Pennies for Sale: Ireland Day 8: Dublin

Today was one of my favorite days of the trip. We woke up and went straight to the Old Jameson Distillery for a tour and whiskey tasting. As you may have guessed, I had been look forward to this day since the trip was planned!

Despite my high expectations, I was not disappointed. I opened the front door and walked into heaven - a bar stocked with nothing but Jameson. I'm never going back to America.

I loved the tour here, even though we couldn't see where they made the whiskey. It was very educational, and our tour guide was so knowledgeable and passionate about whiskey, and the whiskey-making process, and he had a great personality. After the tour, we got to do a whiskey tasting, comparing Scotch, American whiskey, and Irish whiskey (Jameson, of course). The Irish whiskey was the best! We even got diplomas, to prove we are now certified whiskey tasters. We also got a free drink with Jameson in it - I tried cranberry and Jameson for the first time and, surprisingly, loved it!

After we were done, we got some free time to explore Dublin. We decided to walk from the Old Jameson Distillery instead of take the van, so we could get out and see the city. It was a bank holiday, so a lot of things weren't open. We walked to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, but the exhibit wasn't open. The campus was beautiful though.

The Dublin Marathon was also being run that day. It was pretty cool seeing everyone run through the streets of Dublin, and cheering them on.

It was a pretty rainy afternoon, but we put on our raincoats and continued walking the city. We are from Seattle after all - a little rain doesn't ruin our day. We went in search of Christ Church Cathedral, one of the oldest cathedrals in Dublin. It is believed that the cathedral was founded sometime shortly after 1028. It's stunning, and too large to fit in one good shot, especially while trying to protect a camera from rain, but here is my rainy attempt:

During our search for Christ Church Cathedral, we came across St. Audoen's Church, which was also pretty amazing. It is another quite old church in Dublin; it was built between 1181 and 1212.

We got hungry for lunch, and decided to check out the chipper that our driver, Paddy, had recommended. Leo Burdock has been serving fish and chips to Dubliners since 1916. It's a tiny little chipper, with barely room inside for two people to place their order. They throw handfuls of french fries onto a sheet of paper, plop fish down on top, cover everything with salt, pepper, and vinegar, wrap it all up in paper, and put it into a paperbag. There isn't anywhere to sit inside, so you have to stand outside and eat. The only problem was that it started absolutely pouring on us. We hunched down in the doorway of the pub next door and ate one of the best lunches I ever had. (It is the little doorway to the right in the picture below - just enough space to stand and keep our fish and chips dry!) If you look closely, you can see Joe in there ordering our fish and chips.

After we got done eating, we ducked into the pub next door, named the Lord Edward, to have a pint and wait out the rain. It was such a cozy little place. Here's a picture of where we sat to relax and wait out the rain.

The rain let up a little, so we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the night's festivities. We came across Occupy Dublin on our way:

Today also happened to be Halloween, which the Irish take very seriously. I think it is even more popular there than it is here. We honored the occasion by going on a haunted tour of Dublin. We snuck around outside Christ Church Cathedral, and ended up inside the gates of St. Audeon's, where we heard many ghost stories. I think I even caught an orb on film, where the ghost of the Green Lady lives! She is believed to be the ghost of Darkey Kelly, who was executed for the murder of her unborn child.