OK, back to the usual. Still felt sketchy this morning (and still do now), but definitely better than I did yesterday. Got my postcards mailed out last night and went back to the lounge to read for awhile before bed, but ended up 'til after midnight. A couple of Spanish guys brought in a big bottle of Jameson, and part way through it they offered me a glass... and two refills when I finished that. Their English wasn't great (slightly better than my Spanish) so our conversation was choppy, but it was definitely an entertaining evening, and led to the best sleep I've had so far in Dublin.
Woke up a bit wobbly, but some toast & the walk to Christ Church cleared that up pretty well. It's a rather odd church: two buildings connected by an enclosed bridge over the road between them. I didn't really feel like paying to go in though, so I contented myself with a few pictures before moving along to St. Patrick's. I was originally just going to take pictures of that as well but found out that Jonathan Swift is buried there; since I'm reading Gulliver's Travels now, I had to go for it. Seeing that was fairly cool, but the rest of it was pretty standard "old church interior." Unless a church has some unique feature, once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all.
Left there just after 11:00, right after they finished saying prayers for travelers & sick people, both of which I found quite appropriate. I spent the next 20 minutes or so walking over to the Guinness Storehouse; quite nice, but you have to go through a few questionable areas to get there. I had to stop & check my map several times... you can follow one street most of the way there from the hostel, but every time it curves the name changes. I only had to turn a corner twice, but I think I walked on eight "different" streets.
The tour at the storehouse is self-guided, which means you can do it at your own pace & put as much or as little into it as you want. I skipped over most of the "making of" section since the process is pretty similar to distillation (the first parts of it anyways), but the history & advertising parts were cool. Encased in the entryway they have the original lease for the land signed by Arthur Guinness; he was apparently very optimistic, because it was for a term of 9,000 years. Finished up (literally) at the Gravity Bar with a pint of Guinness & enjoyed the 360° view of the city, though it was unfortunately too crowded to get any good pictures.
Random thoughts:
- Seriously, WTF is it with all the drinking people do over here? If I got half the money that half the people at the hostel spent on alcohol in half of an average evening, I could probably fly first class.
- If you buy fudge, make sure it says "chocolate" somewhere, or it will be more like caramel with a fudge-like texture. Or, as H2G2 would say, it's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fudge.
- Irish people are friendly. Some day I'd like to take a full vacation here & travel around the island... maybe I'll actually be able to talk Kate-Lynne into that one.
- How does someone pick & choose which parts of their religion to ignore? I did lunch & part of the Guinness tour with a Muslim guy today; he was fine with the alcohol, but still made sure his meal was halal.
Okay, time for one last email check, then a trip to an ATM, a pharmacy, and somewhere for food. I predict that most of this evening will be spent reading, but I've been wrong before.
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