Oh Declan

Despite the late night, Stephanie and I woke up early and tucked into an Irish breakfast. I ate white pudding...not bad...not great after a night of beer. Then it was off to the Guinness Storehouse to see how the magical beer is made. I have to admit, I HATE Guinness. However, when we reached the 5th (or 6th or 7th) floor of the storehouse and they handed us a free Guinness, I took a sip, and it was GOOD. Nothing like an American Guinness. I can now see what the fuss is about, and I understand why Europeans think American beer is crap.


After the Guinness experience, Stephanie and I headed off on a quick sightseeing tour. As I said before, Dublin is small so we were able to walk from one side of the city to the other in under 30 minutes, passing everything on our ''to see'' list along the way. There's the Dublin Castle, oh there's Trinity College, the St. Patrick's Cathedral is on the right....and....we're done. To reward ourselves for finishing all our sightseeing before 1 pm, we decided to take a quick nap. During the afternoon we stopped by the Temple Bar Food Market and had a snack - they had Mexican food!! The one thing I miss more than anything is Mexican food as it's practically non-existent or inedible in Paris. It wasn't quite El Rodeo in Dublin, but it certainly will tide me over for another month.


After our snack, we stopped in a pub for a late afternoon beer then headed toward the famous Grafton Street for some shopping. As I said before, Dublin girls are surprisingly fashionable, and we couldn't resist doing our part to help the struggling UK economy. I'm not sure if I've told you all, but you can probably imagine, that the French women who are in charge of the dressing rooms in Paris are not always known for being nice, welcoming, or at all helpful. It was refreshing to walk into a dressing room where the girls not only smiled and said hello, but offered opinions, other sizes, and basically did their jobs. After lightening my wallet on a pair of jeans, a cute shirt, and several souvenirs, we returned back to the hotel to spruce ourselves up for the night.


Once we were decked out, we headed for dinner. The guideback had recommended this pub called O'Neill's. Well, there was a game earlier that day (rugby, we think), and every pub/street was jampacked. Apparently the seating style at most pubs is self-seating - meaning, push your way through hundreds of drunk Irish men and grab a table the second someone stands up (even if they are just heading to the bathroom...you snooze you lose). The food was also served cafeteria style - grab a tray and load up on Irish stews, potatoes and meats, followed by some good draft beer. I chose an Irish beef and Guinness stew - a little heavy before a night of drinking, but really good.


With our stomachs full it was time for a night out. But first, I must Side Bar (as I love to do).

Side Bar: Last November, Stephanie and I went to Vegas and she met a nice Irish boy named Declan and fell in love (not really, but just go with it). So after Declan returned to Dublin (that's nice alliteration) and Stephanie returned to Virginia, there were a few emails but they both knew their love would not flourish in a trans-continental setting. However, when I moved to Paris and Stephanie decided to visit, how could we not make the short trip across the water to Ireland? Now Stephanie was a little shy, so I agreed to email Declan and let him know we were coming. Although we are still doubting his ''recollection'' of us, he agreed to meet up with the ''Vegas'' girls. Unfortunately, I forgot my cell phone in Paris so we had to find an internet cafe and email him our hotel information. We hadn't heard from him all day - no calls or emails - and had pretty much given up on the idea of reuniting. However, right before we left for dinner, the concierge caught us and said ''a friend left a message for you girls.'' All he had was a phone number so we ran back up to the room and called....and guess who answered? Declan.

So we're trying to imbibe a little liquid courage at dinner to prepare for our rendez-vous at the Barge Pub - apparently, a remote bar where Declan and his friends planned to spend their night out. Stephanie and I decided we needed a bit more liquid courage before making the trek out to the Barge so we stopped by Buskers which turned out to be a really fun bar. It was full of hen parties (or bachelorette parties as we call them in America). I have to say, Dublin girls know how to celebrate the end of their singleness. Costumes, fire truck limos, the whole nine yards. While Stephanie and I were enjoying watching the clientele, we were befriended by three Irish boys. They were hilarious and within minutes had us laughing. And it was at that point, we made the executive decision, NOT to trek out to the Barge Pub and meet Declan. I think a few hours later the decision was slightly regretted when the ''hilarious'' boys became annoying, and we realized we had deliberately not accomplished our entire reason for traveling to Dublin.

However, as it's been quite a few days since Dublin and no call or email from Declan wondering where we might have been that night...I think we may have made the right choice. So we ended the night with some late-night snacks and tried to get a few hours of sleep before our plane back to Paris.