We are back in Europe!! Well… at least Ireland to start. We just finished up 4 days overcoming our jetlag and seeing the sights of Dublin. This is a new country for Meg, but I had been here 35 years ago for a long weekend, during my study abroad experience in college. That was before the economic boom that Ireland recently experienced, so it really was a “new” place to visit for me. Dublin is now a modern European capital with a lot of museums and attractions but it is also quite expensive (one of the top 10 most expensive cities in Europe). Luckily, we were able to stay near our budget because we were staying in a home exchange instead of paying for a hotel or Airbnb. It was on the south side of town but we were able to see everything we wanted to by using the cities bus and tram system. It was nice to be in a quieter neighborhood and some of the non touristy Irish pubs.
Like we normally do in our travels, we started our stay with a “free” walking tour. We got to hear about the history and culture from a local tour guide while he showed us some of the downtown attractions, architecture and pubs that we should visit. It is a really clean beautiful town that had a lot going on.
The big attractions for us was the Guinness and Jameson tours. Both were in buildings that weren’t used for brewing or distilling anymore but we didn’t mind. We have seen a lot of beer and whiskey being made in our life. They did have a some good exhibits about their process, and their histories. The best part of course was the tastings at the end.
We also had visited a lot of Irish pubs on our own. We ate almost every lunch and dinner in a pub. We had many decent meals but they all had very similar menus. 4 days of pub food was probably enough. What we really wanted to see in the pubs was the live music. We know a lot of the Irish folk songs from listening to our friend’s Irish band in Seattle – the Stout Pounders, and were anxious to hear the real thing. We wandered around the Temple Bar neighborhood and heard many bands in packed pubs that were playing mostly American and English music with a few Irish songs every once in a while. It was very touristy and reminded us of Nashville’s music row or a piano bar in Vegas. We eventually found a Irish quartet that had what we were looking for. Traditional Irish music with a lot of real Dubliners in the audience instead of just tourists.
We did visit some other museums and our favorite was the EPIC museum (The Irish Immigration Museum). I have always been interested in why a small country of Ireland has so much cultural influence all over the world. An island of only 7 million people seems to have put an Irish pub in every tourist city, whether we are in Cambodia or Albania. This museum tries to explain some of that. There are over 70 million people with Irish descendancy in this world. This island has been through a lot during many different periods, and emigration caused by the potato famine in the 1840’s is just part of it. Lots of people were made tough by this island and it made them successful when they got to a new country. It is interesting to see that the country is going such through good economic times now that has led to more people moving to Ireland than leaving. It definitely feels like a thriving city.
Our trip is the first week of September and our trip won’t conclude until Mid-December. I am more comfortable wearing shorts every day so I have gambled by not bringing any long pants this fall. I figure I can buy jeans if I need to anywhere we are. So far, I have survived 4 days of 64 degree rainy Irish weather by just wearing shorts. We are heading to much hotter weather in Spain so I think I am going to make it! We are now headed off to Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain where the weather on arrival is 92 degrees! Hasta Luego!!!