Sine Metu

Two nights ago we arrived in Dublin, Ireland super late. On the way into the hostel we met some guys wearing kilts, so we knew we were going to have a great time. 

The next morning we woke up early and had breakfast at the hostel. I put what I thought was cinnamon all over my toast. Turns out is was instant coffee. Needless to say I was plenty awake and ready to go after that. 

We left the hostel and walked around the city for awhile. It was pretty cold and Julie made this wonderful face: 

(Pretty sure that's a cabbage in those flowers^^)

We had some time to kill before our tour of the Jameson distillery so we stopped in a pub for some Guiness (part of a balanced breakfast). It was only 10:30am but the pub was pretty busy and some old man came up to us and said he was happy to see some young ladies for once, thanks? Then, like a swarm of angry bees, a bunch of guys stormed in. It was like the episode of Spongebob where the nematodes attack his house and suck all of the juice out. They were in and out within 15 minutes and left a huge table full of empty glasses. Impressive. 

We left the pub and made our way to the distillery. We still had a little time so we stopped for some traditional Irish vegetable soup. The vegetable soup here is puréed, and the best way to describe it is like a warm smoothie. Sounds repulsive but I swear it's delicious. 

Finally it was time for our tour of the distillery. We learned all about how whiskey is made and that Jameson is super picky about only using locally grown Irish barley. We also learned that the Jameson family is actually Scottish, and their motto is "Sine Metu," which means, "without fear." The phrase refers to the challenges of leaving their homeland of Scotland to go to Ireland to open a distillery. At the end of the tour we got to sample three whiskeys: a scotch, an American whiskey (Jack Daniels,) and Jameson. I've never actually had Scotch but it tasted like drinking a campfire and I've never hated any liquor so much. I completely understand why John Jameson left Scotland to make Irish whiskey. Of course the Jack and Jameson were delicious and I was surprised at the profound difference between the two. Afterwards we got to stick around for a drink and we chatted with some other Americans. Yay friends!

We spent the rest of the day pub hopping and sight seeing. We went out that night and heard some great Irish music and stopped to get some real Irish food.

Julie had fish and chips and I had beef and Guiness pie which tasted just as amazing as it sounds. After that we hung around Temple Bar which is where the ~party people~ go. It was pretty rowdy. We also ran into one of my sorority sisters and her friends which was tons of fun. 

Also, at one of the bars they had The Players on the TV. It was pretty cool to be in Ireland watching a golf tournament from my hometown!! 

We finally crawled back to the hostel pretty late. Julie said in the middle of the night she awoke to the guy in the bunk bed next to us whispering French in his sleep, which freaked her out. Ha! #hostellife