Dublin

After our naps yesterday we headed out to see the city. Due to the fact that we woke up at about 4:00 we knew many tours would be ending soon, so we picked the latest open one which was the Jameson Old Distillery. Unfortunately when we arrived they were all sold out for the night. Instead, we decided to just walk around. It so happened that we ended up walking near many of the sights that we planned to see the next day.  It was nice to be able to get aquainted with the city before setting out the next day.  We ate dinner at a restaurant called Quay's Bar. I had the Quay's burger and Thom had fish and chips. Both were good.

After dinner we headed back to a pub next to our hotel because we saw a sign for live music. We ended up having some locals join our table and they reassured us that the places we plan on visiting are much worth it.  They told the musician that it was our honeymoon and the entire bar toasted to us--neat! The musician then played a song for us. Awesome.

Once we finished enjoying the traditional Irish music we headed over to McDonald's for a late night snack before heading to bed.

This morning we got a later start than what we wanted---dang jet lag again! Our first stop today was at a  restaurant called "La Pizzeria". I got a hawaiian pizza and Thom got a all carne one. We then went to a place called "The Church". It was an old church (where Arthur Guinness got married) and is now converted into a bar/restaurant/cafe. It was beautiful with an awesome organ.

 We then continued to the Old Jameson Distillery. It was a 30 minute tour with drinks at the end. Thom volunteered to be a taste tester and tested 3 different whiskys. One Jameson (obviously), One Jack Daniels, One Johnny Walker.  He said the best was Jameson because it was the smoothest.

Our next visit was to the Guinness Storehouse. It was 7 floors of history of Guinness--it was very cool.  My favorite part was the Gravity Bar at the top, it gave AMAZING views of Dublin.  Thom got a certificate for attending the "Guinness Academy" and learning how to poor the PERFECT pint of Guinness. 

Then we walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got there in time for the evensong.  Mom be proud--we went to church in Ireland! It was a little different than the services that we are used to, but the music was absolutely beautiful. The boys and men choir sang and it was breathtaking. 

We then made our way to St. Stephen's Green, a local park.  It was beautiful--and shocking how many people were out. I understand it is Friday, but my goodness, everyone came out! Apparently, they're having a hot spell (It has been about 70 degrees). We just did a quick walk through it so we had enough time to walk through Trinity College, our next stop. Trinity College was neat! We were too late to attend the tour of the Old Library and the Book of Kells, but we walked around. There was a cricket game going on so we watched that for a couple minutes. 

By this time we were both incredibly hungry so we headed back near the hotel to go to a restaurant recommended to us by people we met last night. It was called Murray's. Thom got a "Continental Burger" and I got a "Pepper and Blue Cheese Burger". Both were good. We were going to head to the same pub as last night, but found out that Murray's was going to have live music also, so we stayed there. It was awesome! Three men-guitar, accordian, and another instrument...not sure what it is called (flute but up and down--fancier than a recorder...) They were wonderful! They also had Irish Dancers. They seemed to be high school students, but they were phenominal at Irish Dancing. 

We headed back early to the hotel room so we can get up earlier tomorrow to head to Kilmainham Gaol and the long drive to Killarney.