Frog Blog

the guinness factory was over the top. too much, really. the part that made me cringe is when they said, "making wine is so simple: you just squeeze the grapes and the yeast from their skins ferments and you have wine. making beer is so much more of a challenge!" funny how any schmoe can learn how to make a crappy homebrew but you don't see too many people making a barrell of wine. but maybe i'm just biased.

anyway, i walked to the guinness storehouse with two other guys who were as lost as i was. they were somewhat nice at first but turned out to be duds, really. we split up halfway through the self-guided tour. the place is huge, gigantic, yikes. by the end of the six floors touting just how fucking great guinness is, even i was ready for a pint. i must say, it does taste a whole lot better over here. admission (14 euros!!) includes a pint in the gravity bar, a 360-degree space room bar with stellar views of dublin. pretty impressive. yeah, guinness is great, but it ain't the blood of christ like they want you to think it is.

what was even cooler than the guinness tour was the kilmainham jail. i had a guided tour of the nasty old prison that hosted many irish rebels for nearly 150 years. you could look right into the cells and it was easy to imagine how shitty it must have been staying there. it was fascinating in that way that spooky prison tours are. it was much more realistic than alcatraz and definitely not as hollywood.

i'm going backwards sort of but this morning before i left for touring i met a girl from new brunswick, canada, over here on a nursing exchange for the summer. we walked to the river together where i caught a bus and she had an orientation meeting. the best thing happened with the bus. i was waiting at a stop, not sure which bus to take, and started walking down toward another stop to see if i could catch a different bus when i spotted #79, my bus. he was about to drive by me but slowed down and motioned to me and then stopped and said, hop on! i said, are you going to the jail? and could you give a shout out when we get there? he said no problem! hop on! there's a group in the back going there too in case i forget to shout out but i bet you i won't forget! all with this super big smile and a twinkle in his eye. he was a dubliner! it's a miracle! and he whistled the whole way there! as i got off the bus he honked when i started walking the wrong way and waited until i was going the right way before driving off. so nice!

now i'm totally beat but still have exploring to do. i'm drinking a wee cup of tea at my usual swank internet spot and finally feeling... content. stay tuned.