Dazed in Dublin
It's tempting in this final trip blog post to break the
format of my previous posting but I think I'll try and stick to it:
The Guinness
Challenge completed!
I somehow guessed that finding a pint of Guinness back in Dublin, the
place I started my challenge back in 2004, would not be too difficult.
My aim was to finish the challenge in the same place it had started, in the Guinness brewery itself, or more accurately,
the Guinness Storehouse museum/exhibition directly adjacent to the brewery.
Guinness realised donkey's years ago that the
idea of showing people around the brewery itself was not going to be feasible
with increasing visitor numbers and built the Guinness Storehouse.
It's been so successful I've heard it quoted
as Europe's No1 indoor visitor attraction.
I'm guessing there must be different categories as it would be pushing
it to beat the St Peter's Basilica or alike but there's no doubt about it, it
is a great success and a nice source of income too for Guinness.
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And there you have it - the final pint of Guinness, 15 years after starting the challenge. |
First question I asked myself was should I ask anyone to
join me. Of course. People had been such
a big part of this challenge, whether it be people I already knew or people I
met throughout Europe. Next question
then, how do I choose who to ask? Do I
know them well enough to ask? etc etc.
Problem solved by the wonders of social media - ask all my FB friends
and it will be up to them if they fancy it or not or were left scratching their
heads over who the hell I was and how did they become a FB friend. That just left a group of social media shy
people to contact and the plot was fully hatched.
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Quentin pouring me the last Guinness of my European adventure, back where it all began, in the Guinness Storehouse. |
The next part of the plan was to work out a suggested
itinerary for the long weekend but leave it up to individuals which parts of it
they wished to take park in or not.
That
too worked out very well - for us at least.
The only bit left to organise was the trip to the Guinness
Storehouse.
Fortunately they were very
kind to us.
Again, not making a big
fuss, they suggested a time for us to visit, a welcome discounted entry price, a
nice low key greeting and the rest was up to us.
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Proof that I drank it! With No1 son. |
So at 10.30am on them morning of July 27th a group 40 odd very bleary-eyed people turned
up for a photo opportunity outside the iconic Guinness gate. I was staggered everybody turned up
considering most people's weekend had started on Thursday or Friday and there
had been much sampling of Guinness and other beverages already. But turn up they did and I'm very grateful
for the efforts made by people to get there.
Maybe the trip around the Guinness Storehouse didn't go
quite as planned - that's because I had forgotten to create a plan. We all took it at our own pace, enjoying the
various exhibitions and entertainment including traditional music on offer
before arriving in the Gravity Bar on the top floor for the complimentary pint
of Guinness - the exact same place the
challenge had begun in 2004 when Sofia, Bulgaria, was picked out of the hat as
my first destination.
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With No2 son |
I never did get to say a few words of thanks and a few
highlights of countries visited. It was
far too noisy for that. Apologies to
those who came along for missing that bit!
It was however a special occasion for me. To have family and friends from all different
parts of my life congregated there.
Team make-up
I tried to add up how many people came along to the weekend celebrations.
I think it was 52, coincidentally the same
number of countries I had visited in the challenge.
Not everyone came to the Guinness brewery,
some people we met at other times over the weekend. I purposely won't name
people so as to maintain internet anonymity.
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Brothers propping up the bar. |
Thanks to everyone who made it.
It was the first time we as a family, my wife
and two sons, had been together for 18 months.
Hopefully I won't have to visit another 52 European countries to enable
that to happen again!
Son No2 kindly bought along ten friends just so as we didn't appear to be a SAGA holiday trip.
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Apparently, not everyone drinks Guinness! |
Just like when I finished my walk around the coast of
England and Wales back in 2004, the people gathered represented different
stages of my life all the way back to school days, through college days,
friends made via work and hobbies and of course family. I was impressed by the efforts people made to
mix and hopefully enjoy themselves.
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Some of the Swansea contingent |
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And some of the younger contingent. |
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A special prize to these two -for making it to both my coastal walk completion in 2004 and this one. |
Sightseeing
To add a bit of culture to the trip we paid a visit to the National Gallery to see Caravaggio's 'The Taking of Christ'. The painting has a family connection, the motivating factor behind the visit. For many years the painting lay undiscovered in the dining room of my wife's uncle. Well, not his personal dining room but the dining room of a Jesuit Community in Leeson St, Dublin, where he was one of the Brothers. The fact that many of them were probably smokers no doubt added some layers of staining to the picture over the years. The painting had been thought lost for 200 years, and had been hanging in the house in Leeson Street since the 1930s when it had been gifted to the Brothers by an Irish pediatrician, Marie Lea-Wilson, for the support they gave her following the shooting of her husband. It was thought to be a copy of the original painting not the original Caravaggio itself. The painting is now on permanent loan to the National Gallery
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Gathered around Caravaggio's painting |
Food and Drink
The food bit seemed to get overlooked once again. We got so absorbed in meeting people and
chatting we forgot to eat sometimes. On
our first night there we made a late night visit to a eastern European eatery
to make sure we had something before bedtime!
Friday was more eating on the hoof and by Saturday we needed a meal
inside of us so found a steakhouse.
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A suitably blurry image from the Stag's Head on the Thursday evening. |
The drink on the other hand took centre stage and certainly
the Guinness.
After consulting with
Margaret's cousin who knew Dublin we assigned three pubs to meet people on the
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Great to catch up with everyone, young and old.
There were people I hadn't seen since we got
married, many moons ago.
One of
Margaret's second cousins interrupted his 60th birthday celebrations to come
along - what a star.
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A guest appearance from the land of song. |
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Hands up if you are enjoying yourself. Fitzgeralds on Saturday night. |
Accommodation
As the university term had ended we were able to pick up
some student accommodation near the centre of Dublin, the relatively new and
comfortable Destiny New Mill hall.
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A picture of student accommodation just wouldn't do - instead have another one from the brewery. Paris revisited. |
Getting there and around
Margaret and I flew from Bristol to Dublin with Ryanair then
purchased a Visitor LEAP travel card that gave us 72 hours travel on buses and the DART
light railway system.
This enabled us to
get into Dublin City centre by bus and then out to Bray and back the following
day on the DART.
On the Sunday, we took
the DART in the opposite direction up to Howth.
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A day trip to Howth |
Outside Dublin
Margaret's hometown is Bray, a seaside town on County
Wicklow and the town we got married all those years ago. A trip out to bray on the Friday bought back
lots of memories and enabled us to meet up with friends who were not able to
make it to the Guinness Storehouse on the Saturday.
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Gathering of friends in Bray |
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Attempting to recreate our wedding day. |
Quirky Moments
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Recreating a photo taken at the start of the challenge in 2004. We managed to find the exact same spot outside the Guinness Storehouse where the original picture was taken. |
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Another recreation - this time inside the Guinness Storehouse. Suddenly Margaret and I look small. |
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I felt I had to include this one more for the sub-plot taking place in the background - Valley's Rivalry! |
Lasting Memories
The weekend for me was more about meeting up with friends
and family and having a lovely time than it was completing the challenge. For
someone who doesn't always like crowds and noise I was surprisingly relaxed, which I think is the atmosphere of Dublin rubbing off on me. There were times when I didn't necessarily hear a lot of the conversations going on but it was a real joy just to watch people enjoying themselves. It was only in the weeks that followed did I
reflect on the trip I had made all over Europe.
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Trinity College Dublin |
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It wasn't Guinness all the time. A Swansea reunion. |