Guinness Hearing Aids (Dublin Excursion)

So, I know this is WAY overdue and for that I apologize. In order to keep it from getting any more overdue, I'm just going to jump in then:

A street in Dublin.

Our excursion to Dublin began before the sun rose on January 13, 2011. For the first little bit of the trip, I just watched the countryside fly by. In the pre-dawn darkness, it was almost like being back in Oregon. The famous low stone walls were the only reminder that I was in Ireland. After just a little while, I ended up falling asleep. I woke up again to our stop at a gas station. We all got out to use the bathroom and look around. Some people bought breakfast food in the attached store. It was probably the biggest and nicest gas station store I've ever been in. I only looked around though.

Back on the bus, I looked out the window and listened to my headphones until we were coming into Dublin itself. Then I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the city through the bus windows.

The first place we were going was listed on our itinerary as the GAA. I had no clue what that was and so I was really confused when we pulled up outside of a big building that had Ulster Bank and Guinness ads on it.

The entrance to Croke Park

We got off the bus and went inside. It pretty quickly became obvious we were at Croke Park, which is probably the most famous stadium in Ireland. It's there that traditional GAA (or Gaelic
Athletic Association) games are played, like hurling and gaelic football. Other events go on there too, but those are what it's known for. We got to spend a little while exploring the museum inside the stadium before our tour was due to start. The exhibits are mostly about the history of traditional Irish sports and the GAA. Basically, Irish sports, like their culture in general, were disappearing because Ireland had been occupied (first by the Vikings, then the Normans and finally the English) for so long. The GAA was started to keep them from disappearing completely.

One of the "magic" blue curtains

The first part of our tour was watching a video. It showed what hurling and gaelic football actually look like when played. It was so cool! Most of you know, I'm not much of one for sports, watching or playing. But this was so neat! They both looked super exciting. I really want to see a game in Croke Park now. Hopefully I'll get the chance before I have go back to the US. If not, then it's just another reason to come back.

Our guide and what might be the
 Muhammad Ali Tunnel someday.

Our guide took us around the stadium. We started by going down underneath the stadium. There we learned about all sorts of things like the magic blue curtains that are used to keep the tour buses separated so the teams never see their opponents until they're all on the field. We saw a tunnel that Muhammad Ali has used to enter the stadium twice. Apparently, the second time he came back he requested the same tunnel and he was all upset when he got down there to find that there wasn't a plaque or anything up in his honor. I don't envy the person that had to tell him that the Irish only put statues and plaques up for dead people. Although when he does die, he very well might get a plaque or something.

Galway's jerseys

We went into one of the dressing rooms. They had the official county jerseys of all the teams hung up on the walls with the ones who won last year's national tournaments above the others. There we learned that Croke Park is a neutral stadium. It's home to no team and so all the dressing rooms are exactly the same. Then the guide let us look around and take pictures with the jerseys. I got a picture of me with one of the Galway jerseys. Turns out that Galway is the only county that has a different jersey for hurling and gaelic football. I'm not sure which I had my picture taken with though. It was also neat to see that London and New York had jerseys up too. Apparently there are big enough Irish populations in both places to merit teams of their own. After the dressing room we stopped off in a practice room and then headed out to the pitch itself.

We weren't allowed to walk on the field but we stood on the edge. We also sat in several different locations around the pitch. The place where the cup is awarded to the champions was easily visible and our guide told us that acceptance speeches are supposed to be in Irish. Unfortunately most people can't speak enough Irish to give even half a speech in it so they'll say a token few words and give the rest in English. One year a coach was determined that his team was going to win and when they did, his team captain was going to give a real speech in Irish. Problem was, the guy didn't speak any Irish. So the coach wrote out the speech in Irish phonetically and coached the captain on how to say it. Lo and behold his team did win the championship that year. The captain went up to the podium to make his speech, the papers were all there for and whoosh! A gust of wind blew them away. Moral of the story: always use blue tape.

We went up and around, stopped to look at the view of Dublin, which is fantastic by the by, and went into a corporate box. It wasn't as fancy as it could have been nor was it as cushy as I remember the ones in the Seahawks Stadium being, but it was still pretty nice. An interesting note about gaelic football and hurling: both are amateur sports. No one plays them professionally and none of the athletes get paid. While we were in the corporate box our guide told us this great story about a one of the guys who won the national championships a few years back. He was from a county that hadn't won in a while so it was a big deal. He went home and spent some time with his family and just kind of enjoyed things for a bit. When he went back to work at the bank, you would've expected him to be greeted like a hero, except for the fact that he actually worked in the county he helped beat. Oops...

