Sláinte!
- Margaret Raabe
- Jan 5, 2018
- 3 min read
Welp you guessed it! First thing this morning, the three classes in Dublin went trekking through the cold to Guinness.
We got to their storehouse to encounter a 7 floor museum, gift shop, tasting room and bar. We went through the floors at our leisure, taking time to read about the process of making Guinness. Due to my late awakening, I stopped on floor 2 to grab some breakfast at their cafe.
Next floor up was the tasting room. Now this was an experience. You went through a tunnel of darkness with a few neon lights then turn the corner and BAM your in an all white room. This, we were later told, was to calm and them stimulate your senses for the best Guinness experience. The tour guide in there told us a few things about the beer and then we all grabbed a sample in a tinny glass (1/8 pint) and headed into the Tasting Room (yes it was a room just for tasting). Once we got there he explained to us the optimal Guinness drinking experience...are you ready?
Step 1. Cheers. In Ireland the like to say "Sláinte" [Sa-lawn-cha]which is Gaelic for good health.
Step 2. Take a deep breath.
Step 3. Take a solid mouth full of the Guinness.
Step 4. Hold it in your mouth and count to three.
Step 5. Swallow the beer and exhale through your noise.
This is supposed to help you taste the three flavors of the beer (on the tip of your tongue, then the sides of your mouth, then your throat).
Now you are Guinness educated. Your welcome.
Next we went through a few more floors including old Guinness advertising. This was for sure my forte and honestly, their old ads are really weird. But I really enjoyed looking around.
Next was Guinness Academy. Long story short, I am now a bar tender. We learned how to pour our own perfect glass of Guinness and wait for it...I graduated. (Click next)
Once we poured our pint, we decided to enjoy it on the top floor at the Gravity Bar. We hopped on the elevator, and like Willy Wonka, we left the top of the building to the bar. We got some seats and enjoyed our before noon pint.
Next we went to the gift shop then headed about to get some food. We ended up at a pub called The Brazen Head, which is one of the oldest pubs in Dublin. It was a huge space and quite packed so we sat outside, all bundled up, and got some really good food. I personally had a 100% Irish beef burger and chips and it was wonderful.
We then hopped back on the bus to hotel to take a much needed break.
Not gonna lie to you folks, I slept about 3 hours this afternoon. So did Amelia and Erin. We were pooped.
Once we woke up, we got ready and headed down to the lobby to meet our class to head to The Irish House Party. Without much context, we headed down the 20 minute walk to see this place. Once we arrived we headed down to the basement where this was held, grabbed a drink and settled in for a show. There were about 15 rows of chairs facing a stage and man was this the time of my life.
There were 4 people that preformed. Not only were they so funny, making jokes and telling us about themselves and the instruments, but the performance we incredible. They played traditional winds, the Ill pipes, a Greek influenced guitar like instrument and they even had a dancer named Roma. They played some amazing traditional songs that had us all dancing or clapping along. They even had us singing along for a majority of them. By the end of our time none of us wanted to leave. At one point Roma was teaching some people a group dance int he back, then at another point a girl from our group was singing Sweet Home Alabama on the stage...it was a wild night. (see below)
Now back at the hotel, I am ready to shower and sleep yet again. Tomorrow we are going to see a famous cemetery and then we have the day. I think I want to go back to a few shops I liked and then we will see from there! See ya tomorrow!
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