Dublin, Ireland, Fri 12 - Sun 14 Dec 08

A weekend in Dublin visiting my old workmate Sam and his girlfriend Louise meant a weekend of drinking! That is pretty much the most popular thing to do in Dublin, and they do it well! Although it aint cheap for a night out in Dublin. One of the most expensive cities I've visited so far!

Friday night we started at a cuban bar complete with cigars and tasty Irish Whiskey (which was to become my staple diet for the weekened... the whiskey, not the cigars). We also sampled some local Irish grub on the way home... Supermacs... very much like mcdonalds! haha gotta try the local takeaways.

Saturday we started our day at the Old Jameson distillery which they live right next door to! Lucky for some. Louise had to go Christmas shopping so Sam, Nick and I headed for the distillery. It's not a working one, more museum style but the tour was kinda fun and at the end we were amongst those chosen for a special tasting. Along with the standard Jameson drink you get at the end of the tour we also got to compare a shot of Irish (Jamesons), Scotch (Johnny Walker) and American (JDs) Whiskey. Can't think of many things more fun than that!

Sam took us on a walking tour in the afternoon. He knew a lot about Dublin so made a great guide. We saw lots of pretty buildings and churches. Christ Church was the best and the bells were going at the time we past which was beautiful to hear. I have to admit I was quite surprised, I wasn't expecting Dublin to be so pretty.

We also checked out the local Christmas markets and met back up with Louise, quite similar to the setup of markets in London, lots of cool stalls to wonder through.

That night we headed into Temple Bar (the famous drinking district of Ireland) and started our pub crawl. We started at The Temple Bar with some fantastic Irish music. We followed on with more cosy pubs, more whiskey and more great music. It was a fantastic night.

The last one we visited was the oldest pub in Dublin. It had graffitied dollar bills all over the walls which made the place look very unique. I ended the night with a tasty Baileys coffee to keep me warm for the walk home (it was rather chilly in Dublin). I loved that when you order a coffee in Dublin, they automatically assume you want alcohol in it!

Sunday we had to say goodbye to our hosts as they had family commitments and we did our own thing. We started at Dublin's temporary Christmas ice rink since we'd enjoyed it so much as Hyde Park. Sadly this one wasn't so great with terribly uncomfortable skates and not very good equipment.

After that we spent the afternoon at the Guiness Brewery. Not what I was expecting, it's a self guided tour through 5 floors of information about Guiness and the Brewery. I found it quite boring but I'm glad we went. At the end you get to pour your own Guiness which I found lots of fun. I tried mine but quickly gave it up to Nick. I'll stick with the Whiskey thanks!

It was great spending the weekend with friends, least of all for the comfy air bed and cooked breaky but mainly for the fun company and great local knowledge. If you're reading this, thanks guys!