We arrived at Dublin airport in the middle of the afternoon. Expecting some Irish weather, we were surprised to find clear blue skies. We passed through customs quickly but had to wait a spell for our luggage due to some unknown delay. After that, we caught a taxi into town to our accommodation—conveniently selected to be walking distance from the Guinness factory.
Once we dumped our gear, it was time to go explore. Jake’s cousin Connor was studying in Dublin and was just finishing his exams. We planned to meet up with him for dinner but still had a couple of hours to kill. We did a bit of a pub crawl, just trying to get a feel for the scene. We met up with Connor at a burger joint for dinner, then followed his lead as he took us on another pub crawl through Dublin. We hit up Temple Bar, which was jam-packed and had some awesome live music. We moved on to The Celt, which was much quieter and had a great guitarist playing. We stayed there for a couple before walking Connor back to his bus stop. We managed to fit in one more pub—Bruxelles—before finishing up for the night.
The next day we went out for breakfast at a café near the accom before splitting up. Jake headed off to see more of Dublin and I… went to the Guinness Factory.
Just a short walk away, I made my way to what is essentially a district filled with many brewery buildings. The main one, however, was my goal. I’d booked a connoisseur experience, which started off with a small group tasting in a classy, speakeasy-style room. The bartender was super knowledgeable and gave really good banter. The group tried four different brews before finally learning to pour our own. I didn’t do too bad considering I’ve never really tended a bar. We were awarded a certificate of completion, which was rather humorous, and I left to complete the self-guided tour. Five levels of very well-designed features talked about all aspects of the brewing and history of the company. I wasn’t aware how innovative the Guinness brand had actually been, or how quickly it spread throughout the world. With my poured pint in hand, I wandered each floor before finishing with yet another pint in the Gravity Bar way up on level 7, where you had a 360° view of Dublin. Very cool tour.
I semi-reluctantly left the factory and met up with Jake. Our last night travelling together, he took me to a very nice bar called Spitalfields. The food was epic—I tried a few things I’d never even seen on a menu before. Very, very tasty food. The winner was a giant chicken and leek pie, closely followed by the bone marrow mashed potatoes. We went for a stroll to walk off dinner, and after a final review of a few more pubs, we headed back to the accommodation.
The next morning I was up early and off to pick up a car to continue my journey in Ireland.
Massive shout out to Jake—three weeks on the road can test anyone’s patience, but we got through it with laughs, good stories, and zero dramas. Couldn’t have asked for a better travel mate. Cheers, mate. You’re a bloody legend.
