Hotel Washington...over-booked!

For the 7 days/nights that Serena and Dave were in town they managed to see most of Ireland I think.  They spent one of their days in Co. Cork visiting Blarney Castle.  Chad and I haven't made it there yet but it is on our list for sure. Rumor has is if you kiss the blue stone (that was set in the castle in 1446) you will be given the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery).  To kiss the stone you have to lay upside down.  There is also a rumor that locals pee on the stone and laugh when all the tourists kiss it..haha!

Blarney Castle

Serena kissing the stone

The castle also has a poison garden with all different types of poisonous plants...everything from belladonna and digitalis to cannabis (marijuana in pharmaceutical terms).  I'm surprised they let people just wander around this place!

 Among their other Irish travels they spent a night in a castle, visited the Cliffs of Mohr and Giant's Causeway and went to Belfast to see the Titanic Museum.

Kinnitty Castle

Cliffs of Mohr....look familiar?

Dave and his purse at the Giant's Causeway

So I was obviously not meant to be a travel agent or hotel manager, etc!  Not long after Serena and Dave booked their trip to come see us, Chad mentioned that Prasad (his best friend) wanted to come to Dublin for Labor Day.  At the time I didn't see a problem with that and Prasad booked his ticket...Well then is came to my attention that Serena and Dave's visit was going to overlap with Prasad's. Oops!  Oh well, the more the merrier right?  We made it work and ended up having a great time together.

It also happened to be the weekend of the Notre Dame vs. Navy football game here in Dublin...yep this travel agent didn't know that was going on either. Megan 0 - Travel Gods 2! Needless to say everything in Dublin was jam-packed full of Americans!  Not that I don't love my fellow countrymen/women but it was nearly impossible to find a restaurant or activity that wasn't booked/packed/had a loooog line!

Heading out to dinner!

Waiting for our breakfast

After all bellies were full we headed out to our first group activity...The Jameson Distillery.  If you remember from previous posts Chad and I were really disappointed with the Guinness tour but we had been told the Jameson one was much better....it was!  The tour was guided and really interesting. We learned all about how the Irish whiskey is made and how the process differs from American or Scottish whiskeys.

Chad checking out hats in the gift shop

Chandelier made of bottles

Learning how to make whiskey

Prasad and the washback vats

The barrels where the whiskey sits for between 5 and 25 years

 

 

 

Checking out some of the oldest whiskey still around

After the tour of the Jameson Distillery we headed to Kilamainham Jail.  We had been told by a number of people that this jail tour was an incredible look into the history of Ireland. The jail was built in 1796 and considered "state of the art" at the time because it had individual cells for each prisoner. Until the jail was closed in 1924 is housed men, women and children.

In Gaelic

Just above the balcony is where they would hang people

The jail had 97 cells (for 97 prisoners) however when the Irish rebellion against the British began the jail became over-crowded and up to 5 people were crammed into cells made for 1 person.  The youngest person imprisoned was said to be 5 years old...his crime was stealing food.  The majority of the Irish leaders in the rebellions of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916 were imprisoned and/or executed in the prison.

The tour began in the prison chapel where Joseph Plunkett was married 4 hours before his execution by firing squad.  He was an Irish nationalist, poet, journalist, and a leader of the 1916 rebellion.  His wife (Grace Gifford Plunkett) was also imprisoned at Kilamainham. Grace was an artist and cartoonist and painted the image of Madonna and Child (below) on the wall of her cell.

Door to one of the cells

Hallway full of cells

Sign above Joseph's cell

Grace's Cell

Through the peep hole, the picture she painted.

The tour was really interesting and very sad.  To be standing in the same place where so many men were executed and so many women and young children were imprisoned was very sobering. 

The newer part of the jail

Courtyard where the men did hard labor. The cross stands where the men were executed by firing squad.

List of men executed in the courtyard

 After the jail we headed back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. Since all the football fans were clogging up the restaurants in town, we headed out to Howth to dinner.  Howth is about 20 minutes outside of Dublin and is a fishing village. We ate at a place called The Blue Fin and while the location was quaint and the view amazing...the food/service left a little to be desired.  They were out of almost everything on the menu!  We enjoyed the time together and had a good laugh about it afterward.

View from our table

Serena and Dave left the next morning to head back to Chicago.  We really enjoyed having them here as our very first house guests!!