Pardon the interruption, dear reader. I got a bit busy with reading for classes and writing something that would actually be graded. (i.e. Not this blog. Unless you are keeping score at home... Am I getting an A? Or did I lose points for tardiness?)
Anyway, early the next morning we awoke in the hostel to find that we had neighbors! We had gone to bed being the only two people in our room of ten, since it was so early, but the room was nearly full when we woke up. Wanting to spend as little time as possible there, we quickly hurried off to...
Not much to note here, I only bring it up so I can introduce a trend in Dublin establishments. Our hostel was built off of an old church, so the dining hall where they served breakfast was once full of pews, and there was once an altar in the kitchen. So I suppose it still gives us this day our daily bread. Another entertaining piece of reconstruction, they put their pay-phones in the confessionals. Very clever. Anyway, keep an eye out for more churches that are not churches as our travels progress.
Writers Museum
In anticipation of this exciting stop on our Dublin Pass checklist, we got here early. So early, in fact, that they weren't open yet. So we wandered around a nearby park for a bit, then made it as two of the first people in the Museum. To be honest, this was a huge disappointment. I mean, I was excited to see all sorts of stuff about famous Irish writers, like Bram Stoker, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. Well, they had some things. But not very much on hand from the writers' actual lives. Mostly, it was just old copies of their books in glass display cases. Certainly, there must be some more entertaining way to learn about the literary lives of the Irish. (But more on that later.) Ultimately, the greatest find in the Dublin Writers Museum was upstairs in their children's literature exhibit, where I found a giant re-creation of a scene from "Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?" Classic. But, ultimately disappointed with our experience, we decided to try our luck with another literary site, traveling down the street to...
James Joyce Centre
Before discussing the Center itself, let's make one thing clear: Dublin worships this man. Seriously, he is everywhere. But what's most interesting of all is how dedicated they are to his character, Leopold Bloom, the main character of Ulysses. To give you an idea: There are plaques in the street marking various locations that Bloom stopped at over the course of the novel. There is a holiday celebrating the day that novel takes place. The James Joyce Centre boasts that they have the original door from No. 7 Eccles Street, Bloom's home in the novel. That's right. They have preserved the door of the home of a fictional character. I mean, to be fair, London did the same with turning Sherlock Holmes' house into a museum, but Holmes has actually received mail from fans who believe he truly exists. I don't think the same can be said for Bloom. Anyway, even seeing the factual door that was never opened by a fictional character did not make up for the let down that was the James Joyce Centre. Sure they recreated Joyce's bedroom and had some computers set up with a timeline of Joyce's real life and a breakdown of Ulysses, but other than that, there wasn't much going on. Thank goodness it was included in the Dublin Pass... I would have been upset if I'd paid for this. If I'm going to shell out three Euro, the door you show me better have been opened by someone who actually existed.
Wax Museum
Here we crossed paths with writers yet again! The first room in the Dublin-Pass-Included Wax Museum Plus featured wax figures of many of the writers we'd encountered earlier that morning. This was much more fun, though, but still not the most exciting way we would get to engage with Ireland's literary history. (The Irish writers may acknowledge that what I am doing here is creating suspense and anticipation for a future event.) This was actually an extremely fun way to engage with all of Ireland's history. From lamenting the potato famine to shaking hands with the great Eamon de Valera, we interacted with all sorts of historic Irish incidents. We also got to check out the miniature Chamber of Horrors, where Ryan killed Dracula and I chilled with Gollum, along with the Children's Area, where we saw Bob the Builder, the Simpsons, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The final stop was a room full of Irish entertainment and sports icons, where we were able to successfully identify zero of the fourteen figures on display. Sorry, Ireland. But our time here left us craving something a little more mature, so we headed over to the...
Jameson Distillery
Now, our Dublin Pass map was not very good, so on the way here we got a little bit confused. Looking at our map we were approached by someone who asked us if we needed any help. In Amsterdam, we had received this same question. However, there we had ignored the gentleman who we assumed would probably rob us and kept walking. In Dublin, though, charmed by the overwhelming friendliness of everyone we'd crossed paths with thus far, I was quick to say, "Yes, we're looking for the Jameson Distillery." With his help we made it there robbery free. Unlike the Guinness Storehouse, the Jameson Distillery is a guided tour, which was a nice change of pace after our day of self-guiding. But like the Guinness Storehouse, it too ends with a sample of the product. Now, I'm not much of a whiskey fan, perhaps because my exposure up until this point has been limited to cheap bad whiskey. That said, I really liked the Jameson, even if I had a limited number of things to compare it to. Ryan had a better comparison experience, since he volunteered to be a taster at the end, and got to compare the Jameson to a scotch (Johnny Walker) and an American whiskey (Jack Daniels). He has the diploma to prove his taste testing skills, and we also learned that Whiskey and Ginger Ale with a lime is an excellent drink. But, with our thirsts not quite totally quenched, we decided to return to the...
Guinness Storehouse
Perhaps the greatest perk of the Dublin Pass: We were able to return to places we'd already been. Which means that each day of the Pass, we could return to the Guinness Storehouse for a free pint. This time, we just made our way straight up to the Gravity Bar, foolishly forgetting the small sample that we passed up in the tasting room by doing so. We planned to return the next day to correct our error.
City Hall
With a few minutes before most of the Dublin Pass sites closed, we decided to swing over to the City Hall exhibit. There was nothing much to see here, which is why we went so late in the day. Actually, the only Blog-worthy point to make is that, although the exhibit was technically closed when we arrived, the extremely friendly Irish ladies running the show let us in to browse around for a few minutes.
From there we explored the very interesting Temple Bar area for a bit, then headed for dinner at the Kingfisher near our hostel. Basically the Irish equivalent of a diner with a fun variation on a club sandwich. Though I do not remember the variation anymore, I remember it was good. We called it an early night once more, figuring we'd get up early to take full advantage of the Dublin Pass one last day. But before we could, we met one of our bunk-neighbors, who had perhaps failed to hear that this was a Youth hostel, since he boosted the average age in the room by a good fifty years. He told us to close the door quietly when we returned later. We pointed out that we were in for the night, and he looked at us kind of funny, then left.
So, with thoughts of the next day's adventures (which would, we hoped, include a castle, model trains, and free stuff) we brought the second day of Dublin to a close.
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