Back in Dublin

I was sad to leave Galway as it was by far my favorite city; the pubs were more authentic, people seemed a bit more friendlier (if that was possible!) and the town just a bit more quaint and welcoming. I took a 3 hour bus ride down to Killarney and found myself in a beautiful little city, even smaller than Galway. I stayed at an adorable little B&B where Gretta welcomed me with open arms. She served fresh breakfast every morning and I had the cheese on toast with a poached egg and grilled tomatoe. The B&B was just minutes from downtown and I found myself wandering in and out of little stores and ended up at a wonderful little restaurant, The Craugh, for some traditional Irish Stew. Wasn't a huge fan of the stew itself but I think that's just my personal taste as everyone around me seemed to be raving about it.

The next day I took a day tour around the ring of Kerry. The weather couldn't have been worse and all my pictures are a foggy mess! It was still quite enjoyable however and we even made a stop at this little farm where this world renowned sheep herder showed us how he trained his dogs with a whistle and have their own unique pitches and know exactly what he's asking the dog to do with each tone and pitch. It was absolutely amazing and I'll upload some videos' of that later on. After the tour was over the tour guide asked if I wouldn't want my own private tour of the lakes of Killarney....who in their right mind would turn that down?? I got some great shots of the lakes and he drove me past their oldest cemetary where his father was barried and where he'll most likely be barried. we then parked the tour bus, got in to his car, where he took me on a mini pub crawl of his favorite places and got to see his friends band play some traditional irish music. couldn't have been a more perfect way to end the day!

Then Swed came up from Dublin that night and we had a wonderful evening with Jameson and Guinness. Monday was back to Dublin so Swed could catch his flight that night. We had quite an adventure with the bus as we missed our connection in Limerick which meant a trip to a local pub to meet some very interesting and fun old gents. Last night I met some of Swed's local Irish friends for a couple pints and great story telling (why are the Irish so full of funny stories...is it just the accent?!)

Today I took a tour of the Jameson distillery and was selected as 1 of 8 out of 30 people for a private taste testing. We were even awarded with an official certification with our name on it as official Jameson taste testers! What a great start to the day. I'm off to my favorite spot for fish and chips and later today I hope to catch the Lord of The Dance later this evening.

Sorry no photo's - this internet cafe seems to be exceedingly slow at loading pictures. But rest assured I have over 1,500 amazing shots that i'll update on here soon.

Cheers!

Short and Sweet

Visited the Burren yesterday on a day trip up to Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely beautfiul Country side. The tour guide was characteristically very kind, friendly and humorous. There was a lot of history to take in but what I loved the most was an 'experiment he had us do by lying on the ground in silence for 1 minute....and after that 1 minute he said..."and now you know how the Irish cows live every day" it was quite amusing and quite an incredible experience. We were offered the chance to tie something to the tree of forgiveness which is basically a way to tie something to the tree and supposedly leave your troubles behind you with whatever you left on the tree....the red ribbon is mine :)

We ended that tour with a trip to 'Granny's kitchen' for fresh homemade apple pie and carrot cake and traditional irish coffee's...simply devine!

Then on to the Cliff's of Moher. Not enough words exist to describe the beauty of this place. I want to say it's like the Grand Canyon but 100 times better...but i've never been to grand canyon so not quite a fair statement. but still breathtaking

 It's a beautiful and sunny day here in Galway and I'm off for more exploring and to decide what's for dinner. The plan is to head on to Kilarney tomorrow then possibly back to Dublin for a day on Monday to see my Swed friend off before he heads back home.

Best Meal of My Life

I had, quite possibly, the  best meal of my life last night. I ventured outside the touristy area and went in for a culinary adventure to L'Ecrivain. I had their tasting menu which happened to be a three hour adventure with loads of complimentary dishes and wine thrown in there. It was also the best service I've ever experienced in my life (they even brought me a bowl of olives with my martini without me asking, and for those of you that know how I like my martini's you can imagine how excited I was to see that.
Pics aren't of the best quality b/c they're from my phone, but you get the idea.

Chilled Gazpacho - basil oil and croutons. It was light and refreshing but overall not very flavorful

Sea bass - pan seared, consumme, avruga caviar. Cooked to literal perfection with a crispy skin on top and light and buttery underneath

Cured Halibut - mackerel rillette, pickled carrot, potato. Not my favorite but cooked really well and the spicy mustard was a really nice touch and the perfect compliment to the mackerel.

Compliments of the chef - tomato taurine (marinated overnight) and veal sweet breads with garlic gnocchi. Still not a huge fan of sweet breads though they were done really well, my favorite were the slightly sweet and creamy gnocchi!

Another compliment of the house - pims cocktail on ice. Was a nice break between dishes and is meant to cleanse the pallet. Very refreshing!

After this I took a 5 minute break and chatted up the manager about the history of the restaurant and his passion for food and excellent service; needless to say I had a huge crush!

