Dublin, Ireland - April 11th -13th

On Friday we decided to take a super last minute trip to Dublin. Being of Irish decent I have always wanted to go, and Dublin did not disappoint. We arrived late Friday evening, dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed into town to cool area called "Temple Bar." Temple Bar has tons of pubs and restaurants and we ended up in one playing live Irish music. We had a few pints of Guinness (yes - it really is better in Ireland), and listened to the music until they kicked us out. By then it was too late to have a normal dinner...so we ended up eating a hot dog and pizza from a street vendor (still ashamed of eating a hotdog that cost the equivalent of $10USD).

Saturday morning we were up and in town by 10am. We grabbed a delicious breakfast - full Irish breakfast for Shaun and the best french toast I have had in 10 years for me. Then it was off to the Jameson Distillery tour. This was AWESOME. At the end of the tour we were able to try a sample of Jameson and Shaun even participated in a taste test of Whiskey's, along with 5 other tour group members. Shaun was able to try 3 different Irish Whiskeys (Jameson, Powers, and Paddy), the # one best-selling Scottish Whiskey (Johnny Walker Red) and the # one selling US Whiskey (Jack Daniels). Turns out Shaun's favorite was Powers, while everyone else in his group liked Jameson - I thought the tour guide was going to throw us out for a minute! We really felt like we learned something about Jameson and different kinds of whiskey. More than anything though - we figured out that we REALLY don't like whiskey.

Then it was off to Maddigan's pub for lunch and sout at noon and we were home by 4pm. I would definitely go back to Dubliome football. We tried the Guinness Burger and an Irish club sandwich - delicious! Next, we visited Trinity College which has a gorgeous campus in the middle of Dublin. We visited the Old Library - I loved seeing the tall book shelves full of really old books because I am a huge bookworm. After a good Italian meal we headed to bed. Sunday we flew n if for no other reason than how nice everyone was! Every time we got out of a taxi I wanted to hug our driver b/c I felt like we had made a friend on the drive!! Even in the restaurants and bars we went to...all of the people were so outgoing and friendly. By far, the most hospitable city we have been to in Europe. Sine Metu!

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Dublin, Ireland