Grapes 'n Grain

eating and drinking our way across nations...

Friday, March 03, 2006

Hard Time and Hard Spirits

PUB COUNT: 31

First and foremost - it's snowing BIG GIANT snow here in Dublin City. Who knows how long it will last, but they say that this is the first serious snow they've seen since 1981!!!

So... anybody of any importance in Irish history seemed to have done some hard time in jail/prison - specifically, Kilmainam Gaol. So naturally, Drake and I spent some time in jail today with the ghosts of hardened criminals and political revolutionaries. This paticular jail operated from the 1780's - 1910, spanning 3 generations of bread and turnip thiefs, including a fair share of women and children. During the great famine (you know the one), it is said that folks would deliberately land themselves in jail for survival purposes alone because at least you were guaranteed 3 square meals a day there.

We rode the "hop on hop off" bus today to get an overview of Dublin. Our tour guide was kind enough to sing tradional Irish songs to us like "Cockles and Muscles" which of course, I sang along with. The Irish take their singing very seriously here. Did I mention that I *love* Ireland???!!!

Our second stop was at the Jameson Distillery where I was chosen as one of 4 volunteers to do a whiskey taste test of popular Irish whiskeys (Jameson, Paddy and Powers) against an American whiskey (yes - Jack Daniels, of course) and a Scottish Scotch (Johnny Walker). I will not reveal which one I chose as tastiest. That would be invading my secret thoughts. The distillery was really quite impressive. The Irish refer to their whiskey as "the spirit of Ireland" or the true name in Gaelic translates to "the water of life."

Next stop was Trinity College which was founded by Queen Elizabeth I. She founded this college to accomplish three things, as explained by our tour guide. 1) to convert the Irish Catholic to Protestant, 2) to civilize the Irish, and 3) to "make manners on them". She failed in all three.

Last night we went back to this pub called "The Pale" where we met our friend, Paddy, and listened (finally!) to some real Irish bar music. The highlight was when they sang one of my faves called "Whiskey in the Jar".

Other side notes on Ireland: The reason for all the colorful doors is because during the reign of Queen Victoria, she asked the Irish to paint all of their doors black to honor the death of her husband. The Irish, not liking to be told what to do, all painted their doors the colors of the rainbow... every last one of them different. It also aided the gentlemen stumbling home from the pubs to recognize which house was theirs. :)

In London, the most popular food is Indian Cuisine. Specifically - chicken tikki masala (the most commonly ordered dish in London). In Ireland - it's hands down Italian food. There is literally an Italian restaurant on every street run by real Italian folk.

They refer to Cider here as "the mad juice". I love it!

Lastly - for those wondering about the fate of the Red Shoe Galleries - the answer is this:
YES - the red shoe galleries will be delivered! We bought a few cheepo disposables in Kilkenny and have been stocking up on Red Shoe momments. Unfortunately, you won't see anything until we return to the states and get these developed onto CD ROM, but they will be there.

Tonight - we take the long anticipated Literary Pub Crawl. Tomorrow morning, we depart at 6:25 (lift off) for Scotland.

Hope everybody is doing well!

Cheers...

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