Roscommon Lamb - loin, shoulder, leek, confit roasted wet garlic. The lamb is from the northern region of Ireland where they're famous for their meats. The lamb was so juicy and tender, the shoulder was wrapped in polenta which was not very flavourful but a nice combo. The mushrooms were the most amazing shrooms I've ever tasted - hands down. They're some gourmet mushroom from France that I don't know how to spell or pronounce, so I won't try. But they were heavenly.

 

Hereford Beef
tongue, smoked garlic butter, oxtail and celeriac tart. This was the most savory dish of all, and by far my favorite. The meat was extremely tender and practically melted in my mouth. Traditionally a butcher will hang their meat for 20 days, specialty/gourmet shops will hang the meat for about 28 days, but they hang their meat for 32 perfect days! The different cuts of meat and how they were all prepared were phenomenal and I'm frustrated with my lack of vocabulary to properly describe how amazing each bite was.

Pre-Dessert, another compliment on the house. Some sort of seaweed from the chef's home town in Northern Ireland. It was a gooseberry  purre and shortbread on top.

Irish strawberry - consomme, black pepper and strawberry shortbread. Light and refreshing and just perfect. My favorite was the basil (or in an irish accent - bah-zil) and had some sort of crunchy texture to it but melted on my tongue.

The petite fours - The one in the middle was a marshmallow swirled with organic raspberry sauce. The lemon macarron was exquisite and I forget what the others were but all equally delicious in their own right. The espresso was a real gem as well. Lusso espresso is an exclusive way of making espresso and apparently ensures that no one within a 10 mile radius of their restaurant can make it since they own the rights....or something like that.

I spent the day wandering around the city and stumbled upon a gem of a restaurant for lunch - The Church. Which is quite literally an old converted St. Mary's church where the founder of Guinness himself got married! There I ordered a pint, of course, and the best Cod fish n chips I've had in a really long time.
I then found myself in front of the Dublin Castle and snuck my way right in to a tour that was just starting. After the tour I just headed North toward the sound of live music and came upon St. Stephens park which was beautiful and lively. I got lost at one point so found a small little pub and after about 2-3 hours and many friends (most of which I really couldn't understand b/c of their thick irish accents) I found my way back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.

It was quite the day! I'm now in my Hostel in Galway after a 20 minute taxi ride (since the last bus left for the day!)  but it was worth every penny since I got an insiders view on what and what not to see in town. I'm headed to the Cliffs of Mohr day trip tomorrow and if all goes as planned I'm meeting Swed on the way as he'll be coming from Dublin.

More later....I'm famished and saw an adorable pub/restaurant around the corner that's calling my name.

Guinness!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh.......that's exactly what was going through my mind after the first sip of Guinness hit my lips. It was like nothing I'd ever tasted before....certainly not anything like what they pour back in the states. The self guided tour of the Store House was your standard brewery tour; you start by standing at the bottom of the world's largest pint glass, which rises up through the centre of the seven story building, you learn that there's a 9,000 (!!) year lease on the land that the founder, Arthur Guinness, signed when he first purchased the property. 

Then you go on a self guided tour and work your way up to the 7th floor to the Gravity bar (the best part by far!!).

Your entry ticket entitles you to one free pint of Guinness, which as previously mentioned, is the most outstanding Guinness I've ever tasted. It's cold, refreshing, frothy and gets better with every sip!

The bar itself is a wall of windows and allows for breath-taking panoramic 360° views of the city.

After the tour I hopped back on the bus for about an hour before I realized I was more struggling to stay awake than I was listening to the tour guide so I disembarked the bus and made my way back to the hostel. My Swed friend wanted to meet up so we decided to meet up for dinner at 8. The moment I stepped outside it started pouring so we nixed the Brazen Head idea since it was about a 15 minute walk and I didn't have an umbrella. We walked for about 3 minutes until we found a nice little restaurant called The Bank on College Green with a sign outside that read: 'World's National Bar of the Year 2007'. Done and done! I had a delightful sea bass and he had a seafood linguine (after I explained what half the items were as they didn't translate well from Swedish to English).

We had a really great time and decided to keep the evening going with some drinks. I'd been wanting to check out the Temple Bar right next to my Hostel, so that's what we did. He introduced me to his favorite shot - bailey's and sambucca, quite delicious indeed!

This is Dave Browne - He just broke the Guinness book of World Records for the longest marathon playing live guitar. 114 hours live!!

                                       "Come on, give me a big smile!!"



Off for more exploring and picture taking!!

Dublin - What's not to love?!

I arrived in Dublin yesterday afternoon and was greeted with cold, windy and rainy weather. Not to worry I had my Giants cap on and was ready to go. After checking in to my hostel (6 female ensuite room and half the size of my last hostel) I enquired at the front desk about a great food spot not too far away - she quickly started gushing about her favorite burger joint just around the corner and I was quickly on my way. GBK (gourmet burger kitchen) was everything she said it would be and more. While I ended up getting the vegetarian option (saving my calories for Guinness and Jameson) it ended up being one of the top 3 veggie burgers I've ever had!!



Portobello mushroom, aubergine, roasted red pepper, sweet potato, camembert cheese, rocket & onion jam  - amazing!

