Part One: A Long Walk

Note: I couldn't get the fecking computer at the hostel to work yesterday. So now I'm at a cafe, where it's bloody cheaper. And it's working

June 16th: Bloomsday. Named after James Joyce's character in Ulysses. Never read the book, no desire to, and we didn't do anything yesterday anyways. What we did do was sleep in until 9:15 (easy with no dogs on the bed and no drunk Germans), jumped in another cold shower, and walked to Phoenix Park, location of the Dublin Zoo. Quite nice small zoo, famous for their large cat breed programs. You could get very close to these animals. The Jaguar was pacing a mere window away from my head. Didn't seem very impressed by all of us. We also had the fortune of spending the day with every schoolkid in the Dublin area, as they were all on field trip at the same time.

After a nice spot of tea at a little cafe right outside the zoo, we walked to Jameson Distillery. They aren't doing any manufacturing, but it's a little tour with a video, then free whiskey. Kevin and I both volunteered to do a 'taste test' at the end. I'd never been a big whiskey drinker, but the Jameson was quite smooth. I enjoyed it more than I thought. The wine tasting is training my palate. Our tour guide discussed the difference between Irish, Scotch, and Bourbon whiskey (times distilled, flavor of water, type of barrels). Starving, we hopped the light rail back to City Center, and visited Wagamama, a noodle bar. I tried it the first time I was in the UK, and loved it. It was just as good as I remembered, and Kevin approved of my choice.

After a brief hostel break, we did the musical pub crawl. What a riot. Our two musicians took us to three different pubs, discussed their instruments, types of songs, and cracked loads of jokes. It was nice to focus on the music without being surrounded by talking people. And we bought a CD, which we will play for everybody when we finally have a house party. After a bedtime snack of Pringles, sugar snap peas, and jaffa cakes, we slept.

Kisses (Hi Mom)
Jenny