Ireland did its best to prevent my Emerald Isle visit from even starting. As my plane tried to land in Dublin winds of over 100 km/h pushed it around to the point that the captain aborted the landing attempt. We circled Dublin for a while before it was decided that it would be safer to land up north in Belfast. Once on the ground we were greeted by slightly calmer winds (read an extreme amount of sarcasm in that statement) and buckets of rain that appeared to be flowing sideways. A two hour bus ride through the Irish country side en route to the Dublin airport would prove to be my only view of Ireland outside of its capital city. The almost 4 hour delay in arrival time meant most of the day and all of its daylight had passed me by. There was just enough time left in the evening to meet up with a friend (Julie) from a previous stop in Florence and enjoy my first pint of 100% authentic Guiness. The rain went away for the rest of my stay, but the wind hung around to remind me that summer weather had come to an end. I’ve received many tips on what to do while visiting different cities, but none as thorough as the e-mail I received from Katrina about Ireland. I spent two days checking off as many items from her list as I could, but it became apparent I would have to schedule another visit to the country in order to experience the things I missed. By the time I get home I will add at least 13 countries to the list of places I’ve visited, but the longer I’m gone the more obvious it is that it’s going to take me a long time to visit all 196 (http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm). On my independent walking tour I was able to explore Grafton St, St Stephen’s Gate park, Trinity College and the Book of Kells exhibit. I decided to skip the National Leprechaun museum (wasn’t on Kat’s list), although I was a bit curious as to what would be in a museum dedicated to something that doesn’t exist. Any idea what city is home to the National Unicorn museum? That evening myself and several others from the hostel headed downstairs to Doyle’s pub. After a few more Guiness and a conversation with a local bartender we were invited to attend a private birthday party in the basement of a bar called The Mezz. After an inspiring round of happy birthday for our new mate Slim an amazing cover band took the stage and proceeded to rock our faces off. I lost my voice to songs by Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Rage Against the Machine. Completely exhausted from a great night of live music I led our crew back to the hostel for a well deserved sleep. The next day I completed the mandatory tourist trip to the Guiness store room/brewery and earned my certificate as a master of the perfect pour. I expected the tour to be cheesy and over in an hour or so, but when I left the building 3.5 hours later I definitely didn’t feel that way. The history of the brewery is quite interesting and given the fact the facility has a 9000 year lease on the land it is bound to continue to make history for quite some time. No visit to Dublin would be complete without experiencing as many of the seemingly infinite number of pubs as possible. There is no better way to do that than on a pub crawl with 40 of your new best friends. The night lived up to its billing. More Guiness was consumed, live music was enjoyed and good times were had by all. The night ended with a bottle of wine at the Spire of Dublin and some fuzzy memories to be shared for years to come. The amazing evening faded into a not so enjoyable morning. After a rushed packing job and a longer than expected cab ride I did make my flight. Thanks for the good times Ireland, Sláinte!
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