Pints of Guinness make you strong

DUBLIN — I made the pilgrimage today.

The Irish Mecca that is the Guinness Storehouse was fairly impressive. For my last full day in Dublin, I just had to make the trip across town for the brewery.

You can see the brewery for miles, but then you walk up and see the huge gate. Walking through is like entering the Jurassic Park of beer. The place has a pretty fancy entrance. It cost 14 euro to get in, but you can walk through the five stories of museum.

They break down the whole process from harvest to delivery. You can walk inside old stout vats, start the next batch of brew and taste their “North Star” Guinness, which is only available in Ireland as part of their brewhouse series.

You can even see part of a torpedo that hit a Guinness transport ship during WWII.

The museum also covers Guinness’ unique advertising history and some of their iconic slogans, like “Guinness makes you strong” and “Guinness is good for you.” The exhibits had a lot of videos and a fountain and such. At the top is the Gravity Bar that looks over all of Dublin.

The bar also people to look almost 360 degrees over the city. And the glass has quotes from James Joyce written on it. A pint comes free with the tour, so I had my first at about 11 this morning. It was fun seeing the city after I had walked most of it, so I could recognize different places.

Afterword, I tried to stop at a pub called “The Quill” for lunch, but it was closed. So I went to Fitzgerald’s and had a pint with Irish Stew. It was pretty filling and I’m sure it upped my Blood Irish Content. Then I checked the buses to Cork.

So on a not as fun note — apparently Dublin has this ridiculous drug problem. There was the giant coke deal that went awry two days ago. But then yesterday three dealers were driving through a suburb south of the city and one guy in the back seat shot the passenger twice in the head and dumped him in the street at like 3 in the afternoon.

It seems like there’s been a bit more police activity today after that, but they need to get a handle on the whole cocaine thing. In better news, authorities have determined there was no Irish connection to the terrorist attempts in London and Glasgow. They raided an apartment/bomb factory today.

I’ve still got to figure out what to do with my last night in town. Then I’ll catch the 10 a.m. to Cork, the second largest city in Ireland. I have tons of great photos (and maybe a video) from the Guinness Storehouse. I’ll upload those a bit later.

Slainte!

And this, is Dublin … with “Finnegan’s Wake” in the sky.