Well, I finally made it to Ireland! And honestly, it was a bit of a let down. Probably because I’d been wanting to go for so long, and looking forward to this trip for several months. And, probably because the time I was there was spent in two cities - Dublin and Galway - and not out in the green fields and country side. But, that’s not to say I didn’t have fun and enjoy the holiday weekend!
Marissa (friend/colleague) and I decided to go to Galway the weekend of May 29/30 to see the Galway in port racing as part of the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Ocean Race). We left Paris Friday afternoon and got to Dublin about 15:00. We took the bus into the city to Heuston station and thankfully our hotel was just across the river. We stayed at the Best Western Ashling Hotel which was very nice - remodeled, quiet, close to the train station, and easy to get on the tramway into the city centre. On the bus ride in, I couldn’t decide if I thought that all the construction sites in progress were signs of growth and progress or if they were abandoned and signs of the severe slow down in the Irish economy (Ireland is being hit very hard but the economic downturn).
We made it in just enough time to drop off our bags and walk down to the Jameson Distillery for the last tour of the day!!! (Even though it started about 20 min before it says it does on the website) Definitely a high point of the weekend for me. Unfortunately, whiskey is not made at this (original) location - it is all made in the south of Ireland, in Midleton. The tour guide we had wasn’t that good, i.m.o. The champagne cave tours were much better - more informative and more interesting since you were seeing actual bottles aging. But, the tour came with a tasting at the end, and thank goodness there were less women on the tour because 4 men and 4 women could volunteer for the ‘special’ tasting which meant : 1 dram Jameson, 1 of Johnnie Walker Black and 1 of Jack Daniel’s. I don’t like scotch and I don’t care much for JD, so obviously I liked the Jameson! Marissa and I both bought whiskey and souvenirs in the shop so then went back to the hotel to drop off our purchases.
We went back into the city using the new tramway system and wandered around a little - we walked into the courtyard of Trinity College (reminded me of the inner courtyards at Yale) and along Temple Bar. This is definitely a capital city, a tourist city, and a university city. It was very crowded and to me, it just didn’t have much of a ‘feel’ to it. I feel like the Liffey River that runs through the city really cuts it in half and doesn’t make it feel like it has a united city centre.
We had dinner at an Italian place then ventured along Temple Bar until we found a pub that wasn’t obscenely crowded - we got seats at the window and enjoyed our Jameson while people watching - which was definitely in top form due to the number of stag and hen party groups out and about!
We made it a semi early night because we had a 07:05 train the next morning to Galway.
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