Dublin: The land of real Guinness

I am now back home in San Francisco (arrived Monday), but I still want to make a few more posts describing our last week of the trip in Ireland. This Friday I will be leaving for another trip, to Lassen Volcanic National Park, in which there will be absolutely no internet (no electricity either) so the Europe trip posts will be done by then.

Dublin- So incase you did not know, Ireland is an island. Yeah, mind blowing right? While planing our trip, we came across the problem that trains do not travel on water. So how do you get form Brussels to Dublin? Well, you fly.


Nikon D3 with 35mm f2, 100 ISO, f22 at 1/125 of a sec
Walking up the flight of stairs to our plane

Flying, even for only an hour and a half, felt very odd after 5 weeks of trains through Europe. Security checks and that sticky airport air replaced the relaxed attitude and open-air fee of train stations.

First thing after getting into Dublin, Ian, Dwayne and I visited the Guinness Store House. This is more of a museum with a souvenir shop than anything else. No Guinness is made in the building. But there are some pretty good exhibits explaining the process. For example, the water that is used to make the beer. I can’t imagine they use this actual water, but the waterfall was cool nonetheless.


Nikon D3 with 35mm f2, 500 ISO, f 2 at 1/250 of a sec
Waterfall at Guinness Store House

And of course you get the free Guinness at the end of the tour. Best... Guinness... ever.


Nikon D3 with 35mm f2, 100 ISO, f5.6 at 1/125 of a sec
Dwayne and Ian enjoying their Guinnesses (Guinnessi?)

We spent the rest of our time in Dublin walking around the city, through St. Stephen’s Green. This provide many images of Dwayne and Ian’s gay honey moon (the real reason for our trip).


Nikon D3 with 35mm f2, 100 ISO, f5.6 at 1/200 of a sec

And of course, more pints of Guinness were in order.


Nikon D3 with 35mm f2, 6400 ISO, f2 at 1/60 of a sec

We were scheduled to stay in Dublin for five nights, but after only two nights we decided to move on. We probably could have spent more time in the city, but we were eager to spend more time in Castlebar (Dwayne’s home town). So after our second night in our hostel, he hustled out out of there.


Nikon D3 with 35mm, 100 ISO, f2.8 at 1/30 of a sec
Rushing out of the Dublin hostel to make our train for Castlebar, Ireland (Dwayne's hometown)

Day Trip to Bruges

I am still kind of behind in the posts but in case you are confused, Ian, Dwayne and I are currently in Dwayne's hometown in Castlebar, Ireland and our trip ends in just a few days. Here is a post that backtracks to when we went on a day trip to Bruges, Belgium while still residing in Brussels.

Brussels- Day four
We took a day trip to Bruges. It is a small, historically beautiful town about an hour train ride north of Brussels, Begium. I knew nearly nothing about Bruges expect for some screen shots I had seen from reviews of a recent movie titled "In Bruges." which wasn't shown much in the States, and I never saw it.




The Beguinage, a convent in Bruges

But Bruges does live up to the hype of being a architectural historic gem. It is an extremely beautiful town. You can easily forget that it is still an actual city in which people actually live. I found myself getting lost in the Disneyland feel, wondering what was going on inside all of these extremely quaint buildings.


The Madonna and Child (1505) by Michelangelo Buonarotti in Our Lady's Church in Bruges.



Bruges is also known for its chocolate. We went to the chocolate museum, which was kind of a waste of time. I think we were expecting a Willy Wonka Factory experience, and instead, received a history lesson on the Aztecs... yawn.

The museum tour did get us into the mood for some chocolate. Dwayne and I were finished after visiting one chocolate boutique, eating about seven to eight pieces of chocolate. In fact, I was even a little stomach sick after that "little" amount. Ian put Dwayne and I to shame. Ian had the drive to try as many different shops as possible until he could eat no more.

After visiting at least four stores, and eating a significant portion of Belgian chocolate, Ian was down for the count. Enough to make me sick the entire day, but just enough to make Ian sleepy.


Ian resting on Dwayne's shoulder, exhausted form chocolate