9:00AM- Breakfast and explored the city
This was our last day in Dublin. The next stop after Dublin was Amsterdam. But before that, I had breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of what you would have guessed (toast and cereal). Checking out at a hostel is typically done before 10:30AM, but the hostel staff were kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage at the hostel while we explored the city. We stopped by Trinity College and walked around campus. You could see the history in the buildings and the cobblestone pavements. We walked past the library. After about thirty minutes, the group went out to eat at Pacino’s. After the group had breakfast, some of us stopped to get ice cream. A couple of us went to exchange dollars for Euros. The exchange rate continued to drop favoring the USD.
1:00PM – Jameson distillery
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| Jameson Distillery - Feints Still |
We went to the Jameson distillery. It was slightly different from the Guinness storehouse. There were fewer people and instead of it being a self-guided tour, the Jameson distillery was a guided tour. We watched a film upon the tour beginning of a New York reporter going to meet John Jameson. He takes a horse carriage to the distillery and follows John Jameson’s son through the distillery and ends up finding out that the person he was following is John Jameson’s son. Then we walked through different rooms, which showed how the whiskey was made. The main difference between Jameson, Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels is the number of times it is distilled. Jameson is distilled three times, Johnny Walker twice, and Jack Daniels once, which makes Jameson the smoothest of the three. At the end of the tour, a number of volunteers got to drink and compare the three different whiskeys. One interesting fact I learned is that Jameson is aged in used barrels. They basically would buy new barrels and rent them out and then recollect them and reuse the barrels. This gives Jameson the more natural taste. Interesting enough, the Irish mix Jameson with cranberry juice. This is now one of my favorite drinks.
7:00PM – Head to the Castel hotel
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| Castel Hotel - From the Inside |
We took a taxi to the Castel hotel, which was basically a castle hotel. From the inside it looked like a smaller version of the Excalibur in Vegas. A couple of us went to work out at the small gym. It was nice to finally have a large bed to sleep in and our own privacy. We had dinner at Knights Bar which was within the hotel and then called it a "night". This is basically because we had to get up at 3:00AM to catch a 6:00AM flight to Amsterdam.
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Two of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Three of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Four of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Five of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Six of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Seven of Nine
Ireland - The Emerald Isle - Day Eight of Nine