Dublin, the city of a thousand pubs (almost)

So I don’t think I have the time or patience to write about everything I’ve done in Dublin, but here is a bit of a summary to go along with the latest pictures. My routine the past few days has been to pick a direction and just start walking. I stop at museums, monuments, parks, etc. and go as far as possible until about 1pm, find something to eat, then turn around and head back to the hostel.

It turns out that the remains of the St. Valentine are housed at the Whitefriar Street Carmaline Church next door to the hostel I am staying in. I thought there would be more publicity about that sort of thing, but there is just a small plaque stating that Pope Gregory XVI gave it to the church as a gift.

On Saturday, Susan and I made it out to the Temple Bar area and went to Oliver St. John Gogerty’s and The Porterhouse. Gogerty’s was so packed full you could barely move, and apparently is a prime pickpocket zone. The Porterhouse had a bit more space to move around in, but that was because it’s got 5 full floors – it also had an awesome live band and featured a few mean harmonica solos! For the count, that is 2 pubs down with a little more than 900 to go.

Yesterday, Susan and I, along with Joan (her flat mate), Amy and Kaitlin (2 people I met at the hostel) picked up some fish & chips from the renowned “chipper” Leo Burdock, then went over to Dublin Castle to eat. My advice is to get the half-order of fries. I attempted the full meal deal, but was defeated. In my defence, the thing weighed about 5 pounds and was just dripping with grease. Even if I did finish it I don’t think I could have considered it a win.

Today I decided to head north and look for the Wellington Monument (it’s always a bit of a search for a particular building because only every other street is marked . . .). After an hour of searching I found myself in what appeared to be a housing project of some sort. There were rows and rows of identical, attached houses surrounded on three sides by brick walls, with a prison in the center. And if you check out the photo, the walls had shards of glass cemented into the top to deter scaling. In finally made it to the park and even managed to get myself into a few of the pictures with the Monument.

Some of the other pics and places I’ve been:

- The Brazen Head – oldest pub in Dublin

- All along O’Connell Street – featuring the Spire and other Monuments

- Kilmainhag Gaol – jail that played a major part in Ireland’s history

- Jameson Whiskey Distillery and Chimney Viewing Tower – went past, but didn’t go on the tour (10am was feeling a bit early to be taste testing)

- Guinness Brewery and Windmill– hopefully will have time for the tour before heading to the Netherlands

Tomorrow is my last full day in Dublin for a few weeks, but I’ll be back in the middle of November to start looking for a job and place to live, as well as take weekend trips a bit farther outside of the city.