My favorite things about Dublin (Part 2)

Hope you all enjoyed the first five favorite things about Dublin from yesterday!   Today I give you my last five favorite things, and some of these, are more than just things.  They are staples to life.  Nevertheless, I cannot give you a list about Dublin without listing a few of these items.  So without further ado...

5)  The music - At pretty much every pub we visited, we got to listen to some live Irish folk music.  I only wish I knew some of the bar sings so that I could sing along with everyone.  On Arthur's Day, the bars were ridiculous with live music.  I couldn't get close enough to too many of the groups to take their picture, but I did manage to take a picture of one group on break at St. John Gogharty's.

Even the street musicians were amazing.  We saw this one string quartet from Slovakia (side note:  This is the country where most of my ancestors on my maternal side are from, so this excited me a great deal) playing on the street.  We stopped and listened to them for awhile, and I liked them so much, I bought a CD of theirs.  If you look closely in this picture, there is this little boy who was so enamored by the musicians and was dancing along.  It was too cute to not take a picture.

4)  The people - Everyone there was so nice and so friendly to us while we were visiting.  We would meet people on bus tours, at pubs, everyone, and every time, they were so polite and nice to us.  Even our cab driver on the first day was just talking our ear off, giving us tips on what to do in town and asking about where we were from (and being very genuine about it, too, I might add)  This is a far cry from the cab drivers we have experienced in the U.S.  One of these tips he gave us we did, and it was a huge help to us while we were there.  It was this "Hop On, Hop Off" bus tour where you paid about 16 Euro for a two day pass to ride a double decker bus system around town and hit all of the major sites all while getting a historical tour of Dublin.  It helped us in getting around to some of the major sites we wanted to see.  (i.e., Guinness Storehouse)  The tour guides on those buses were hilarious, too.  They were sarcastic, witty and constantly cracking jokes, all while giving a helpful historical lesson about the city.  It was my kind of a tour, and these people are definitely my kind of people. 

The crowds in the Auld Dubliner on Arthur Guinness Day.

3)  The food - We certainly ate well the entire week we were there.  The food was amazing!  Every morning we got a full Irish breakfast, which included eggs, grilled bacon, porridge, potato bread, scones, and man, the coffee!  The coffee there was strong and it was good, very addicting.  We can't seem to duplicate it here at home.  The pub food was great, too.  I tried to sample all the traditional Irish cuisine while we were there - fish and chips, Cornish pie, Shepard's pie, and I've discovered a new favorite food of mine, mushy peas.  Yes, they are exactly what they sound like, and while they may sound disgusting and look like baby food, they are a little bite of heaven.  I must find a recipe to make some of these at home. 

Pictured above, we have your traditional Irish pub food - Shepard's pie, chips, and of course, mushy peas.  Oh, and a Guinness to top it off.

2)  Our hotel -  I absolutely loved our hotel.  We stayed at the Shelbourne Renaissance Hotel in the heart of Dublin.  T found this place by chance on an Internet search, and he could not have found a better place.  The room was amazing, and the hotel staff treated us so well.  We were within walking distance from everything, so that helped, too.  Our first night there, they surprised us with a bottle of mineral water and chocolates neatly arranged on a tray  with "Congratulations" written in chocolate syrup.  The chocolates were delicious, and the gesture, very much appreciated. 

As I wrote about the food, we had a full Irish breakfast every morning as part of our package.  We could not have picked a better place to stay, and it made our trip all the more special.


 A picture of the outside of our hotel, taken from St. Stephen's Green 

1)  Guinness - You know this one was coming, right?   I have to say the draught Guinness in Ireland tastes far superior to what you can get in the States.  I didn't believe it until I tried it myself.  It just is.  And the Guinness Storehouse?  Well, this was pretty much my idea of heaven.  After our tour of the museum, we went up to the Galaxy Bar at the top of the place where you could get a 360 degree aerial view of the city with a free pint.  We also learned to pour the perfect pint, receiving certificates show our proud achievement, and we got our own pint there, too.  As T put it, the Guinness Storehouse is the only museum I know of where you come in sober and leave just a little bit tipsy.  I loved it.  (Can you tell from the picture?)

And since going to Dublin is a HUGE treasure, I want to link this post up with Chantel's Small Treasure Tuesdays.  Stop by her blog and read about some of the other treasures people are sharing this week!

And to answer Robin's question from yesterday, oh yes, we did shopping.  Plenty of it :-)  I might need to do a post on what all we got...we're still waiting on one thing to be shipped to us from Waterford, and I'll definitely post a picture of that when it's received.