mmmm Jameson

We both awoke this morning about 5am after going to bed around 1am...so much for our theory about our sleep cycles being somewhat adjusted. Scott woke about 30 mins after me to go to the bathroom, and I took the opportunity to play a pretty clever little joke on him which involved getting into his bed while he was up. I’ll leave it at that for now. We both tried going back to sleep, but after a discussion about how we had literally experienced no history of the city, eventually just decided to get up and start our day. I haven’t personally started a day at 6am in years, so it a little bit strange. We didn’t have a sunrise until about 9:30 or so, which made being awake that early even more bizarre. We had traditional Irish breakfast downstairs at the restaurant which consisted of bacon, eggs, potatoes, pudding, fruits and good sized buffet for about 10 Euro. We came to the decision that we were going to see all major historical venues in the city, which ended up being a bit on the unrealistic side as soon as we set foot outside. We were hit with some seriously heavy snow and frigid temperatures, but we set out to get our Dublin day pass anyways. We ended up back at the hotel about 20 mins later to add additional layers of clothing.

We set out to our first destination, Kilmainhen Gaol, with our day pass and bus pass. We did more sitting in one spot than we did actually moving on bus since the Irish drive in the snow the way Californians do in the rain. We ended up walking for an additional 30 mins through snow, uphill. The Gaol is a prison built in the 1700’s and used as a county jail as well as a midpoint for prisoners being shipped to Australia. It was later used to house many of the Irish rebels during the revolutionary period. The first section wasn’t in the best shape, and they had to lock most of it up due to the amount of graffiti and damage done by visitors. The newer area was really an awesome sight...a well preserved open holding area that is used in quite a few films and was one of the first ‘modern’ prisons in terms of its open design and the way that affected the theory behind how prisoners were treated. The design is still seen today in many modern prisons.

Next we took the tram over to the Jameson whiskey distillery across the river. We took the tram this time. We ate a quick lunch, which turned out to be really good. Scott ordered chilli, which turned out to not resemble chilli whatsoever but was still delicious. The tour went through a recreated version of the old distillery. The current distillery I believe is now in Middleton. The tour itself was extremely cheesy, both in the staged rooms and the delivery of information. It reminded us of Knott’s Berry Farm. You don’t go to Knott’s for the realistic recreations of anything. The factual information of the tour on the other hand was actually pretty good. It gave us both a good refresher course on the process of whiskey making and answered some questions we both had before we could even ask them. It ended with some samples of different Jameson varietals. That made up for the disappointing tour. Scott even received an official tasting certificate for his role in the tasting at the end of the tour. We thought about buying a bottle that is only available at the distillery, but decided against it after tasting it. Before leaving, we looked at a display case that housed a 20+ bottle set of Reserve Whiskey, worth over 50,000 Euro. I’ll have my own set adorning my diamond studded fireplace someday.

We left mid-afternoon to go Cathedral hopping. We hit Christchurch cathedral first, which was a pretty impressive medieval and rather sizable church. We admired the stunning architecture, stained glass, master craftsmanship, and threw in a couple of unholy photos as is customary. We love you Jesus. The hymns being subtly played definitely added to the atmosphere. We realized we were running out of time, so we left after about 30 mins to hit the rest of the stops on our itinerary.

This leg of the trip didn’t go so well. We went to the Dublin castle, which is literally 30 seconds from our hotel and a must see in Dublin. Except that it was closed due to inclement weather. Really? 6 inches of snow? That’s cool; we’ve got bigger and better things on our list. Like City Hall...oh, that’s closed too? Chester Beatty library’s got to be open...nope. Well, we’re right around the corner from St. Patrick’s cathedral, which is TWICE as big Christchurch. How come no one seems to be in or around it? Oh, because it’s closed. I now have a newfound respect for the way Californian’s deal with poor weather, because it’s head and shoulders above the way the Irish dealt with a little bit of snow. Ok, well maybe it’s the worst storm they’ve had in 40 years. But good god, they weren’t prepared in the least for it. Everyone just kind of gave up on life and went home in sheer confusion at about 2pm.

There was only 1 stop left on our pass that was open past 5, so off we went to the National Wax Museum. I guess somewhere between the last time I went to a wax museum and today I forgot how flat out scared I am of being in them. My first indicator that we shouldn’t be inside happened right away, when I called Scott’s attention to a Barbara Bush figure inside the lobby. Except it wasn’t her. We were 2 of maybe 7 people in the entire museum, which didn’t help things for me. Scott seemed to be pretty entertained by it...especially when he had to beg me to take his picture inside one of the horror themed rooms. The whole place seemed kind of thrown together, and some of the figurines were just painted plastic. Nice try guys. We were about to leave when we stumbled into a green room. We quickly discovered that the attached computer, video camera and TV screen were the 3 missing ingredients for one of the best recreations of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’ that’s ever been done. Why this was on the top floor of a half-assed wax museum we may never know, but we’re sure glad it was. Scott has the video on his camera if anyone is interested. And you should be.

We decided to call it an evening and grabbed a hefty Doner Kebab and a can of beer each for dinner. We ate in the room while watching ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 days.’ Perfect ending to a not so perfect day.

**Update: Apparently the Entire UK is inept at dealing with snow, and so our plans seem to be up in the air at this point. Dublin airport is currently closed, and the airport in Frankfurt has been closed at times in the past couple of days, although it is opened now. Currently our flight status is On Time, but we suspect that may change tomorrow. Hopefully our Christmas isn’t like the thousands of people we’ve seen stranded across the UK and Europe. Cross your fingers for us!! Will update you ASAP**