I DON'T LIKE GUINNESS. It has a certain taste that prevents me from finishing my pint. Then I went to Dublin and suddenly the Guinness became the milkshake of beers. People have told me a Guinness tastes different in Dublin - in the whole of UK for that matter. A friend also once told me that this dark stout doesn’t travel well. Now things were starting to add up.
Not long ago, Irish cuisine had a bad rap. As Ireland’s economy began to prosper in the recent decades, so did the attitudes toward their cuisine. Nowadays you can easily find great restaurants, scrumptiously creative vegan food, and gastropubs. On my last evening, I walked into The Hairy Lemon pub and ordered a Guinness. In fact, I had a Guinness every day.
To test if my new found love was truly genuine, or if I was simply under the magical spell of Irish leprechauns, I bought a 4-pack Guinness from Trader Joe’s when I returned to the states.
I don’t like Guinness.
The most iconic and most photographed bar in Dublin
The Long Room at Trinity College. Notice all the old books have been removed for cleaning, cataloguing and restoration - a long and tedious project.
Thankfully, they left a small section filled with books for viewers to imagination the entire room filled to the ceiling with these old first edition manuscripts.
The Long Room leads to the famous Book Of Kells, which contains the 4 gospels lovingly and meticulously written in Latin by monks on thin velum (calf skins), miraculously survived 800 years and many invasions. No photos are allowed at the viewing of the actual book; however, this display show the skills of the monks' artistry that graces the start of each chapter of the gospels.
Dublin isn't all about beer and pubs. Dubliners' love of literature is evident in their vast collection of ancient writings at the Chester Beatty Library. Here, you can see various fragments of the early gospels and books of the Bible.
These mysterious mounds at Knowth are older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. They are believed to have served as ancient burial chambers and/or ceremonial passages celebrating winter solstice. The largest is Newgrange.
Large stones with Neolithic Art like this one surround the entire mound about the size of a football field of Newgrange.
Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) was the site for the imprisonment and execution of Dublin's men and women who led the revolutions for Ireland's independence from Britain. Their executions as martyrs were the legacy that they left behind to inspire the people to fight for their freedom.
Beautiful and brightly adorned pubs in Georgian buildings are found throughout downtown Dublin.
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