The Rainy Days

Today, my last till I fly home, has been wet. Spent the day diving for cover almost every ten minutes, with a long respite in the Guinness storehouse. After a quick look at my finances I decided to join the hoards at the brewery. 

The gentle art of Guinness pouring

The Guinness nightclub

This Disneyland experience was not quite what I thought a historical brew should have been exhibited as, but I suppose it appeals to the onslaught of American tourists. Not being a great fan of the this world famous stout, I gave my free pint ticket to an elderly gentleman who was, quite obviously, enjoying his freeby in the Gravity Bar at the top of this 6 storey Guinness extravaganza.  

One of the most memorable ads

The most interesting part for me was a small area of wall covered with historic Guinness ads like the one on the left from the mid 50's. 
Leaving the building, on the ground floor, you pass through something like the combination of a hall of mirrors and a slinky disco. Lots of screens with bubbly beery liquids. 
Anyway, yesterday was much better for a ramble around town.  At one point I passed the front gardens of a couple of cottages, one of which was piled high with supersized potted plants, completely blocking the path to the front door of a house that looked like it had been deserted long ago. The other garden was filled by an overgrown wreck of a car with a turf roof. As with the place next door, it was also in front of a derelict cottage.

An overgrown rusting relic

Also, yesterday, I went to prison. To be exact, to Kilmainham Gaol which has now been restored as a museum and a memorial to all the Irishmen and women who fought for independence down the centuries. This place is specially poignant because it was here that the leaders of the 1916 Easter uprising were executed, and various others too. In the 19th century it held prisoners awaiting transportation to Australia whose only crime, often, was poverty. 

Kilmainham Prison

A room with a kind of view

The execution yard

The last prisoners held here were the future leaders of the Irish Free State (1922) and the the prison was closed to guests by 1924. Many years later, a group of volunteers decided to renovate this historical residence as a memorial.

Irish war memorial gardens. Lizy and Obama were here a few weeks ago.

some of the many bridges over the River Liffey

A bridge made in Britain in 1838

As you can see, today was not the best of days. Another large black one is  on its  way to dump a bit more water on Dublin. The most famous Ha'penny Bridge still takes Dubliners across the River Liffey from one pub to another.
I am sure the weather will be better in the Czech Republic when I get back tomorrow afternoon.

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Galway by the Sea

Dublin. The Bank of Ireland is imposing, but pretty skint.

Dublin. The Ha'penny Bridge

Leaving Dublin, on the way to the bus station I passed by the huge Romanesque edifice of the Bank of Ireland thinking of all the head scratching and wringing of hands that must have been going on there recently. Then there was the The Ha'penny Bridge which spans the river Liffey. It was built to replace a small fleet of ferries that carried people to and fro across the Liffey and the charge for walking over it was half a penny. Its a cast iron construction was the way of many bridges in 1816. The original name was the Wellington bridge. Just like the monument in Phoenix park, it showed the Irish just how great Britain was. 

The bus ride to Galway was two and a half Irish hours which translates to just smidgen more than 3 hours. Irish miles are also somewhat difficult to define. It doesn't matter how long or how far because its all the same in the end. 
Maybe that is Irish logic but of course nothing can beat that old Gaelic adage , 'You cant get there from here' ?????
So now at Snoozles 125 bed Galway hostel, but in many separate rooms. Its bang next door to the bus station which pleases me immensely. 

As a hostel, Snoozles is pretty well perfect.

Tourists in Galway

The day isn't the best with the keen wind thats been afflicting a lot of Ireland for the past week. It hasn't deterred the tourists though.  So far Galway looks very promising and tomorrow will be a chance to explore the place. 

Galway. The old town.

Famous Irishmen