The Emerald Isle: East Coast
Now a trip to Ireland just wouldn’t be complete without spending time in historic Dublin. This was our last stop in Ireland and our last stop overseas before we returned to the U.S. for a week-long break to attend a wedding in New Orleans and see family in Austin. Dublin certainly didn’t disappoint and was a great mix of sights and activities along with some forced downtime (more on that later).
On arrival by bus from Galway, we checked into our Airbnb located on the north side of the river in the Stonybatter neighborhood. This was probably the largest Airbnb we had stayed in so far and turned out to be very comfortable and hurricane-proof. Our two goals that day were to make our way to Teeling Distillery and then find a place to watch the UT vs OU Red River Shootout! It was 15:00 in Ireland and OU STILL SUCKED!
After a quick stop at the chippy for a late lunch (this is where you can quickly get some cheap fries and other snack foods), we made our way to the Liberty district or “Golden Triangle,” known for once housing 37 distilleries. Back in the day, this area was just outside Dublin and was not subject to any of the king’s rules — thus, it was a free area where artisans and craftsmiths could LIVE THEIR LIFE. As evidenced by the number of distilleries, their life included lots of whiskey!
Fun fact: the proud Irish like to differentiate their spirit from scotch with the added ‘E’ in whiskey.
Teeling Distillery is unique in that it is the first new distillery producing spirits within Dublin proper in almost 50 years. Most went out of business or moved out of Dublin back in the 1920s. Teeling is now riding the Irish whiskey renaissance in which Irish whiskeys are seeing a boom and once again growing in worldwide popularity. Because Irish whiskey needs to be matured for 3 years and 1 day (take THAT, Scotland), they will be releasing their first new batch — the first to be distilled in Dublin in 75 years — in mid 2018. We found this all very interesting and were able to take a few photos:
On to the second objective: we needed to find a place to watch the game! This turned out to be much more difficult than it should have been. NCAA football played second (or third, or fourth) fiddle to premier league and rugby. We first landed at the The Woolshed Baa (that is not a typo) to await kickoff and ran into some like-minded fans also hoping for the game. Unfortunately, the bar wouldn’t work with us and so began an adventure around the city that ended in our small group tracking down a TV at the Living Room. Picture a hopping night club packed with people and six lonely UT fans crowded around a TV! And so ended our night with a disappointing loss but with many an uplifting pint.
We groggily awoke the next morning and headed to brunch at PHX Bistro before walking to the Guinness Storehouse. Picture the Willy Wonka factory, but with beer instead of candy. There was a 6-floor exhibit on the making and marketing of one of the world’s most famous beers and an area where we learned how to pour the perfect pint! We are basically experts now, and enjoyed our pint on the rooftop bar with an amazing 360 degree of Dublin.
After the tour, we feasted on beef and Guinness stew before wondering where all of our time went. It was already 4:00pm! So we hustled to a few other notable attractions: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and the Temple Bar as the sun began to set. Now starting to feel the long day on our feet and the overall rigor of our travels, we decided to call it an early night in order to prepare for oncoming Hurricane Ophelia, which was barreling towards Ireland.
Despite the fact that there was a FREAKING HURRICANE on the horizon, most of the locals seemed pretty chill about it, taking an “oh yeah, I guess there will be a hurricane tomorrow approach.” Note that hurricanes are definitely NOT typical for Ireland. We bunkered down that evening with some food and Sherlock episodes, not knowing what would come the next day.
With the hurricane winds not expected until noon, our morning consisted of gathering some basic necessities: coffee, water, donuts, pizza, ice cream… You know, all the things you would need to process either an especially ugly breakup or a hurricane. It was eerie walking the almost-deserted streets that had been bustling just a day before! But we had an agenda to keep, and so we battled the howling winds with more Sherlock episodes and a diet that would make our 6-year-old selves extremely happy.
Though the impact to Dublin was rather limited compared to the rest of the country, they faced over 70 toppled trees, lost a few roofs, and had a famous statue collapse (and then get stolen). Sadly, Cork and Galway had not been so lucky and had more severe damage and three lives lost. We did pop out of the apartment later in the evening and blew into a nearby pub where we found out how all the locals survived the storm: warm, happy, and full of Guinness!
All in all, the hurricane forced us to take our last day in Dublin pretty easy. This was a blessing in disguise since it wasn’t apparent how much we needed a day off. Traveling has been such a great experience but the pace started to catch up with us. I think we were very much ready and looking forward to our week-long escape back to the good old U.S. of A. Stay tuned!
GP