Ireland - Guinness Gravy, Harry Potter & Jameson

          Guinness Gravy, Harry Potter & Jameson: now that seems like an ideal setup for a movie night to remember (or not remember), however, I experienced these delights one after the other as you will come to realize...
          Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK) have long been on my list of places to visit.  So I decided to use the excuse that I was turning thirty and I needed an adequate distraction to forget the sad three decade turnover of the age clock that was my life.  Sarah and I decided to break the two countries into five day sprints.  It was the first time we decided to implement our agile method of traveling which mean we basically booked nothing but a flight to Dublin, Ireland and a return flight ten days later out of London, England.  I would like to add that this little agile experiment sparked the evolution of our travel, from roll away suitcases bouncing on cobble stone streets, to using hiking back packs in Italy and Greece to now using our back pack sized "e-bags" which we have trained ourselves to live up to two weeks out of.  This was the beginning of our mastery of travel to which we owe our thanks.  I would also like to point out that I am writing this in July of 2014 and the trip was back in October of 2012.

Guinness Observatory

Jameson Distillery

          When we arrived in Dublin we took a bus from the airport that took us into the heart of the city.  As always we were accompanied by our lonely planet guidebook without which we would not be able to conduct our agile travel experiences (these books are a must have for travel).  So once we read some listings of bed and breakfasts (B&B's) we made our decision of where to drop off our bags at Grafton Guesthouse and start touring the city.  In Europe B&B's are a healthy affordable in between of hotels and hostels.  And unlike hotels the always offer breakfast free with your stay (hence the name), they are homey less hotel like, but a far better option for quality and comfort than a hostel.  We found some items of interest in the big city, however I would like to point out that typically we try to vacate large cities as soon as possible.  This being because generally we prefer the laid back towns or villages where we can mingle with the what we would call the true locals.  Granted there is an exception to every rule but so far our theory has remained true.  Besides I absolutely love the local pubs that you find in classic, well kept European towns and villages, I can never get enough of them.

Enjoying a bacon steak
at a local Killarney pub (yes that is
a piece of bacon)

          While in Dublin we decided to tour the Guinness brewery and the Old Jameson Distillery.  The brewery was very impressive covering a great deal of landscape in the city.  The tour was a pretty standard brewery walk through of the process of fermenting, the ingredients and the final product.  The brewery has a bar in a tower at the center that has an impressive three sixty degree view of Dublin.  At the top I used my complimentary beer ticket to enjoy some foreign extra, which is not available in the states.  After the brewery we made our way to the distillery to begin our second tour of the day.  The Jameson tour was similar to the brewery going through equipment and fermenting processes.  There was a hint about the tour in the lonely planet book to "volunteer" on the tour.  Its vague, but when you do volunteer they give you this stick and at the end you get to go through a whisky taste test against the best in the market to Jameson.  So if you do go make sure to put in your lot for a whisky stick and you will get to try some great whisky.

Killarney Pub

Another Killarney Pub

          Before leaving Dublin we enjoyed some of the night life and I sampled perhaps the best beef stew I have ever tried.  It was close to a shepherds pie with beef and mashed potatoes, but the kicker was the Guinness beer reduction poured over the top.  When served to me it looked like they poured tar (the reduction) over your mashed potatoes.  Let me tell you the flavor of that reduction was amazing and something we have never been able to replicate at home.  It was served at a place called Turks Head Bar (part of the Paramount Hotel) and the name of the dish was beef and Guinness casserole, if you are in downtown Dublin go there and order this meal, you will not be disappointed.

Downtown Killarney

Ring of Kerry

          After our tour of Dublin was complete we made our way to the train station and bought a ticket to Killarney which is a lovely little town in the south west part of Ireland.  There you can find many well established accommodations and Irish Pubs winding down many cozy streets and corridors.  When I was there I could not help but contain this warm fuzzy feeling inside.  A detail I forgot to mention is that the Irish are extremely friendly and will generally go out of their way to help tourists.  While in a pub in Killarney we mentioned to a local that we were later headed to London, he proceeded to give us his underground (London Subway) card as he told us it was an ordeal to apply.  While in Killarney we went on a tour of this beautiful scenic area called the Ring of Kerry.  The landscape around the ring is absolutely beautiful.  There is also a monk island called Skellig Michael which was not in season for tours, but holds a

Ancient burial site

Cliffs of Moher

monastery dating back to as early as the sixth century.

          Following Killarney we made our way to a site I had been waiting to see for a while, the Cliffs of Moher.  We took a late night bus from Killarney to Galway where we based ourselves for the tour of the cliffs.  Galway is somewhat like a smaller version of Dublin, but has more of a college town feel.  It is a nice clean city with a river running through it.  The bus we rode on took is to various sites with a slightly different type of landscape than Killarney.  Diverse landscapes in close geographic regions is a general theme of Ireland.  If you are a Harry Potter fan as I am, you will recognize the Cliffs of Moher in movie The Half Blood Prince.  The cliffs are an amazing site and stretch for miles along the western coastline.  After sometime along the cliffs we

Castle on the way back to Galway

Moher

made our way back to the city and to Dublin.  We had arranged a flight earlier from Dublin to London which in fact violated our agile travel approach.  We learned that we could have arranged the same flight from Galway which was the first time we learned not to violate our rules of travel and it would not be the last.  Every time we have violated our rules we have slightly regretted it on a trip.  Even though not planning far ahead is difficult as many times our fear of the unknown trumps our logic, we are still learning to not let our emotions betray us in these scenarios.  It is an ongoing challenge because of course there are scenarios where some advance planning is necessary, it is deciding when it is absolutely necessary that is the trick.  Don't us fool you, we do a great deal of research before going somewhere despite our cavalier travel methods, we just like to have all the options we can in our back pocket.  

Moher

          At the moment Ireland (and the surrounding regions) is at the top of my list for travel destinations and retirement.  The people, the landscape, the food and the beer (and whisky) makes it a truly great place to be.  I would recommend Ireland to anyone looking to visit a part of Europe for the first time.  There is no language barrier and the locals are very welcoming and accepting.  You will enjoy every minute of it of your Ireland adventure.