Frat Brothers and Guinness

Look who showed up on my doorstep:

Maggie, me, Brittany-Dsigs take over Dublin!

It's my friend and frat brother Maggie Stremel, just in from Paris, France! She came in for the weekend and is currently sleeping on a couch I dragged into my room because we had a busy day.

She arrived around noon and Brittany and I headed into the city centre with her and her friend Anna to get the full Dublin experience. We took her on the scenic tour, lead by Brittany, that included walking through St. Stephen's Green, Graffton Street, and along the River Liffey. We ended up eating lunch at an authentic Irish restaurant called The Quays (pronounced "keys") in the Temple Bar area. I had the burger along with Brittany, while Maggie and her friend Anna had the beef and Guinness pie (always an Irish favorite.) Stevie had a cajun chicken caesar salad and her friend Alyscia had a panini. As you can tell remembering meals is very important to me. And each of our meals was only 10 euro and was really filling, something us poor college tourists are looking for.

After lunch we headed over to the Guinness Storehouse, a completely touristy thing that we had not done since being in Dublin and we wanted to share it with Maggie and our other guests. If there is one thing that the Irish are more proud of than their writers and St. Patrick it is Guinness. (They are also really proud that the Titanic was built in Belfast; at least it didn't sink due to shoddy workmanship.)It was a good exhibit and most certainly something that you have to do while in Dublin. The stout is no longer made in the storehouse, but they have a multimedia exhibit showing how it was done. You also get to taste 7-10 day old Guinness, which is as fresh as it comes. I thought it was very bitter, but then again the most beer I've ever had is equivalent to about three tablespoons. After the tour you reach the Gravity Bar on the top level which has great panoramic views of the city.

Roasted barley. It tasted a lot like Guinness.

Brittany and Maggie sampling very fresh Guinness Stout

Various Guinness bottles

Guinness Ads

It's got a blonde head just like me!

We went back to my place, the apartment that everyone seems to congregate in, and talked until dinnertime, and then dinnertime was nothing special; we just went to the Centra and got a few things and each made our own dinner. Afterwards Maggie, Brittany, Anna, and I went downtown to hit up some of the bars in the Temple Bar area. We ended up sitting on an outside heated patio at Fitzsimons for a while then headed over to the Porterhouse briefly for about ten minutes of live music. Everyone was super tired, especially Maggie who had been up since 5 am, and we have a big day in Kilkenny tomorrow, so we headed back to Roebuck Hall and now I sit writing this as Maggie drifts to sleep on the couch I stole from my common room.