The (Drinking) Culture of Ireland

Some places are better known for their historical and cultural elements and others for their ideality for partying. Dublin is unique in that its defining cultural elements are pubs, breweries and distilleries. I take back what I said about not caring for museums.

I took the ferry into Dublin and arrived Friday evening. I wandered along the River Liffey, which splits Dublin into North and South, and marveled at pub after pub, from which the cheers and laughs of exultant Irish could be heard. I settled into one at random and ordered my first Guinness. By the end of the trip it would be my favorite beer. A couple of hours and a few Karaoke songs later, I met up with my guide, who had recently moved to Dublin and offered to let me stay on his couch. We went to Templebar, a popular cobblestoned walkway lined with bars, and crooned along as a guitarist performed cover songs well into the night.

My visit to the Jameson Irish Whiskey Museum the next day coincided with my first European hangover. Whiskey in the afternoon was about the last thing I wanted, but I reminded myself that this was a cultural stop. Skipping out for a hangover was no different then not going to see the Louvre in Paris. It’s irresponsible drinking. And yes, I just compared a whiskey factory to the Louvre. I collected my wits and my camera and made my way.

There are basically three types of whiskey: Irish, American and Scotch. Scotch has a smoky flavor, which comes from treating the malt with peat smoke. American whiskey is made with corn instead of grain mash, giving it a sweeter quality. Irish Whiskey is known for its smoothness, which comes from triple distillation. As this was explained to us we were handed a shot of each and I was happy there aren’t 5 types of whiskey.

First, the barley is malted, or converted to sugar. It is then mashed by adding hot water and stirring. Yeast is added to the malt and water and it is set-aside for fermentation. The spirit is extracted through distillation, then put into oak casks and stored for several years. Finally, the different barrels of whiskey are “married” in a large vat to give it a uniform taste across all bottles.

Next stop was the Guinness Brewery, a self guided tour that culminated with a Guinness in their Gravity bar, 10 stories high and offering a 360 degree view of Dublin. The Guinness is made on site and the rows of giant vats and complicated maze of pipes is impressively set against the Dublin skyline.

Our last stop on the Dublin culture tour was a famous church where Arthur Guinness was married and Mary Mercer was buried. It was recently converted to a bar! Dublin clearly has a drinking problem, but it is improving. There are 850 pubs in Dublin. In 1750, there were 4,000. And that, my friends, is progress.

Realizing the danger my liver was in if we stayed in Dublin, my guide and my new friends decided to get out of town and go visit the other thing Ireland has lots of – greenery. We headed to Powerscourt, the former castle and estate of the earl of Kildare. This place was magical. Let me paint a picture. I am sitting on the stone terrace of a 14th century castle, looking out over a sprawling lawn, a cascading staircase that stretches several hundred feet, at the feet of which a grand fountain sits and sprays water high into the air, all presented with a back drop of lush rolling hills and a single distant, mountain peak. I must be dreaming.

We strolled through the gardens and let our imaginations wander. We climbed a cannon tower, navigated wooded trails, sat in the Japanese garden, visited a dolphin pond that, disappointingly, had no dolphins, and then we rolled down a steep, grassy hill and laughed like kids. After, we were sore like adults.

My last night in Dublin I went on a literary pub crawl - two actors took us to the drinking establishments frequented by James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Flan O'Brien, and James Plunkett, reenacting famous scenes from their token novels along the way. Paris has its cafes and Dublin has its pubs.

Most fun I’ve had so far:
1. Dublin
2. London

Check out more pictures from Dublin here.

Days 1-2, A Rush of London to the Head

My first night abroad was spent in a quiet upstairs dining room of an old London pub. My guide wanted to take me to her favorite American restaurant, but I swiftly vetoed that idea.

“But English food is so bad!” She exclaimed. English food is famously bad and I am aware of this. I don’t care. Better yet, I’m excited. Now is a good time to tell you my approach to traveling - I’m an immersionist. I don’t much care for museums, guided tours and hotels. I eat in native restaurants and drink the national beer, sleep on couches and hostels and make friends with the locals. I seek out and validate stereotypes. If I hear that the London food is terrible I’m going to seek out the worst, nastiest food in town and it better be disgusting.



For dinner I had Curled Sausage, Meat Pie and warm beer. When I asked the waitress why the beer was warm she explained that it helps combat the frigid London weather. It’s 65 degrees and it’s summer. The meat pie was watery, but the curled sausage was not bad. A little dry. I expected worse, but we can’t have everything.


After dinner we walked by Piccadilly Square, London’s answer to Times Square, before settling onto a park bench in Trafalgar Square. It had been 4 years since I last saw my guide and much had happened. She had married and moved to London and was starting a masters program. I had gone to Law School and started a music website. We had a lot to talk about.

London is a huge city and with only a day to explore I knew I would barely scratch the surface. Small cities are often more enjoyable on quick trips because you get the whole story. With big cities you have two choices – pick a slice and enjoy it thoroughly or blast through town shooting pictures first and asking questions later. I opted for the latter.

London runs along the Thames River and offers spectacular views along the South Bank. If you limit your stops and power walk, you can see many of London’s famous landmarks in a day by taking the Queen's Walk.

We set out early and headed to the London Bridge. Maybe you remember the song “London Bridge is Falling Down”? I doubt anybody would notice if it did, because it’s completely underwhelming. The two-towered iconic London landmark that comes to mind is actually called Tower Bridge. Everybody knows that…




After snapping 42 pictures of London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the walkway in between, we headed towards Borough market. This place was awesome – an outdoor bazaar with meats, cheeses, fruits, deserts, street food and vendors. I liked it so much we stayed for 15 minutes.



Next stop was the Shakespeare Globe, a reconstruction of the 17th century Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare started his career as an actor. We didn’t have time to go in, but I took some great pictures of the outside!



Further up we came across the London Book Fair where I set out to find a classic English spy novel. Instead I bought a King Arthur novel. Adjacent to the stands was a graffiti museum (OK, it was just a skate park). I didn't have any spray paint, but I had the next best thing - a Bic pen! Now London will never forget me.

I was prepared to continue documenting the famous sights along the Queen's Walk but I’m starting to ramble and if I couldn’t commit enough time to visit London properly, I sure as hell won’t commit enough time to write about it properly. So I'm going to wrap this up and get on my way to Ireland.

I also saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Chinatown, Hyde Park, lots of bikes, pubs, theatres, bridges, alleys, phone booths, double decker red buses, banks, old school cabs driving the wrong way and random, sideways rain that appears and disappears without warning. London is your full service city and a great place to live; try to do it in a day and your head will spin.

Sorry London, it's time to go.


Check out more pictures from London here

One Way Ticket

Friends and family, greetings from Europe! Over the next few weeks or, dare I say, months, I will be planing, training, busing, ferrying and walking across England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Amsterdam, Poland, Prague and…well that’s as far as I’ve planned. I have a one-way ticket and an appetite for adventure, so I am keeping my itinerary loose and my mind open. I invite you to come along for the ride with my Andrewlogue, a series of pictures and tales about the places I go, the people I meet, the facts I discover and the lessons I learn.

This is not a travelogue. It is not a guide to Europe. I undoubtedly will make stereotypes and assumptions and I will be wrong in doing so. It takes an expert to accurately profile even a single person, let alone a nation. I intend to share my experience in a short and colorful way in the hopes that my days ahead provide you a brief mental respite. Without further ado…