Pints of Guinness Make You Strong

Sometime next March, my roommate Andy, myself and any other soldiers we can recruit will be embarking on a quest of mythical proportions. The Spring Break Hot Dog Tour of America will bring happiness and joy to us brave few... the ones who are ready and willing to eat at least three hot dogs a day from three different cities across the Eastern part of America for an entire week. The HAWTDAWG'08 tour is truly the most exciting trip one could imagine. However, my recent trip to Ireland was a very close second.

Booking a plane for a 6:30am departure allowed us to see Liverpool in all its glory at an ungodly hour. We picked up a cab at 4:30 and headed to Jon Lennon International Airport. The absolute best part about drinking pints of Guinness at an airport in Liverpool at 5:00 am is that there are tons of other people doing the same thing.



We touched down at sunrise in Dublin after a 35 minute flight. We took a bus to the city centre and stopped at a cafe to purchase some much-needed caffeine. As we paid our 4 euro for coffee, Brock and I realized that Dublin was going to be quite expensive for a couple of students on a fixed budget.



After breakfast we wandered around the city trying to find our hostel. We were lost for about two and a half hours, which gave us time to see a lot of Dublin. The city is absolutely beautiful. People actually smile as they pass, the architecture is great, and traditional pubs line every street. After a few episodes of Scrubs at the hostel, we wandered back through the city. We hopped from pub to pub for the remainder of the day, with a few tourist stops in between. We checked out the Guinness Storehouse, but instead decided to take the tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. The tour guide was hilarious and I learned a lot about whiskey... and about how passionately Irish whiskey-makers despise Scottish whiskey-makers. We hung out around the Temple Bar area for the rest of the night, drinking pints of Guinness with the innumerable other tourists.








Dublin was fantastic, but we wanted to check out a smaller Irish city, so the next afternoon we took a two hour train ride to Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a small city built around an old castle. We arrived in the evening and booked a night at a nice bed and breakfast. It even included hundreds of giant spiders lining the walk to our room! After we were settled in, we went out. For a town of around 9,000 people, Kilkenny has a great nightlife. There were tons of pubs flooded with people, live music and of course, Guinness. We watched the England/Austria soccer match at one of the best pubs I have ever been to. The little pub, lined with brick archways, played amazing music through the whole game. Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Meat Loaf, the Ronettes, Prince, CSS... nothing was missing except some Springsteen.








The next pub we visited was full of locals doing karaoke and a bachelorette party. Apparently everyone in Ireland can sing. It was pretty impressive. It was really cool hearing everybody sing along to traditional Irish songs. I wish I would have known the lyrics. At the final pub we went to, we met an archaeologist, a software engineer who had met River freaking Phoenix, and a couple who stayed across the street from us when we were in Vegas in April. The place had an awesome terrace where we almost got thrown up on - but no worries, they had a bucket of water to clean it up. There was live music and happiness all over the place. Irish people are amazing.






The next morning we visited Kilkenny castle. While we were waiting for the tour, we met a woman who was an alumnus of U of I. The castle was extremely beautiful and the tour was pretty entertaining. I'm pretty sure I want to live in a castle when I'm older (that's a hint if anyone wants to buy me a Christmas gift). We walked around Kilkenny checking out the old buildings and cathedrals until our train left back to Dublin.


That night, the weather decided to be uncooperative. The rain, wind and cold forced us to stay close to our hostel. We did most of our Christmas shopping for our families (Tommy and Maggie got some righteous gifts), then headed out to some of the bars we hadn't checked out the first night in Dublin. I wanted to go to Cassidy's but we never got around to it. Every time I walked by it, I thought about the Kerouac novel Maggie Cassidy.

First, we went to a hotel bar where they were showing the Euro 2008 qualifier soccer matches. Poland was playing Belgium with a chance to qualify for the first time. Dublin has a big Polish population, and there was a ton of Polish fans watching the game. They won 2-0 and the crowd went crazy. It was pretty entertaining.






We headed back to Temple Bar, and it was packed again. We met two girls from Australia who were studying abroad in Nottingham, which was pretty cool. We went to a few more bars with some English people we had met, then called it a night. Back at the hostel, we met a girl from Kansas and a boy from Canada who are living in Dublin for a work abroad program. They were really cool and it was interesting to hear an outsider's opinion of living in Dublin. I don't know how they can afford it. Right after someone changed the channel (if anyone knows the ending of Shark episode #14, let Brock know), we took off. The only part of the trip that remained was the part that is becoming second nature - wake up, pack, airport, wait, fly, home.


All in all, Ireland is an amazing place. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys relaxing, taking things as they come and having some drinks along the way. I really can not wait to go back when I have real money to spend, and I'm old enough to rent a car - checking out some of the really small towns would have been amazing.