Thursday, April 30, 2009

My Goodness, My Guinness!!

Second day in Dublin Ireland!! The first thing I did was eat a traditional Irish breakfast which includes toast, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and some kind of pudding - I of course left the mushrooms, tomatoes and pudding to themselves.... eeww hahaha so really it was a normal breakfast. Then I hoped on a city tour bus and took it to the Guinness factory! http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx The interior of the Guinness store house is shaped like a 7 storey pint of Guinness and if it were filled with Guinness it could hold something like 14.3million pints which is what the entire world drinks in beer in a day and a half. They had a really neat graphic wall surrounding you like looked like Guinness was actually being poured all around you it was pretty cool. The tour of the place was self guided with a map you followed around with arrows on the floor and interactive tv screens every where you went it was great . With your entrance ticket of course you also got a coupon for a pint of Guinness if you wanted or any other drink, but really who would want anything else if they are at the original Guinness Brewery from 1759!!! Funny thing about the acres of land that Guinness owns right in downtown Dublin when Arthur Guinness first signed the lease for this land he made it out for 9,000 years!!!!! and this year they are now celebrating 250 of brewing!!! they have 8,750 years left on their lease at this location! its unreal really!! They teach you the whole process of how they brew the beer and then on the 6th floor you get to learn how to pour your own perfect pint of Guinness but as I'm about to do it I get told that if I pour my pint on the 6th floor I dont get to drink it on the 7th floor where the bar is, so of course I skipped the pouring and headed up to the 7th floor. The 7th floor is the head/foam of the beer and is circular and all glass giving a full 360 view of all of Dublin and is full of tons of people! I take a few pictures, hand my ticket in and watch my first official Guinness being poured. I'm a bit worried at this point as I've never enjoyed in a Guinness before, but when in Rome!! The bartender hands it to me and informs me to properly enjoy it I have to let it sit for 2 minutes to let it set. I find the only seat left in the place, wait my two minutes and drink one of the best Guinness's I've ever had! It was great!
After the Guinness tour I hoped back in a city tour bus and went to the IMMA (irish museum of modren art) and quite frankly it was quite lame and didn't compare to the Tate in London at all! After that I did some more city bus touring and went to Pheonis park which holds the Dublin Zoo this park is so huge it has over 300 dear and could hold two New York Central Parks in it!! It is also where the Irish President lives from what I could figure out and where the US diplomat lives. Sweet place to live thats for sure! I did some more city touring and some gift shopping then went to bed early as I had to get up for my trip to kiss the blarney stone the next day!!!

2 comments:

  1. The Guinness Factory tour was a highlight of my stay in Dublin... such a cool place. The view was amazing on the top! The Guinness tastes so much better there as well.

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