L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire.

This past Sunday I finally became an official Tourist in Dublin. Along with my friend, a fellow exchange student at NCAD, I took a ‘hop on hop off’ bus tour of Dublin, which ended up being a lot of fun, I recommend it for sure! We started out at Trinity University, to take a look around- mostly just getting jealous that our campus isn’t as insanely beautiful. Then we hopped on the bus, and got off moments later at the home of Oscar Wilde, one of my absolute favorite writers of all time (and a born and bred Dubliner). His house is now a museum of American something-or-other which I think is a shame, but at least there is a little bronze plaque out front! Also, there is the most kickin’ statue of Oscar in the park across the street, Aino and I had a lot of fun posing in front of it. (but I’m not so sure those photos need to be immortalized on the Internet).

We started out fairly early, which meant that a lot of the museums were still closed, so we carried on with the tour and planned to double back later on in the day. We were both disappointed to learn that IMMA, the museum of modern art, is closed until later on this week.

Our next stop ended up being the Jameson Distillery, makers of Irish Whiskey. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy the tour, but I really did, our guide was great and the distilling process is actually quite fascinating! I’d also never tried Whiskey, so it was fun to discover that I actually enjoy it. Aino had hers straight up, I had mine with ginger-ale and we both had a nice lunch afterwards at the restaurant in the distillery.

We headed for the writers museum next, which was fun but didn’t allow photos. I’ve been told that they are planning on shutting down the museum, which I think is a shame. But the place certainly needs some TLC, the plaster was cracking and things were actually sellotaped to the walls! Apparently there is no funding, and unfortunately it shows. (although the artifacts are fantastic to see, especially the original handwritten pages)

Next we booked it over to Guinness in order to make their last 5pm tour. We arrived at the factory at 4:45- just in time. The factory is insanely huge, it covers blocks and blocks of land, and even just the part open to the public is enormous. If Willy Wonka made beer instead of chocolate- this would be the factory he designed. Aino and I got to wander up and down 4 floors of beautifully designed exhibits, including a fantastic indoor waterfall of EPIC proportions. We were both impressed by their masterful usage of old barrels as presentation structures, as well as some fantastic glass screens that switch between transparent and opaque. Very cool.

Okay, here is the part where I let you in on a shameful secret- I do not like Guinness. Yes- despite my spending far too many euros in the (most amazing!) gift shop I barely touched my free pint. I just find it far too bitter tasting, I’m a Granville Island Honey Lager girl at heart. I had a little chat with my taxi driver on the way home and he informed me that its actually very difficult  to get a good pint of Guinness in Dublin anymore, apparently the company has been using more and more preservatives and other various chemicals which tends to leave that bitter taste in your mouth. However I’ve got to give them this, I love the way a pint of Guinness looks in it’s glass, all dark black amber with creamy white foam- it’s definitely an attractive drink. You’ve got to hand it to them, the people at Guinness sure know how to put on a show! And even though I haven’t seen all there is to see in Dublin, by any means, I have to say I feel a little closer to Ireland than I did before our tour.