After that the tour was pretty much over and we went back to the museum. I finished wandering through it and then got some food at the little attached cafe. Our whole group got back on the bus and we left for our next stop: The Guinness Storehouse.

The zoo animal Guinness mascots

The Guinness Storehouse is a built on what used to be a Guinness Brewery at St James' Gate. The building that's there now is seven stories and is shaped like a giant pint glass. Inside is a museum all about Guinness. It's self guided so you can go as fast or as slow as you like. The bottom floors are all about how Guinness is made. As you get higher you get into how Guinness was made the first time and the Guinness family legacy. There are exhibits about its distribution in Ireland and around the world. Included in your ticket into the museum is a free pint. The fourth floor is your first chance to take advantage of that generous offer. There you can learn to pour your own pint. (I took a picture of the directions and kept wandering) I think my favorite part might have been the exhibits about Guinness paraphernalia. It seems like Guinness has been advertised on everything at some point or another: from tiny harps to posters of Irish celebrities to playing cards to tiny toy cars. The most famous Guinness mascots are zoo animals like the toucan, turtle and bear.

 

The Gravity Bar

Finally I got to the top floor, the Gravity Bar. I didn't have a lot of time so I went straight over and got my free pint. A kindly stranger took a picture of me with it. As I looked out over Dublin I really did try to drink it, but it just didn't taste good. The foam on top, or head, is just awful and the Guinness isn't that much better. I only ended up managing to drink about a fifth of it before I had to run back down seven flights of stairs. I sprinted through the store and got in line to buy my stuff. I made it so I was only a couple of minutes late, but in the end it may have been a good thing I didn't drink my whole pint. Can you imagine running down seven flights of stairs with that much alcohol in your stomach?

Kilmainham Gaol

Our last stop of the day was Kilmainham Gaol. This was another place I didn't really know anything about before I got there. Kilmainham Gaol is historically significant for a number of reasons. It's where people were put during the Famine. It was actually better to be inside the Gaol than out on the streets because at least inside you were guaranteed food. It's also where political prisoners, like those involved in the 1916 Rebellion were held and executed. I stood where people like Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera, and Countess Markievicz stood. It was more than a little surreal. It was especially eerie to see where some of them had been executed. Our guide was really good, but unfortunately I don't remember any of the particular stories he told us. All I can say is that you really need to see Kilmainham Gaol for yourself. It's an amazing piece of living history.

The hostel we were staying in was called Kinlay House. I shared a room with Minn and Angela. After we all dropped our things off, all of the girls decided to go out to get food. We ended up at an overpriced Mexican place. The food was only okay. After that we went looking for a pub. We ended up in a little smoky place that had really good desserts (I didn't try one, but I have it on good authority). I stayed for a little while and watched everyone else drink before deciding to head back to the hostel. That was pretty much the end of my night. I was going to see if I could find some Irish dancing to go to, but there wasn't any that was anywhere near enough.

The St George stained glass window from Christ Church

The next morning I got up and tried to make the shower work. We were apparently on the other end of the building from the water heater, so a little sign posted in our bathroom said to leave the water running until it got warm. Well, you know how in some public bathrooms they have those sinks where you push down on the  handle and water comes out for as long as the handle stays down? Our shower was like that. There is no way to leave a shower like that running. Which means that I took an icy cold shower. Unfortunately I wasn't destined to warm up at all that day either. The first thing we did was take a walking tour of Dublin. We started at Trinity College and made our way around downtown Dublin. Our guide, Donal, was adorable and obviously very passionate about what he was telling us. He made the tour fun and interesting. What made it less fun and interesting, was the fact that it was cold, windy and half-way raining on us. It wasn't actually coming down consistently, but neither was it misting. It would just send a couple drops your way whenever it was most inconvenient or uncomfortable. After the walking tour we all went into Christ Church, a huge Protestant church right near our hostel. It was really pretty. I spent a long time wandering around inside and taking pictures. I found my favorite single piece of stained glass ever in there: a window with St George and his dragon that had really nice detail. It was really cold in the upper part of the church though so it was kind of a relief to go down into the crypts. I know crypts have a reputation for being chilly and drafty, but these were actually a lot warmer and friendlier feeling than the upper part of the church. I wandered around down there until I got too hungry.

