first day in dublin

So some of you may have guessed but after walking around a little bit we made our way over to the Guinness Brewery at St. James Gate. We took a few photos of the outside and then headed in for the self guided tour. The tour was okay and gave some insight to what goes into the Guinness making process which was cool. But I would say the coolest part of the brewery was then end of the tour for 2 reasons... first, we get a free Guinness! Second, the view from the 7^th floor was amazing. We got lucky and although it was cold and starting to drizzle some snow we could see all of Dublin. We chatted with a Dublin local who was working the bar and she gave us all kinds of cool information about the brewery and Dublin.

After talking to this lady we decided to head down to the 5^th floor where we met a guy from south Africa who as been living in Ireland for the past 7 or 8 years to make money and send it home to Africa to help out.... he said he makes more money here and even more when he gets to convert it to south Africa’s currency. He was a cool cat and he introduced us to the only Guinness that is not available in the USA. Its called foreign extra and has an alcohol percentage of just over 7 percent and is the only Guinness not propelled by nitrogen so it is a bit more carbonated. After chatting with him he poured matt and I some free pints of standard Guinness and had carved shamrocks into the head of the beer...dont you worry photos were taken! He was cool and even though they don’t usually get or accept tips we made him take one from us.

After the brewery and being slightly inebriated we decided to go to check out the modern art museum since it was close to St. James Gate. Neither of us were super impressed with what they had there...dont get me wrong some of it was cool but for the most part it was only okay. But hey, it was free so I cant really complain.

After the museum we headed back to the hotel for some dinner cause we were both starving... nothing foodie fancy to write about here but we were to the point where we didnt really care and just wanted to get some grub in us. After dinner and another few beers we went up to the room to relax before going out again and Oh yes!! As soon as we opened the door Matt’s bag made it and was sitting just inside our door which was awesome! There were really no setbacks because we packed some stuff on the carry on just in case!) The plan was to go out after kicking back for a few but ...um....well, lets just say only one of us made it past 6:30.. matt crashed out. I did let him sleep for an hour and then asked if he wanted to come out or stay in bed and he said he was too tired to go out which I don’t really blame him for since we hardly slept in the past day and half!

I went down to the pub connected to our hotel and grabbed a pint then realized I could jet across the street to do some updates so here I am. After I complete this post I will be heading back to the pub because they have some authentic Irish music starting in about five minutes. I am off for now and will maybe try to update tomorrow night if not the next day. Its cold not that the sun is down and a little snow is falling which I think is super cool (no pun intended). Ok well, im off for now. We are safe and having fun over here in Ireland but please send some warm thoughts J