Day 9 - Dubin

Our first full day in Dublin was spent hitting the major tourist attractions. First on the list, Guinness. We had been told that the Guinness Storehouse fills quickly so get there early. The Guinness Storehouse and manufacturing buildings are on a campus called St. James and as soon as you start approaching the location you can begin to smell yeast (anyone who has been around fermentation knows the smell).

Arthur Guinness (wait, it might be Sir Arthur) signed a 9000 year lease with Dublin for this worn down property back in 1759 for 45 pounds per year. Crazy huh?
The lease:

The Guinness Storehouse is of a museum with lots of information and history about Guinness.
Water is brought in from the mountains, not the nasty river Liffy.

Ahh Kris and I in front of the water:

The tour progresses up 7 flights and ends in the sky bar. The bar serves a complimentary beverage and gives a 360 degree view of Dublin.
The best view in Dublin:

Kris drinking the freshest pint he'll ever taste (no Guinness served in the sky bar is over 5 days old):

Although the tour was fun, this is what I really would have liked to see:

After spending the morning at Guinness, we headed to the Dublin Zoo. At the zoo we got a glimpse of what life for the Payer's will soon be like; bratty kids and exhausted parents. OH and the reason we went, the animals:


At the gorilla exhibit there was this little boy and his mum. The gist of the conversation went like this (in English accents):
Boy - Mummy what is that gorilla eating?
Mummy - Oh probably a bit of grass
Boy - No Mummy, he is eatting his poo
HE TOTALLY WAS:

After the zoo, we tried to visit St. Michan's church to see the mummies but it was closed. We then headed to the original Jameson whiskey factory for another tour. Jameson has since moved its operations to southern Ireland but the original factory is interesting to visit. I did not take any pictures of the tour because at this point I can make malted Irish Whiskey (triple distilled) in my sleep. BUT Kris was selected at the beginning of the tour to have a taste test at the end to put his newly found knowledge of the differences between Jameson, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker to the test:

Too much whiskey:

For dinner that night, we went to a place called The Church. It is a resturant that was converted from an old church:

Kris ordered bangers and mash. I was amazed because this place actually had a PASTA on the menu (in cream sauce). I gobbled it down before I had the opportunity to take its picture.

I wonder if children in Ireland fear leprechauns the way children in the US fear clowns?

Day 8 - Dublin

• We awoke Friday morning to rain, lovely. Kris and I had enough of Belfast and could not wait to haul ass out of there, as Kris said, he has had "enough of Belfast for a lifetime". We decided that on the way to Dublin we would stop at Newgrange, a burial tomb estimated to be over 5000 years old. It is a prehistoric site that during the winter soltice a beam of sunlight shines throw a small window near the entrance. Like many attractions in Ireland, it was hidden in the hills next to farm land and livestock. We finally thought that we had made it and went to enter and found out that the tour tickets had to be purchased 10km away and that a bus takes you up. At this point we were tired and needed to get to Dublin so we just got a couple of shots from a distance.

Newgrange in the hillside. Horses grazing next to a national treasure.

We finally made it to Dublin and checked in our hotel located in the Christchurch area. After dumping our bags it was time to return the car. Kris was pretty pysched to get rid of the car, and I really could not blame him. Driving in Dublin on a Friday afternoon was pretty stressful. When we arrived at the drop off location I complained about the navigation system not working due the outlet being busted and was refunded the enter $150E to rent the navi plus the $87E they charged if the tank was not full upon return (seriously NO PETRO stations in Dublin).

It was nice to walk around the city and we made our way to the Visitor's Center to buy Hop on/Hop Off bus tickets and take a tour. Later that night we went to dinner and enjoyed some live Irish music and dancing.



What is wrong with this picture?

Day 7- Part 2 Tall Ships

After the Black Taxi Tour we were off to the Harbor Festival to see the Tall Ships. Belfast was the last stop on the race and I had high hopes for the festival especially after being so bummed from the mornings downer tour.

BUT the festival was just like ones you would find in the states (Enfield natives, think Mt. Carmel):

Bad Food (P.S. they love their gummies in the UK)

Cheesy Rides

BUT there were Tall Ships:


After walking around the festival for a bit and exploring the downtown area further we retreated to West Belfast to take a nap. Later that night we stopped in a local pub so Kris could enjoy a Guinness. The pub had something that I never had seen before, snugs. They were bar booths with a door that could be shut for privacy. Since we were in the heart of the former IRA, we could only imagine the conversations that took place in the very snug we sat at.

