the irishman and i went to ireland a week and half ago.  the main purpose of this visit was to go to one of his friend’s weddings.  although i have been to ireland before, i was very excited for this visit because it was the first time i was going to dublin. i had a long list of things i wanted to do. below are some snaps and stories from the trip, from dublin to the last few days in county tipperary.  

watching the sunrise over the atlantic.  i was very excited and could not sleep. 

i am always taken aback by how green ireland is.  i know it is predictable to describe it this way, but ireland is just so green. 

as soon as we dropped off our bags at the hotel we went out for breakfast.  we were both starving. we found a cute place around the corner from the hotel called d4 urban cafe.  thankfully they served breakfast all day. we each had irish breakfasts and tons of tea.  

  
left: full irish breakfast for him: toast, grilled tomato and mushroom, 2 eggs, rashers, sausages, hashbrown, black & white puddings and beans.

right: mini irish breakfast for me: toast, grilled tomato and mushroom, 1 egg, rasher, sausage, hashbrown and black & white puddings. 

after breakfast, we took a nap for about 4 hours. once we woke up we hit the ground running. we did only have one day in dublin after all. 

first stop: the guinness storehouse!

the tour of the guinness storehouse is a self guided tour.  the great thing about the self guided tour is that we were able to go at our pace. the tour consists of 7 floors detailing everything about guinness from the famous lease of st. james’s gate and ending by having a pint at the gravity bar.

we started by learning about the main ingredients of guinness: water, hops, yeast and barley. we also learned about guinness’ brewing, storing and transportation. we also had a chance to see guinness’ advertising and sponsorship throughout the years. this was a very interesting part of the tour, one of my favorites. 

on the fourth floor of the tour experienced guinness ambassadors taught me how to correctly pour the perfect pint.  i even got a certificate at the end. it is currently on the fridge!

 
after pouring a perfect pint                   the final product!

the final stop on the tour is at the gravity bar. the highest spot in dublin to have a pint. the gravity bar boasts of 360° views of dublin and the freshest guinness. 

a view of dublin from the gravity bar!

we were starving after the guinness storehouse tour, needing some great food we walked to l. mulligan grocer in stonybatter. this place came very highly recommended by clare.

the whole place was very welcoming. we sat upstairs to have dinner since it was brighter and i was planning on taking pictures. 

 
the menus were so cute, they were pasted into old books.

we each had an appetizer and a main. the irishman had the organic black pudding, rhubarb relish and red chard. he said those were some of the best black puddings he had ever had. i tried them and i can tell you they were definitely the best i had!

i had the potted crab with sourdough soldiers.  i had never had potted crab before, i am glad i held out until i went to l. mulligan grocer, because it was well worth the wait.  

now for our mains: he had the 10 oz. rib-eye steak, connemara whiskey butter, portobello mushroom, wilted spinach and twice cooked chips.  the steak was so incredibly juicy!

i had the beer battered whiting, twice cooked chips, crème fraiche mushy peas, tartare sauce and pickled onion. i love fish and chips, these are definitely some of the best i’ve had.  the beer batter on the whiting was so light! and the twice cooked chips very crispy. i don’t know if i can go back to once cooked chips anymore :)

here is the proof of how much we liked dinner:

we had a fantastic time! the staff was very friendly and helpful and the food was superb. i appreciated the beer suggestions with each meal, that was really helpful. thanks again to colin and everyone at l. mulligan grocer!

after dinner we went back to city center and walked around a bit.  we saw the ha’penny bridge on the river liffey.

and walked by temple bar. it was too crowded to go in. 

besides, we were on a quest… a quest for murphy’s ice cream!

we tried a few different flavors.  he had rum raisin, whiskey and brown bread.  

since i was still stuffed from dinner, i only had two flavors. i had whiskey and brown bread ice cream.  the girls behind the counter let me taste the kerry cream as well. 

i had been looking forward to murphy’s ever since we started planning this trip. the brown bread ice cream was simply wonderful. it is such a pity we cannot get murphy’s ice cream in new york (please start exporting murphy’s to nyc, pretty please?).  all of their ice creams were very creamy and you could tell that they were made from natural ingredients. thanks to the staff at the temple bar square store, the girls there were so friendly and knowledgeable. 

