Dublin your money! Part III

Day 3 - Jan. 4:
Getting used to the conversion rate is pretty tough, so we decided to cut costs on eating on the third day. We ate our hostel breakfast, made some PB&J's and grabbed some crisps and put them in Hannah's purse. Then we bought a 24 hour pass for a tour bus that you can hop on and off of. We rode the whole route and used it later to get around the city. The announcer had some awesome dry humor and chuckled to himself while joking about Dublin's Guinness consumption rate.

The entrance the Kilmainham Gaol.

Kilmainham Gaol was haunting. It was a political and criminal prison that held many rebels throughout Ireland's history. It was created when most jails were just one big room and introduced isolation and reform in jails. The cells were tiny and the windows to the outside had bars without glass to prevent disease. This meant the prisoners had to deal with terrible cold and wind. Many of the rebels who weren't executed ended up being major politicians. My camera battery died during the tour and so I have limited pictures from that day. Afterwords, there was a moment of despair when we saw a sign on the bus stop saying a bus wasn't coming due to ice, but it showed up after a minute or so.

Chamber of secrets?

Next, we rode to Jameson Distillery and got into a conversation with a worker who was a Packers fan (small world).  It was really interesting to see how whiskey is made and the tour guide was hilarious. Whiskey's ingredients are just barley, water, and the barrels (which are actually important). Jameson gets used sherry and bourbon barrels which add color, flavor, and prevent the seeping of chemicals from the wood. I was chosen as a taste tester at the end of the tour and tried a taste of Scotch whiskey (Johnny Walker Black), American whiskey (Jack Daniels), and Jameson. I received a diploma verifying my abilities which I will most likely attach to my résumé.

This is the hole used to give prisoners short pieces of rope that they had to unwind to keep working.

We stopped by the Dublin Castle which wasn't much of a spectacle, but had sweet sculptures in the courtyard (Same shape but painted differently. Similar to the Snoopy's in MN). We returned to the hostel and made some very delicious stuffing for dinner (Thanks Greg and Laura!). We went to bed early to wake up for our checkout at 4:30am. I ended up awake up at 2~ when people were coming home from the bar and couldn't sleep much more. My internal clock isn't quite right yet.

Cell block which has been in quite a few films.

One of the most awesome things about Dublin is that every crosswalk has sweet sound effects. It sounds like a laser is fired whenever the light switches to walk. So you hear a PSEWWW and then half second pulses until it switches back. I think it is for people without very good vision but it is great because you don't have to pay attention and can cross when you hear the sound (Plus I like lasers).

The rest of the jail was incredibly old and this was the newest part.

The combination of conversion rate and being a major city made Dublin fairly expensive. However, we are doing our best to keep costs low. We actually just got a 5 euro snack or drink voucher from Ryanair due to the 6 hour delay (They are so generous). We won't get to see much of Glasgow because of the bad weather, but that is the way the cookie crumbles (I wish I had a cookie right now). Just gotta roll with the punches and all that business.

Until next time Dublin.