There is no place in the world quite like the city of Dublin. The sheer amount of Guinness I drank that weekend is staggering. Did the math and it was about 7,5 liters…..I regret nothing. I’m half Irish and my BAC while in the mother land should reflect that.

First, the city!

These are some buildings which line the River Liffey in the center of town. On one side you’ve got the Millenium Spire and on the other you’ve got Grafton St. and the Temple Bar area, which has amazing nightlife.

^ Millenium Spire

Someone once told me that when traveling, your pictures will be of much greater value to you if there are people in them. So, here’s me obnoxiously obstructing the Millenium Spire. It ain’t easy being beautiful, folks.

I can’t lie, I didn’t arrive in Ireland with extremely high expectations for the food. My mother’s Irish and I grew up on beef stew and mashed potatoes. But I gotta say, when executed well, the no-frill meat and potatoes (ha-ha, literally…) basis of Irish cooking impressed me. Of course, if we were able to eat at some fine dining places I might have been able to get a better perspective of the culinary scene, but that city is expensive as hell. Had to stick to mid-range restaurants.

My first Guinness in Ireland! DEFINITELY notably different than any other pint of Guinness I’ve had. Much more creamy and malty.

This is coddle. I know it’s not the most photogenic food, but it’s a classic Irish meal and it’s damned good. It’s stew with house made pork sausage, onion, potato, carrot, and rashers (thinly sliced fatty bacon.) It’s usually made with veg stock (although this tasted more like chicken stock) with a healthy splash of Guinness during cooking. Traditionally, coddle was usually eaten on Thursdays to use up the remaining sausage from the week since the Catholics couldn’t eat meat on Fridays.

This beauty is a Guinness beef pie from Murray’s. The food there was really hardy and reasonably priced. Service was friendly too. Out back they have a big outdoor area for drinking. But beware of creepy old Irish guys on the prowl there at night. The pie was a loosely bound mixture of tender braised beef, peas and carrots on the inside topped with piped mashed potatoes. The best part was the jus they served on the side. Came with a side of carrots and peas, cost about 8 euro.

Finally…The Guinness Brewery!!!

We learned about the basic steps that go into brewing beer:

Ingredients (Barley, hops, water, yeast) Milling: Barley is crushed into “grist” Mashing: Grist is mixed with hot water and then mashed Separating: Removing grain and keeping the sweet wort Boiling: With the addition of hops and roasted barley Fermentation: Mixture is cooled, yeast is added, and left to ferment for days Maturation Packaging Drinking 🙂

I think hops are one of the prettiest plants ever.

This is the picture I snapped of myself enjoying my complimentary pint while in the Gravity Bar way atop Dublin and sent to some friends back home to make them jealous and bitter. It worked 😉

Dubliners are awesome. Almost everybody is welcoming, wants to tell you where to get the cheapest pint, the heartiest food and the prettiest women (but really, it’s true!)

When you go to Dublin, if you go out with friends and have a couple pints, you will dance with groups of people you’ve never met before, you will sing to Irish songs you don’t know the words to, you’ll buy strangers pints Guinness and have pints bought for you, and you will take a page from the Irish and loosen up a bit.

Cheers!