Tomorrow it is off to our final destination, Dublin.

Day 7 - Part I - Black Taxi Cab Tour

Prior to going to the Belfast Harbor Festival and seeing the Tall Ships we took a Black Cab Taxi tour which was arranged by our B&B host. I guess some of the BCT tours bring you to famous parts of the city but ours was 100% The Troubles. Our driver/tour guide picked us up and was excited because most tourists are in the city center area while we, it turns out were in West Belfast, a location which is all Catholic and was the heart of the IRA in Belfast (which I was unaware of when I booked the rooms). So instead of taking us to the couple of famous murals that he would typical END a tour with, he started out by taking us to murals and notable areas (AKA murder locations) not typically seen by tourists because we were starting th in a area that was such a hotbed of activity.

A few turns into the tour and we were at murals like these:

A couple of streets from our B&B (1st mural dedicated to the women of the IRA). The tour guide was literally forcing us to take pictures in front of the murals. I was extremely uncomfortable, can you tell?




The tour guide also brought us to a Catholic cemetery in West Belfast with graves from IRA volunteers and notable people from the murals. Although he encouraged us to take pictures, I do not feel that it is respectful to post them plus I was not really comfortable taking them in the first place. Then he took us to a strictly Loyalist neighborhood.
Seriously get us outta here!

FYI the murals have to be kept up routinely due to vandalism. The tour guide proceeded to educate us about The Troubles and how the Catholics (or Republicans) in Northern Ireland (who are the minority) struggled (struggle) for equality with the Protestants (or Loyalists) in Northern Ireland (although I am not sure that religion and party are 100% mutually exclusive). Although The Troubles supposedly ended in the 90's, violence and uprisings were still frequent into the 2000's. The wounds are fresh and the fences are still up. I am not going to go into detail but if you ever want to ask me about the tour, please go ahead. Kris and I both recognize that the tour guide was not neutral (how could he be, he was Catholic, grew up in West Belfast, and had family involvement in The Troubles) but we appreciated hearing history that we were not taught about in school. In fact, according to the tour guide, the Irish in Northern Ireland are not taught about it in schools either (remember Northern Ireland is part of the UK). In addition to the murals serving as memorials, they serve as a opportunity to teach the youth about their history. There are hundreds of murals throughout Belfast.

FYI - The "famine" is called The Great Hunger in Ireland. During the time of the blight and horrible starvation, Ireland was still exporting crops, cattle, and pigs to England to pay their landlords. Poor farmers primarily lived off of potatoes to feed their own families and when the blight came, they did not have access to food. Prior to The Great Hunger the population of Ireland was roughly 8 million but due to starvation, disease, and emigration it has never recovered and is roughly 4 million people.

Day 6 - Antrim Coast and Belfast

We left Bushmills to go to Belfast but stopped at a couple places first on the north Antrim coast. First Dunluce castle:

Next we stopped at Carrick-a-rede to see the coast and cross the rope bridge

Wild blackberries growing by the cliffs:

As we approached the rope bridge we climbed down two massive sets of steep stone stairs. Many feared the impending walk across the bridge, I feared climbing back up those stairs.

Walk the plank!

Probably not recommended by What To Expect

The views were spectacular:

The ride along the coast (the North Channel) was fabulous and sometimes it looked more like the Caribbean then the Atlantic:

We reached Belfast and checked into our B&B. Definitely the least glamorous that we've encountered in our journeys (think boarding house, not B&B) but the owner had received positive reviews on Tripadvisor. Also it was tough finding a good selection of B&B's in Belfast......hmmmmm should this have been a warning?

We unload our stuff and started our 15-20 minute walk into city center. The first thing that I noticed about Belfast was not the spray paint, not the murals, but the fences. So much so that in my mind I was calling it "Belfence". BIG massive fences surrounding everything; the police station, a school, the hospital, the soccer fields. And not wooden or chain linked fences, IRON fences with spade tops and additional razor wire to top them off. Prior to arriving in Belfast we only had a superfical understanding of the city (Titanic was built there and The Troubles had ended a few years ago, right?) but seeing all the fences was not giving us a warm and welcoming feeling.

We got to the city center area and explored a bit. There was a lot of construction going on and you can tell money is being poured into the city.
The new mall's crazy staircase:

The Titanic memorial (under a cheesy ferris wheel):

What's wrong with this picture?