My authentic Irish food. It's beef in a
Guinness sauce underneath a pastry
with some chips. It was yummy. 

I went to the Temple Bar district and found a restaurant (The Shack) that served authentic Irish food. I ate there and then kept wandering. I was kind of waiting to hear from Wendy or someone about going to see the Book of Kells. I never did hear anything (turns out it was a cell phone or network glitch) so a little before the Book of Kells was due to close I took myself off to see it. It was really cool and I did manage to see the Book itself, but I got kicked out of the library above it so they could close. Oh well. I'll go back eventually. Maybe I'll even get to see a different page of the Book of Kells.

I went back to the hostel and started getting ready for the play. We were all going to see Jane Eyre at the Gate that night. I thought it was a pretty good show, but then I kind of liked Jane Eyre as a book and they did a really good adaptation. I was pleased. Rita and Wendy were less impressed, but I'm still not sure if it was because of the acting or because of the story in general. After the play, I went back to the hostel and just hung out until I went to bed.

The next morning we got up early and I took another icy cold shower. We all piled back onto the bus and headed to Newgrange. Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb that was on my list of things to see well before I got to Ireland. We went in the Visitor's Centre first. It's quite large and there's a lot of information there. After a little while we walked out to another small bus and from there we were driven out to where Newgrange actually is. A guide took us into the tomb itself and told us what little they think they know about everything in there. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which was really disappointing, but it was still magical and surreal to actually be there. It's another thing you all should go see for yourself. After the quick tour inside we were given 15 minutes to wander around and take pictures outside the tomb. It wasn't very much, but apparently it was a lot better than we would have gotten were we there during high tourist season.

Newgrange

Back in the Visitor's Centre, we all got some lunch. On my way out I put my name in the drawing for a chance to be at Newgrange during the next winter solstice (you should really look Newgrange up if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's really cool). I hope I get it. We all got back on our bus and I settled in for a nap.

When I woke up again we were almost to Clonmacnoise. I had never heard of Clonmacnoise before I came to Ireland, but it's probably my favorite thing (though by a very narrow margin) we did on any of our excursions. Clonmacnoise is a monastic site that was founded on an important crossroads. It was quite rich at one point. There are several churches (apparently they didn't used to expand their buildings, they just built more), some high crosses and a graveyard. There are ruins of a Norman castle right nearby and two big towers on the river side of the site. The weather was beautiful when we got there. The sun was out and the sky was a bright blue with just a few fluffy white clouds. It was still rather cold, but then it was January so that was to be expected it. We watched a quick and cheesy video and then we got to go outside and wander around. It was wonderful. I can't really describe why I liked it so much except to say that it was what I needed right then.

Part of Clonmacnoise

The Old Woman's Chapel or Teampall na gCailleach

Another really cool thing is that there's a nun's chapel nearby. I don't think any of us really understood that it wasn't within the bounds of the main site. Rita wanted to see it though so she asked the lady manning the desk and got directions. She happened to walk past me on her way to go find it and so I got to tag along. We did end up finding it and I took a whole bunch of pictures for her. It's probably a bit petty, but regardless, it was still cool to get to be one of two people in our group to see the Teampall na gCailleach.

Once Rita and I got back, I managed to take a few more pictures and then I ran out of time and space (again! I forgot to take an extra memory card with me, a mistake I did not repeat) on my camera. I got back on the bus and we all headed back to Galway as the sun set.

I forget who exactly said it, but at some point after the Guinness Storehouse someone was talking about beer goggles and another person in our group jokingly said that Guinness gave you hearing aids instead. I thought it was a really entertaining phrase so I wrote it down and saved it for the title of this post. ^_^

Also, one other thing. I mentioned last time that I would upload my pictures on the internet so that anyone who wanted to could see all of them and not just the ones I post here or on facebook. I've been working on that, but it's kind of a problem because none of the free sites give me enough storage for all of my pictures. So  a large portion of my pictures from Galway are all I can offer you right now. I'm working on getting the rest of the Galway ones up another site but I honestly don't know what I'll do about the excursions. Any ways, here's what I've got so far: https://picasaweb.google.com/101144792375307557663/Galway#