A tee-totaller goes to the Guinness Storehouse
Yes- there is some irony there, but it did happen, coinciding with a visit to Dublin yesterday.
I concluded that if I am not a fan of an Irish Guinness, then I don't think I'll ever be. This may bar me entry back into the country, on top of the fact that I didn't get the hype around Tayto's (should be hyping up O'Donnell's crisps instead), but asides from that, it's fair to say that Guinness is not the drink for me. Having said that, the experience itself was excellent- one of the best immersive experiences I've had. I can highly recommend it, even if you don't drink- there were even some young kids there, who looked sullen when told that they could not have a sample.
You join me whilst I am (well, as of yesterday) sailing over the Irish Sea back to Blighty, milking the amount of data left from my eSIM. But, there'll be no more talk of milk in this blog post, as there will be talk of a different drink, instead. But more on that later.
It was my first time in the Irish capital, and in hindsight, we'd not left a good enough amount of time to peruse it, but, we did what we could in the given time.
After arriving at Connolly Train Station, we remarked on how quiet it was for such a central station. The quietness continued as we walked alongside the River Liffey, but the fact that it was Easter Sunday in a heavily religious country could well have played a part.
We sauntered at a leisurely pace towards the Guinness Storehouse, passing through one of Dublin's most renowned tourist traps (*cough, areas, even), walking past the legendary Temple Bar itself and not going into pay an extortionate amount for a drink. Still, in spite of how the area is geared towards tourists, it does still maintain a degree of authenticity as you get the feeling that the majority of the pubs there have been around for generations. It does look aesthetically pleasing, too.
On our way through Temple Bar, we stopped in at the National Library of Ireland, as they had a free exhibition on Live Aid, which was a good way to kill a bit of timez and educate myself a bit more as (despite my not so youthful appearance), I wasn't around in 1985.
Alas, we arrived at the Guinness Storehouse about 15 minutes earlier than our allocated time slot, but were still let in. Now I don't profess to be a drinker of Guinness, in fact, I'd never had one in my life, but there was still some allure about going to the factory.
In it's most basic form, you're given entry to the Storehouse which comes with a complimentary pint at the end, and for the tee-totallers like myself, you can also get Guinness 0.0 at the bar. Although the tour is self-guided, you're given a brief explanation of the site's history, and the stages of the tour by an employee. After learning about the way Guinness is made through its interactive displays, you head up to the tasting room, where you get a complimentary shot of Guinness. Panic started to develop- do I temporarily revoke my non-drinking credentials for the sake of the tour? In the end, I did, because otherwise, it would have been #fomo. Plus, to add to this, before you could drink your shot, you were taken into a room replicating a room in Arthur Guinness's (the founder) house. Here, you were told how to drink a Guinness in the style of the testers, who from memory, meet every day at 10am to sample a lot of Guinness from a batch to see if it's drinkable. Anyways I drunk it, and it reminded me a bit of a cider I'd tasted at a Wassail once, which probably goes to show my lack of alcoholic expertise.
 |
| An indoor hop field |
You also get to see the effect that the factory has had on the local community and got to see some adverts from bygone days, such as a moving fish on a bicycle. To the uninitiated, yes, you did read that correctly- a moving fish on a bicycle.
Finally, after ascending seven levels, you reach the bar, with it's excellent panoramic views of the city on one side, and the impressive Wicklow mountains on the other. And of course, you can receive your free drink here. Not wanting to stray too much from my teetotal tendencies, I went for the non-alcoholic version. Needless to say, it was arduous to get through it, and there are several pics to show the stages of my distaste towards the drink.
 |
| Think the reactions speak for themselves |
We'd realised that we still had a bit of time to see another attraction, so not too far away was Dublin Castle, famed for being the venue where Irish presidents are sworn in, amongst other things. We only had an hour tops to see it, but that was enough, for what was on offer. It's certainly a good way to kill some time at a not too expensive rate, and the actual hall itself where the swearing-in ceremony takes place was mightily impressive.
 |
| The hall in question |
After saying that we'd avoid the tourist traps, we went to Temple Bar for scran in a Milano restaurant, which, for any Brits/Scots, I assume to be Ireland's version of Pizza Express. It was typically, a solid meal and concluded our day in Dub, as we retreated back to Connolly station for the train back to the Parkway.
As with Belfast, and the North Coast, we found ourselves wishing we had more time in Dublin, as there was definitely something much more to see than what we covered. But, hey, at least it's not a million miles away distance-wise, so could well be cause to do an extreme day trip in the future :)
'Til next time,
Tom :)
Comments
Post a Comment