after eating ice cream we walked around trinity college for a bit and even went for a drink in one of the irishman’s old haunts.

inside the trinity college campus

finally, it was time to go back to the hotel. we had a wedding to go to the next day and needed to get some rest. 

our day in dublin was fantastic! i definitely want to return.  there are so many more things i want to do so another trip to dublin is in order. 

the next day we went to kildare for his friend’s wedding. his close friend was the groom. he has this really great group of friends from university. they are very close-knit and make an effort to meet up all the time. it seems that any time they see each other is as if time never passed and they pick up right were they left. the wedding was brilliant! i am pretty sure we danced every single song the band played (as dominicans say: we even danced the commercials, hahahaha!). 

a very nice touch: at one point during the night the bride and groom led us outside where we all lit and let some paper lanterns fly away!

irish weddings are so much fun! but if you’ve never gone to one, the one thing i would say is that they last for a long while. for instance, we were dancing until about 3am, after that it was time for the “afters” - this is when the bride and groom along with some of their friends move to another part of the hotel.  there is usually some (or a lot) singing during the afters, they usually go on fir a while - until the last person goes to sleep. at then end, it was the irishman, the bride’s dad and i.  we were up until 8am.

the day after the wedding we all went to the castleknock hotel & country club.  it is a beautiful hotel. we had dinner at one of their restaurants called the park.  it was recently awarded the ‘best food and drink experience for 2010’ by d15 chamber of commerce.

for a starter, we shared the west coast mussels cooked with shallots, white wine & cream; finished with chopped fresh herbs. we liked the sauce the mussels came in so much that we asked for bread to soak some of it. 

for the mains, i had the tempura battered monkfish fillets presented on a bed of wok fried noodles & vegetable strips. i had only had monkfish once before, also in ireland - in connemara.  monkfish is a very delicate fish.  their flavor went perfectly with the spicy noodles they were resting on. 

he had the pan fried tiger prawns tossed with garlic, fresh herbs, vine tomatoes, olives & parma ham, served over a bed of linguine with a hint of lime. they looked delicious, i did not get to really taste them because anytime i would get my fork near i would get a disapproving look.

 
tiger prawn linguine                           monkfish and noodles

after a weekend with the irishman’s friends, it was time to go down to co. tipperary and visit his family. 

it was really nice to see the irishman’s parents and just sit and enjoy some down time after all the weekend fun. 

his parents have some cows and lucky for me, there was a calf due to be born while i was visiting.  growing up in town, nowhere near a farm, i had never had the chance to watch this live and was very much looking forward to it.  

unfortunately the cow was having trouble giving birth. fortunately this was not a new circumstance for his parents and they helped the cow give birth.  it was an arduous process, but thanks to the help and knowledge of the irishman’s parents, both cow and calf are doing ok. 

his name is connor!

about 2 hours after connor was born, the irishman and i drove by to say hello on our way to moneygall.  when we stopped, his dad asked me if i wanted to feed connor. i jumped at the opportunity before he had a chance to back out of it. 

i got to feed connor!

afterwards, and still on the connor high, we drove to terryglass. we went to the pier and hung out for a while.  

after terryglass we drove over to moneygall, the town where barack obama’s great-great-great grandfather is from. he had visited a few weeks before, the town was still covered in irish and american flags.

 
cute tee shirts designed to commemorate the president’s visit. 

we even had a pint inside ‘ollie hayes’ pub, the same where the president and first lady had theirs a few weeks ago. but they did not make as much of a fuss about of us being there.

the next day we went to country choice in nenagh. 

it was a lovely day, so we sat outside and had some tea and of course, desserts.

 
rhubarb crumble for him                     pavlova for me 

county tipperary

this rounds up my very long post on our latest trip to ireland.  it was a brilliant trip! i would like to thank everyone who was so nice to us in the stores/restaurants we went to. thanks for letting me take as many pictures as i wanted and for answering all of our questions. 

also, many many thanks to all of the irishman’s friends, you are always so welcoming and fun.  and last, but absolutely not least, i would like to thank mr. and mrs. c for being such kind hosts.  can’t wait to see you again!

thanks so much for stopping by!