"Would Arthur be Happy?": Discovering the Lands, Beers, and Potatoes of the Irish Folk

Hello faithful followers!!

We have successfully voyaged to, and from, our first stop on the map: Ireland!!

  Leaving Denver....  

.....and arriving in Ireland. Colorado don't know nothin' 'bout green. 

For those of you who care about Jessica and mine’s general comfort, you will be displeased to know that our flight to Dublin was perhaps the most uncomfortable international flight. Ever. The seats reclined literally less than an inch and they only had one television screen per every forty people. I mean, why do they even have the reclining option on those chairs?! AND WHERE IS MY OWN PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT CONSOLE?? Also… airplane food. Just ew. Rocks are not acceptable supplements for bread. (Ok, I’m done complaining now - first world problems, I know, I know).

You may need to squint, or retrieve a microscope, in order to see the chicken in this 5-star meal, courtesy of US Airways. It’s smaller than the head of the fork!!

 No matter how much we hated our flight to Europe (although we still managed to have great fun – the Dragon Lady i.e. the Beast from the Shadows who was sitting in front of us on the plane found our joy at living quite detestable and made that fact incredibly clear when she yelled at us for amicably playing cards), we arrived in Dublin alive and safe – and, BIG surprise, it was raining!! (Our Kilkenny/Glendalough tour guide on Wednesday: “Ireland doesn’t have one rainy season. It has four.”) 

Jessica in the leaking Paddywagon. 

However, the rain stopped shortly after we arrived, and the rest of our stay was remarkably sunny and warm. What can I say? We bring sunshine wherever we go!

The bus ride from the airport to the hostel in our faithful steed the Paddywagon was perhaps one of the most interesting bus rides I have ever had (actually, one of the two most interesting bus rides I have ever had – the other most interesting bus ride was, in fact, today, Thursday, on the way to the Dublin ferry port. But more on that later).

On THIS bus ride, our driver not only made many penis jokes in his wonderful Irish accent, but he also nearly committed vehicular homicide about a dozen times. Oh, and yes, the bus did leak. Jessica may have been less than grateful for her free shower.

We arrived at the hostel, Paddy’s Palace Dublin, after the Paddywagon dropped us off. Starving, we quickly changed and ran off to the nearest restaurant called O’Shea’s and had a full Irish breakfast, pictured here, complete with lots of coffee.

Beans, an egg, extra thick cut bacon, potatoes, mushroms, black and white pudding, and pork sausage. Hearty!

Faithful readers, expect pictures of basically every meal I eat while traveling. I am not only on an exploratory travel journey, but also on a quest to discover the best, most traditional foreign cuisine in every place we go!!

On that subject, here’s a picture of traditional lamb stew I ate later on Tuesday.

Tuesday, we found ourselves incredibly lost in Dublin, exploring the central downtown area – where our hostel was wonderfully located – and the Temple Bar, basically the cultural hub of Dublin. The city is a wonderful hodgepodge of architectural styles popular throughout the centuries. One street will be all red brick and regal, the next bright wood and simply adorable, the next brown brick and oldddd, the next, dark wood and modern…. (You can clearly tell that my architectural knowledge is like The Great Thinker’s stone bum – solid, impervious, and not prone to gaseous imperfections. I could rebuild the Great Pyramids with knowledge such as this!!).

The highlight of our first day in Dublin, besides exploring the city, was taking a tour of the Guinness factory and learning about the process of making beer. We also learned about the process of drinking beer, which can be witnessed in the picture below.

Look at us. We are so great at learning how to drink beer. 

Also, just so everyone knows: GUINNESS IN THE UNITED STATES IS A LIE. A LIE, I TELL YOU.

This stuff is real. Dark and smooth, with a lush foam and slightly bitter kick at the end, this Guinness is worlds beyond American Guinness.

Alfred Tubs the Frog, our constant companion, enjoyed some of our beers as well. He drank the majority of them, of course. 

Exhausted from the restless plane flight and our adventures of the day, we went to bed at 7:30 pm and slept until... well, 7:30 in the morning.

Wednesday, August 6^th

Wednesday began with a lovely breakfast provided by our hostel.

Cold, but a loving cold, complete with flavors of saw dust and dirty sock. 

We then ventured onto a larger Paddywagon to take a tour of Glendalough (pronounced Glen-dah-lock) and Kilkenny.

What's Ireland without the sheep??

Look! Irish badlands!

Cool tree. 

Glendalough was a quaint little town located in the “mountains” of Ireland (Ireland may have the green, but they don’t have the girth!) by two lakes. The air was fresh and smelled of pine, and I could see how the Irish countryside has been subject of the prose and poetry of many an author throughout the centuries.

Stunning views = totally worth the hike. I like hikes.  

Alfred Tubs the Frog enjoying the view out of the Paddywagon. 

Kilkenny, on the other hand, was a city, located south of Dublin. We enjoyed strolling the streets, drinking a Kilkenny beer at O’Flanigan’s Bar with lunch, and getting an ice cream cone from a local store. 

And, of course, the name Kilkenny produced obligatory South Park references from Jessica.

“Oh my god! They killed Kenny! You bastards!!”

Kilkenny's are lighter beers than Guiness, with a bit more bite but still smooth on the finish.

The creamiest ice cream I have ever had, complete with fancy sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

After a long bus ride back to Dublin, we showered and headed back out the door to catch Dublin’s night scene at the Temple Bar Pub, where we listened to a WONDERFUL local band and enjoyed yet another Guinness. Much clapping and laughter ensued.

Thursday, August 7^th

Today we have ventured from the city of Dublin onto a bus, then a ferry, to Holyhead, England, where we will take a train to London to stay at St. Christopher’s Inn.

You may be wondering about the second most interesting bus ride I mentioned earlier. Well, that happened this morning.

The bus to take us to the ferry port was twenty minutes late, to start. While this did not matter to us – as our ferry was leaving an hour after that and we had plenty of time to get to the port – many of our fellow bus riders were incredibly agitated; their ferries were earlier than ours. The bus finally arrived. At this point, I am still unsure about what happened, but a man tried to get on the bus with 10 British Sterling (Southern Ireland uses euros, unlike Northern Ireland and England), and, unsurprisingly, got in a fight with the bus driver because he could not get on the bus without the proper currency. He left, angrily, to go get the correct currency, and at this point many of the bus riders were incredibly frustrated, yelling and cursing at the man and the driver (I was worried that they were going to become an angry mob and tip the bus over!). The man returns, but then the police show up, phoned by the driver to escort the angry Sterling man away. At this point, the other bus riders are frantic at the thought of missing their ferries, and the yelling gets even louder. One of the policemen yells at the passengers to calm down, they take the Sterling man away, and, at last, we are headed on our way to the ferry port.

What an interesting way to start the day, huh??

At the time of writing this blog entry, we are about forty-five minutes away from reaching Holyhead. I am excited for the next branch of our journey – if it is anything like visiting Dublin, we will have many a story to tell!!

Cheers,

Dani