After GBK I wandered out on to the streets and was allured by the sound of an Irish band playing not too far up the street. I popped in for a look and decided it was time for my first shot of Jameson in Ireland.

After my second beer I was approached by a lovely young lad named Jasper - a tax attorney from Sweden. We chatted for a couple hours and agreed to meet back up at 8pm for the pub tour I'd signed up for. Before we parted ways he told me about the hostel he was staying at which was only £12 as I had been bragging earlier that mine was only £25/night. Naturally he had to see mine to see if there was anything significantly better for the price difference so I snuck him right past the front desk with a sign displayed in the window "Strictly no guests allowed!" As we walk in to my room we're greeted by my new hostel mate who, in two seconds, recognized Jasper as the guy she met earlier in the day at her last hostel before she had to switch to this one. She had literally just finished emailing him about catching up for a pint later that night...now how crazy is that?!

Long story short - we all met up later that night for a 4 pub crawl through the Temple Bar area. Most of the places played all the top 20 pop songs from the US but a few had some live Irish bands and I even tried my hand at some Irish dancing....it was quite entertaining I'm sure.

This is my hostel-mate Nancy and my Swedish friend Jasper

As part of our £10 fee for the pub crawl we were greeted with a shot of bailey's at each bar.

Pub crawl friends

Great Irish Band



It's 1pm here, I've been up for two hours and have managed to find a little hole in the wall place for breakfast (mediocre at best) and find an internet cafe to check email and write this update.

The plan next is to hop on a city tour bus to get my bearings on the city so I can wander around aimlessly tomorrow. I hope to hit up the Guinness factory this evening and then head over to Brazen head (Ireland's oldest pub!) for dinner.

Jet Lag

Hello from London! Well Heathrow airport to be exact. So I made it through security in a complete daze, managed to make my way to my terminal and spotted a bar/restaurant and immediately felt at ease. I glanced at the menu.....breakfast, ok they must not have replaced their menus, either that or they serve breakfast at all hours of the day here in England (it is9pm after all). Weirdos.

After about 5 minutes my adorable waitress pops over and asks if I would care for any coffe or tea.....uh no thanks, I'll have a dirty martini with 3 olives please. It Ll becomes clear in about 5 seconds when her smile turns to a look of confusion and embarrassment...it is in fact 9 in the morning!! Oh boy, this is going to be a long day. My flight for Dublin doesn't leave for another 4 hours! I also have about 30 minutes left on my wifi connection...apparently 'free wifi' isn't something they've caught on to here yet. Good news is....the bar is indeed open and I'm working on my second bloody, things could be worse, ey? (ok, last time I'm using that, I swear. Funny how it took only 72 hours in Canada to naturally finish my sentences with 'ey'?!)

Loving the British accents btw....wish I could stay here a bit longer.

Au Revoir Montreal!

While my stay in Montreal was short it was by no means lacking in interesting people, great food and beautiful sights. Here's a few takeaways from my trip:

1. The people of Montreal love their graffiti murals! Most every where I walked there was sure to be a mural on the side of a building, bus stop sign or the back of a bank building. These murals were no small feat either; some were extremely detailed while others were creative and even a bit odd - but all were worth stopping to admire.

 

2. Montreal is very Green - from their designated bike paths (SF has nothing on Montreal when it comes to being biker friendly)

to their impressive metro system to their gardens. Below are a few shots from the Sentier Urbain I stumbled on this morning. This lot was once a run down empty space home to rif raff, drug users and prostitutes until a group took it over and turned it in to a beautiful garden that cultivates green life. 

3. Montreal LOVES their restaurants. Saint Catherine street is lined with restaurants as far as the eye can see, and it's quite beautiful to walk down

 Their Poutine - french fries with cheese curds and brown gravy - is their biggest claim to fame. I didn't make it to the recommended spot for Poutine as I didn't have time. What I did try was just alright, the cheese was a bit rubbery and the gravy was a little too runny for my liking. Still worth trying!

4. Lot's of History! I walked around China town (note: there will be no pictures of China town as it's exactly the same as SF, NY, Chicago and any other major city in the US) and all other parts of the city and there was an impressive amount of old brick buildings, churches

and historical monuments. I made my way down to the beach and stopped at this old Clock Tower and walked up it's 129 steps to the top for breath taking views of the city.

Local artist walking down what felt like the Fisherman's Wharf of Montreal

All pastries at this place had some sort of Maple element to it - I even tasted the most heavenly Maple Syrup and Grand Marnier!

'Cafe' Starbucks - yeah, not buyin it

5. Most people I met were visiting from Toronto. Like my friends here who were celebrating a Bachelor party

 

Last night in Montreal was spent eating a delightful French meal - Duck Confit over salad with a delicious housemade dressing.

I had a brilliant spot outside on the terrace perfect for people watching while I enjoyed my glass of Mumm

I then headed back to the Hostel to catch the local band playing for a couple hours with my new friends

Josh - the resident bar tender/chef/comedian/tour guide/receptionist

That's it for now. Off to catch my bus to the airport.

Stay cool Montreal!