Irish Honeymoon: Sláinte or "Cheers" to a Fabulous Day 1 in Dublin

By the time we got off the train it was about 8am and we headed to The Temple Bar section of town. (Scott: If you like the art scene, drinking scene, or the Ireland-is-awesome-simply-because-it-is-Ireland scene you will LOVE Temple Bar! Think Bourbon Street/Beale Street/Pier 39/6th Street/River Walk/etc.) What we realized as we were walking was that we were some of the only people out and about. (Scott: A note to any morning people: this is a theme in Ireland... a recurring theme...) Couple Travel Tip #1: When you arrive at 8am NONE of the shops are open, none of the restaurants seemed to be open, so we had some time to just mellowly enjoy what is known as one of the busiest areas in Dublin. Although we were enjoying the solitude, food was still our main focus and out of all the wonderful options that we would have had if we would have started our day a little later, our first Irish restaurant was... an Italian place. It was not a complete disappointment though, because they definitely served a "Traditional Irish Breakfast" and we both ordered a full plate (Scott: vs. a "half plate" which is a good option for most Americans and anyone else who tends to eat light in the morning). Irish Breakfast consists of:

• 1 egg (cooked to your liking), 
• a stewed tomato (Scott: ick), 
• 1 piece of white pudding, 
• 1 piece of black pudding (think blood sausage), 
• 2 pieces of bacon (which was more like ham) (Scott: and ABSOLUTELY delicious! American restaurants please take note.), 
•  and more toast than you can eat. 

Scott loved it! It was a little too much protein for me, but at the moment it was delicious and a great start to our morning... (Scott: We will talk more about the Irish definition of "pudding" at a later date. Basically, somebody is very confused on the definition.)

After a very fulfilling breakfast, it was, naturally, time for a beer (Scott: this is why I married my wife), so our next stop was the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse. We made a good move and got a map of the city from the car rental place, and found it was pretty easy to get around downtown. (Scott: and by this she means "Scott navigated as always and Sam got a bit pissy whenever we got lost." She denies this but such is love...or marriage as the case may be.) Couple Travel Tip #2: By 10am the crowd was also starting to appear, so it was extremely easy to find the brewery (signs + lots of tour buses). This was one of the more "touristy" experiences in which we were willing to put up with a mob and fork out 17 Euros apiece. You can also get tickets on-line, but even on a busy weekend like St. Patty's, the ticket counters moved quickly.

Being beer nerds and history nerds, we enjoyed the tour - complete with the pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar! Side note for those interested in both beer and history, Scott found a really interesting book on the Guinness family; The Guinnesses by Joe Joyce and would recommend reading it before the tour so you can fully appreciate the legacy that is Guinness.

After the Guinness experience, it was Scott's mission to hit an Irish micro-brewery (which is an exciting search because Ireland's micro-brewery scene is really just starting to appear). (Scott: Note to any history people - and yes, Irish micro-brewery history is a very important part of Irish history writ large - the Irish are in their second contemporary wave of microbreweries.) So, we headed back to Temple Bar via a new route and got a chance to see the original Dublin City Wall and gates from circa 1240 AD. Couple Travel Tip #3: The best thing we did was not really have a plan for the rest of the day and we enjoyed just walking around. Anyway, for those of you who support American micro-breweries, we encourage you all to do the same overseas. Our first stop of the trip was The Porterhouse Brewing Co. and their Oyster Stout is highly recommended (gasp, I know, a stout that's NOT Guinness is a sin). (Scott: Also, even though I am pretty adventurous when it comes to beers an "oyster" anything seemed a bit outlandish. That said, it was very good. Basically a smoky, full flavored stout that paired well with seafood. Definitely worth giving it a try.)

At this point we were also starving (if you can tell our bodies were going through some jet lag/lack of sleep (Scott: lack of beer) adjustments) and, Couple Travel Tip #4, we learned a lesson about Irish pubs with food - you kind of just find a seat and then you kind of try to catch a waiter. (Scott: or don't... depends on how hungry/aggressive you are, which we found out the hard way.) Then you order, and your food comes, but if you want anything you have to hunt down the waiter again, they do not check in on you. (Scott: Ever!) Personally, I loved this set-up, and it really helped us slow down and we did not feel rushed at all. We had our second authentic Irish meal for the day - Irish Stew with lamb - yummy! I love a pub that also has decent food. Another side note that we did not know about until AFTER we got back to the states and Couple Travel Tip #5 - apparently you do NOT need to tip in Ireland because of their minimum wage. So, we made quite a few Irish waiters/waitresses quite happy, but it would have been nice spending that chunk of change on something else. (Scott: Let us know if anyone else has heard differently but that is at least what we were told.)

By now it was about 3pm and beer + warm food = crash time for Sam, so we made our way back to the train station and headed back to the hotel. Minor issue was that the train wait/ride was about an hour and we were definitely doing the head bob, sleep thing on the train which must have been really awesome to witness. With the hotel came a warm bath and soft bed - perfect end to our first day!

 Sláinte! We enjoyed a pint of Guinness at 10am and it was awesome.

 Walking around the city centre all by ourselves in the morning...

 The original Dublin City Wall and gates from circa 1240 AD.

 Beer this way...the signs for the Guinness Storehouse and tours were pretty obvious.

 Beautiful view of the River Liffey (Irish for "a life").