. Had a great time here in Dublin these last few days... I think it can be summed up in one word: BOOZE.
Arrived in the city around 10am on Tuesday the 2nd on our flight from Prestwick which we almost never made due to a close call with a locked Edinburgh Bus Station (see last post). Caught the bus into town from the airport after making change with some nice Irish fellows near the stop. What are we... back on the Euro again? Put the pounds away! We jumped off our bus at what I figured was pretty close to the city centre (i.e. the stop closest to the river)... we really didn't know where we were going, but thankfully I had Ashton's "Lonely Planet Guide to Western Europe" with me, so we used that to piece together where to get off the bus, and where we we had to go.
I should note at this point that a guide book such as the Lonely Planet book I mentioned above is a godsend in situations like this. I consider it an invaluable piece of backpacking equipment. I used it in every single western european country we visited... a huge help for things like maps, accomodtions, sights to see. It definitely saved us a lot of time and effort. Thanks again Martyn!
So as I said, we hop off the bus at the river and head west from the center down to the Four Courts Hostel... seemed like a very cool spot. The internet reviews didn't lie. Given what we had just been through in getting here (a near-catastrophic all-nighter from Ediniburgh), we found some leather couches in a quiet reading room in the basement and totally crashed for a few hours.
Awoke at 3pm refreshed and feeling good. Checked in to our room, and hit the town to get our bearings on the place. Lo and behold, not 5 mins out of the hostel we run into more people we knew from our Highlands Tour! After our chat with them, Steve and I headed up to St. Jame's Gate to see the Guinness factory... we'll definitley be hitting that place up in the near future. Then we walked down Dame street, past the Temple Bar area towards Trinity College. From here we decided to start our journey back home... but first, a stop into Harry B's pub for the freshest and cheapest pint of Guiness I have ever tasted in my life. Good god this stuff is awesome! Not bad when it only has to roll down the road! Well... you know what they say... one good beer deserves another. So we headed back down to the Temple Bar area (which is this massive George Street-esk type area within central Dublin containing tons of bars). We hit up the liveliest pub we heard... being a Tuesday evening and all. Turns out there was a live band playing. We walk in... and man, I tell you... it was like I stepped into O'Reilley's or something... except with slightly different accents. The band played songs like "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Tell my mom when I go home".... and I tell you... I felt like I was home. On the way home we ducked into an internet cafe to take care of a few matters. I lucked into sitting at a terminal which still had 30mins of time left running and unused.... so we got free interent to boot! Finished it all off with a bit of subway (it was a subway/internet cafe place... interesting concept eh? I'd have called it "Surf -n- Subs".) All in all, a great first day and night in Dublin!
Slept in a bit on Wednesday (Aug 3rd). The only real plan we had for the day was to hit the Guinness Brewery, so that's what we did first. Took the tour of the place - interesting times learning how they make beer - the view of Dubln from the "Gravity Bar" at the top of the building is phneominal. Most importantly, we got a free pint of beer b/c the lass who served us didn't bother to take our "free pint of Guinness" token. Naturally, we stayed for a while, enjoyed our pair of fresh and delicious pints each, and took in the fantasitc view.
Stumbled down the stairs, and naturally, we had to buy some more Guinness for the road. We also bought some Pint glasses for souveniers (one for me, my brother Jason, Steve, and his good buddy DJ). Went on back to the hostel for a bite to eat, drank some more fresh beers, and had a wee nap (we were tuckered out from all the boozin). Got up, ate once again (ok.. you might think we're pigs... but we're living on sandwiches here and we've been drinkin). We hoofed it down to the Trinity College once again because we saw an ad in our hostel for a "backpackers pubcrawl" taking place that night.
Unfortunately when we got there, we were the only ones to show... so the girl told us it would have to be cancelled :( . On the bright side, she offered to walk us down to to the area we were headed and show us all the bars she had planned on taking us too... so we could still crawl... but it would just be the 2 of us. Ah well! Naturally we didn't let a silly setback like having no-one to drink with slow us down. She took us down Grafton Street, which apparently is where the hometown folk like to haunt (as opposed to the touristy and over-priced Temple Bar area).
We hit up a brew-pub whose name escapes me for a selection of very tasty local beer brewed in-house. From there we hit The Duke, McDairds, Major Tom's, and Down Under (an aussie pub). We possibly hit more... I can't fully remember... which is indicative of any stellar pub crawl. Anyway, neeless to say it was a pretty successful crawl for two fools who knew nothing of the place. Definitely a good laugh. When you've been travelling with someone non-stop for near on 10 weeks, I guess it's a pretty good sign when you're still having fun with just them. (cut to Northcott and I walking home, and coming across a teeder-todder like thing, and jumping up and down on either side it and making goofy sounds like the morons we are...)
This morning (Thurs, Aug 4th) I'm feeling the most hung over I've been in quite some time on this trip, so that's a clear indicator of the good times had. Basically, Dublin = Eat, Sleep, Drink, Sleep, Drink, Eat, Drink, repeat.
I've been trying really hard not to think about the fact that we've only got 5 days left over here in Euorpe. My god... where have 65 days gone? I feel like I could go for another 2 months! It's sad knowing that this is pretty much it... the end of an era. Time to grow up. You know... maybe. At least I can take solace in the fact that I truly did live the dream - the life some consider a myth, so to speak. I could easily write a novel about each of the places I've been. I've seen so much and yet it all just leaves me wanting more... particularly brought about by the realization of how little of this world I've actually seen....
Dublin was awesome! Again... not enough time here, but I guess that's true for just about every place I've been! I said I dig ya baby, but I got ta keep movin... on.
QOTD:
Steve: "There's a good chance we're really not going to get to see any of the sights here in Dublin... ....unless you count the bars."
Reid: "I DO."
No comments:
Post a Comment