A wonderful Wednesday romp around Dublin
Fact: Irish Physicist John Tyndall (1820-1893) was the first person to explain why the sky was blue. He said "see, it's stopped raining, that's why the sky is blue"
And so started our chilly Wednesday in sunny Dublin as we stepped out of the Jury's Inn in search of "Slattery's Pub" which is one of the few "early open" public houses serving the traditional Irish fry up breakfast. The pub was featured on Anothony Bourdain's "The Layover" and one of the places we made sure to hit. On the way to Slattery's, we spotted a lovely little fixer upper.
Steph reckons we could flip this one no trouble and make a bomb on it. I am doubtful, although, they do seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to keep it standing, so it might have some historic relevance.
As we were eyeing the menu board outside, one of the locals quipped "too much" and laughed.. A few minutes later he re-appeared inside and added "not the food" which we thought was very polite, not wanting to leave us with any negative impression of the obviously well-liked establishment.
The barman at Slattery's was super cool. Told us all about the day Tony Bourdain came in to film the show. Explained that the bar had been rotated 90 degrees since then, and even logged us onto his secure wireless network so we could check Google Maps.
Next we went to check out "The Church" a swank restaurant which is housed in a rather impressive Church.
There were street musicians playing on this day, one fellow was playing the most beautiful guitar composition which I will make sure to include in our video. One other thing happened early morning though as I was filming. Two men walked up to me and started talking about my camera and boom, noting it was an iPhone. They looked dodgy if you get what I mean. I was immediately aware that they were trying to distract me so I pointed out to them I was filming the music motioning for quiet. When I stopped the cam I clasped my hand around it as he was asking me how much the mic and boom setup cost and whether or not an iPhone purchased in America would work in Dublin (Translation: If I steal this right now, will I be able to sell it?) We started to walk away from them quickly. That's the thing about Dublin they have a petty crime problem. When you go into the stores, you can see security guards posted on the doors. When you go to car parks, even out in places like Glendalough Valley, you see signs saying thieves are present. Northern Ireland has the same problem. So, while here, we have been extra vigilant. As we were walking away though, I noticed I had left the zipper of my camera bag undone. Inside the bag was my $2000 Canon camera.. luckily it was still there.
We went back over to Trinity College next and viewed the amazing "Book of Kells" exhibit in this very impressive library. The Book of Kells Exhibit is the No. 2 attraction in all of Ireland.
What can we say about this library? Awesome seems so inadequate, but is the only word I can come up with to describe it. The number of ancient manuscripts and books in this library, many under current restoration, is staggering. We saw bibles like this one from the mid-14th century. We saw the oldest harp in Ireland:
After the library, we were famished so we set off on our wild goose chase looking for The Cake Cafe, which had been featured in The Layover episode. For some reason we had it noted as being located in Temple Bar off Grafton Street, but it was actually a good 15 minute walk further out, but the walk was worth it for we enjoyed delicious sponge cake and delicious coffee in this eclectic little haunt.
We made our way back to the hotel for some rest, and later on went out for Pizza and walked in the rain to The Brazen Head to listen to some great Irish traditional music.
And so started our chilly Wednesday in sunny Dublin as we stepped out of the Jury's Inn in search of "Slattery's Pub" which is one of the few "early open" public houses serving the traditional Irish fry up breakfast. The pub was featured on Anothony Bourdain's "The Layover" and one of the places we made sure to hit. On the way to Slattery's, we spotted a lovely little fixer upper.
Steph reckons we could flip this one no trouble and make a bomb on it. I am doubtful, although, they do seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to keep it standing, so it might have some historic relevance.
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| Irish Breakfast at Slattery's Dublin |
As we were eyeing the menu board outside, one of the locals quipped "too much" and laughed.. A few minutes later he re-appeared inside and added "not the food" which we thought was very polite, not wanting to leave us with any negative impression of the obviously well-liked establishment.
The barman at Slattery's was super cool. Told us all about the day Tony Bourdain came in to film the show. Explained that the bar had been rotated 90 degrees since then, and even logged us onto his secure wireless network so we could check Google Maps.
Next we went to check out "The Church" a swank restaurant which is housed in a rather impressive Church.
There were street musicians playing on this day, one fellow was playing the most beautiful guitar composition which I will make sure to include in our video. One other thing happened early morning though as I was filming. Two men walked up to me and started talking about my camera and boom, noting it was an iPhone. They looked dodgy if you get what I mean. I was immediately aware that they were trying to distract me so I pointed out to them I was filming the music motioning for quiet. When I stopped the cam I clasped my hand around it as he was asking me how much the mic and boom setup cost and whether or not an iPhone purchased in America would work in Dublin (Translation: If I steal this right now, will I be able to sell it?) We started to walk away from them quickly. That's the thing about Dublin they have a petty crime problem. When you go into the stores, you can see security guards posted on the doors. When you go to car parks, even out in places like Glendalough Valley, you see signs saying thieves are present. Northern Ireland has the same problem. So, while here, we have been extra vigilant. As we were walking away though, I noticed I had left the zipper of my camera bag undone. Inside the bag was my $2000 Canon camera.. luckily it was still there.
We went back over to Trinity College next and viewed the amazing "Book of Kells" exhibit in this very impressive library. The Book of Kells Exhibit is the No. 2 attraction in all of Ireland.
 |
| Stephani at the Trinity College Library, Dublin |
What can we say about this library? Awesome seems so inadequate, but is the only word I can come up with to describe it. The number of ancient manuscripts and books in this library, many under current restoration, is staggering. We saw bibles like this one from the mid-14th century. We saw the oldest harp in Ireland:
 |
| Oldest Harp in Ireland |
After the library, we were famished so we set off on our wild goose chase looking for The Cake Cafe, which had been featured in The Layover episode. For some reason we had it noted as being located in Temple Bar off Grafton Street, but it was actually a good 15 minute walk further out, but the walk was worth it for we enjoyed delicious sponge cake and delicious coffee in this eclectic little haunt.
We made our way back to the hotel for some rest, and later on went out for Pizza and walked in the rain to The Brazen Head to listen to some great Irish traditional music.
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