How tall is a leprechaun? Green!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this enough times in my last post, but I went to Dublin this past weekend! I slept very little, I ate very much (shocker), and yes, I drank Guinness. We were only there for about 48 hours, but I can safely say Ireland is fantastic, as were the people we met! Here are the highlights:


The front of Dublin Castle


Dublin Castle


Christchurch Cathedral, where a priest with a weird sense of humor mummified a cat and mouse they found dead in an organ pipe. This is apparently very famous. Our tour guide also told us when the bodies were found, the mouse was just a little further up the pipe and the cat was reaching for it. Eternal frustration, no doubt.


Ha'Penny Bridge, named because they used to charge half a penny to cross it. According to the guide, if they re-implemented the charge, enough people cross the bridge daily that they could bail out the Irish economy by the end of the year. Something for Cowen to consider? We were also informed that the bridge was built by the same company that built the Titanic, but the guide waited to tell us that until after we'd safely crossed :)


O'Connell Street, one of the main avenues in Dublin. The pointy sculpture in the middle was donated by Bono. The locals affectionately refer to it as the giant heroin needle--a sad reference to the city's notorious drug problem.


The Guinness Factory--the first of many displays that had me appreciating Guinness like a true Irishman by the end of our tour


The lease on the Guinness factory is for 9,000 years (no joke), and the recipe is locked in a vault, but they do tell you that the fifth ingredient is legacy. After a pint at the top of the factory, I think legacy tastes better on site than it does in America.


Amber waves of grain--err, barley--now I know what Sting was singing about all that time!


It was interesting to learn about the brewing process, but even more interesting to see how Guinness has been advertised through the ages. I picked a pretty tame one here, but Liz found an even better one where the tagline is "Black is Beautiful." From there they only became cheekier.


Finally at the top of the factory, overlooking Dublin, we got to sample the brew we'd been hearing so much about. Guinness glamour shots ensued.


Each pint was topped with a four leaf clover


The Irish literary quotes coupled with views of the city went straight to my book nerd heart


Ulysses is one of the most difficult books I've ever read, but here it wasn't quite so hard to understand where Joyce was coming from :)


At the national leprechaun museum, where everything is big and you are small! This was tremendous, tremendous fun. Probably assisted by the fact that we stopped by the pub first. At the beginning of the tour, we noticed a couple of other older women who had obviously had a pint (or several) before their visit, and when the tour guide asked how tall a leprechaun is, one of the women shouted GREEN!


They say Americans suffer from portion distortion, but it turns out giants are much worse...


At the end of the tour we got to color and draw our own leprechauns. Liz and mine were so good, our guide hung them on the wall. They are placed directly between drawings done by a 7 and a 9 year-old. Mom and Dad, aren't you proud?!?!


We concluded our last night in Dublin at a pub that had a photo booth. The end products sum up our time in Dublin fairly well.

It was an incredible weekend followed by a crazy week! Two Rotary presentations (last night and tomorrow night), and then I'm headed to Oslo on Thursday! Stay tuned for pictures of cold but sunny Norway!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Love,
Jess