Jaunted

We had our morning coffee at Insomnia and then went to Dublin Castle (above), a sprawling complex of castles and government buildings that dates back to 1204, though most parts are merely 300 or so years old. Since our tour didn't begin for an hour, we browsed the nearby Revenue Museum, which was a museum dedicated to tax collection. It was way more interesting than you'd expect, and included exhibits on the various ways people have tried to smuggle drugs into and out of Ireland (apparently it's a tax violation, among other things). There was even a special toilet for people suspected of swallowing little packets of drugs. I don't need to explain how it works.

For the castle tour, our guide was an affable young Irish woman who explained the functions of the various rooms, and did a bang-up job compressing 1,000 years of Irish history into 50 minutes. We saw the room where Margaret Thatcher visited, as well as the sitting room where young ladies would wear wax-based makeup and had to "save face" by keeping a screen between them and the fireplace. The tour ended with a visit to the original fortifications of one of the towers, a subterranean archaeological site where new artifacts are still being discovered.

Outside the castle in the main courtyard were funky sand sculptures like the one pictured above. The weather was cool and cloudy, like autumn.

We left the castle and wandered aimlessly for a bit, purchasing some non-alcoholic beverages that we consumed in St. Stephen's Green. In the above photo, Jenn is standing in front of the Victorian Garden. I was really impressed with how clean the park was. There wasn't a piece of litter to be found anywhere. The only other place I've seen such cleanliness is Tokyo.

Before long it was beer o'clock, so we made our way to Bruxelles pub (above) near Grafton Street and had a couple of pints of Guinness. We had heard on the news that the city was planning some kind of celebration for what would have been the 60th birthday of Phil Lynott, the former lead singer of Thin Lizzy, and apparently we walked right into it. Phil's actual birthday wasn't until Thursday, but people were gearing up for it already, and two guys at the bar were wearing Thin Lizzy t-shirts. In case you don't know (we didn't), Thin Lizzy was a popular rock band from Ireland, and Phil Lynott was its talented and charismatic frontman. He died of a liver and kidney infection brought upon by heavy drug and alcohol use in 1985 at the age of 36.

Just outside the bar, there's a statue of the Irish and Afro-Brazilian rocker (pictured at top) that was adorned with flowers for the milestone. I asked the barman how Thin Lizzy was connected to the Bruxelles pub, and he said that the band had played many of its early gigs there. (When I got home I looked up some Thin Lizzy songs on Youtube. "Whisky in the Jar" is a cool tune.)

For dinner, we went to the Old Stand (above), yet one more historic pub in central Dublin. The place filled up with soccer fans as we ate and drank. They were there to watch Celtic FC play Arsenal. (Arsenal won.) In the bottom right corner of the TV screen was a little icon of a pint glass, and we wondered what it meant, so I asked a couple of well-dressed guys, and they explained that it meant the bar had paid a special fee to broadcast the game.

And that was our trip. We walked back to the hotel, woke up insanely early the next morning, and made our way back to the states. In conclusion, we loved Dublin and would recommend it to anyone. Five nights is really as long as any visitor needs there, and for us it was the perfect amount of time to see everything we wanted to and still have time to relax. It's hard to pick a highlight of the trip, but among our favorite things were the Dublin Writers Museum, Pearl Brasserie, and Dublin Castle. Of course we loved the pubs and pub culture, and if we could only choose three, we'd hit the Brazen Head, O'Donoghue's, and Bruxelles. And as touristy as it is, the Guinness Storehouse is great.

A word of advice to my American friends: be careful crossing the street in Dublin, and remember to look right. Dublin drivers regard pedestrians with contempt, and will not give you the right of way, regardless of what some dumb law says. Best to hang back and let them go. Your Guinness will taste that much better when you finally get it.

[All Photos: Victor Ozols]

Related Stories:
· Losing Time in Dublin, Part 1: Beginning at the Pub [Jaunted]
· Losing Time in Dublin, Part 2: A Tale of Two Menus [Jaunted]
· Losing Time in Dublin, Part 3: A Long Walk to St. James's Gate [Jaunted]
· Losing Time in Dublin, Part 4: Sandcastles, Real Castles, and Thin Lizzy [Jaunted]
· Five Mellow Days in Dublin at the Maldron Cardiff Lane [HotelChatter]
· Dublin Castle [Official Site]
· Thin Lizzy [Official Site]
· The Old Stand Pub [Official Site]
· Dublin Field Trip [Jaunted]