Day 4

our fourth day in Ireland:

We woke up really late this morning because Shawn and I had a late night. I don't think our bodies have got use to the time change, being that it is still light at 10pm and that at 2am it is 8pm in Texas. We weren't able to sleep.

So we wake up late and are starving. We ask the host for a traditional Irish food restaurant, and he marks 3 places on our map, so naturally we get lost. We thought we were going to one restaurant and ended up walking 15 extra min away from where the restaurant actually was. We turn around and when we arrive it is about €20 a plate, so we aren't doing that! Then we are reminded that a man named Ollie we met at the airpot suggested the elephant castle. We are just around the corner, so we go there.

Ok, I havent yet mentioned how cold it is outside. We are freezing! Everyday that we had been in Ireland thus far has been perfect weather. The one day we chose not to wear long sleeves, it is freezing raining. So we were walking around for about 30 min before we got into a heated place. 

We eat at the elephant castle. Shawn had a temple bar omelet with avocado and I had a chicken club sandwich with curry mayo. My sandwich came with 5 triangle slices which I didn't finish and Shawn cleaned his plate. It was good food, and a nice place to sit in.  

After eating we decided to go to trinity college because we had not visited this area yet. We got there too late to walk on campus or in the library to see the book of kells. This has been a theme for us throughout Ireland. So we stopped at the tourism office to make sure the Guinness factory would be open for us to tour. It was and so we took a bus ride over to the brewery.

When we got there, it almost felt like we were visiting Willy Wonka's Chocolalte Factory. Remember how plain and closed off the factory was on the outside, this is what the brewery looked like to us. We walked a long route around to the back of the building and almost snuck in through the exit, though we didn't know that's what it was. Finally we got in and escaped the cold weather. Walking through the brewery was cool. The design of it was very masculine with pewter and wood accents. They were also very advanced in technology. As a teacher, I also appreciated that the tour explored all 5 senses. We saw, smelt, felt and heard about all the ingredients used to make guinness: hops, barley, water, and roasted barley. And finally we tasted the product. We were allowed a free sample of Guinness draught. And then we exchanged our ticket voucher for a free pint of Guinness in the upstairs cafe.   Upstairs we could view the whole city from the sky view cafe. It was beautiful to see all the monuments and churches of Ireland. 

After the Guinness brewery we decided to go to a restaurant my good friend Laura recommended, the canal bank cafe for hot wings. We had to take 2 busses and cross the canal to get there. We also had not been to this part of town, which was less touristy. The restaurant looked very nice. One thing I have noticed in Ireland is that all the seats are really close together. If you are a couple sitting together you are sitting so close to the next couple almost at a distance like a 4 seat table in the US. The wings were too die for!! There was plenty for us to eat. Thanks Laura. I will continue to recommend this place to anyone traveling to dublin. 

After dinner we decided to walk back to whelans pub to see the upstairs part. The first night we went to whelans it was closed and I didn't recognize the area to what I saw in ps I love you, so I thought maybe upstairs would look like it. It didn't. I guess that's Hollywood for you. Things aren't like they are in the movies. 

After a long afternoon we head back to the hotel and hit the sack for our last day in Ireland.