That’s not what I thought the famine was (also I still don’t like Guiness)

This was our first full day in Ireland! We learnt so much and had so much fun exploring the city and doing some amazing experiences. It truly feels like we’ve been here for a month already, it’s crazy how quickly you can become familiar and comfortable in a new environment.

We started the morning off relatively slow, although I’ve found the first night in a new place a bit unsettling and difficult to get to sleep, so I didn’t wake up feeling too rested. It was good that we didn’t have our Guiness Storehouse entrance booked until 11am, so we didn’t have to be in a rush anywhere. The Storehouse was also only a 10 minute walk away, so it was a good, relaxing morning at the Airbnb.

The Storehouse was also nothing what I expected at all. I knew it was a popular thing to do in Dublin, and though I’m definitely not the biggest Guiness fan, I actually really enjoyed the experience. The setup is much bigger than I thought it would be, with a combination of interactive activities, cool displays, and museum-like exhibitions. Each floor is about a different section of the Guiness-making process, then it also covers its advertising, marketing and branding. All the floors are stacked on top of each other to create the shape of a pint glass, so when you get to the top floor, you redeem a little voucher for a free pint of Guiness and you get great views over Dublin. Which did make me giggle, because I would deem Dublin a very squat city. As in you would have panoramic views over the city from about the 5th floor, so the bar setup was a bit of overkill. Some of the buildings you could hardly see from our vantage point.

I love museums and galleries that aren’t just stuff on walls with plaques. Make. It. Interesting. PLEASE. So I was absolutely delighted when I realised this experience would be anything but boring. I learnt heaps, and considering I really don’t care much about the process of making beer, I was so locked in I honestly don’t know what got into me. I reckon we were there for almost 2 hours, which for me and why museum, let alone one about beer is wild and also crazy. I was apprehensive about it being a big tourist trap, just cause Guiness is Irish and it could be a cash grab, but I was so happy to be proven wrong. There’s some serious budget behind the setup, and it really pays off. There’s a reason it’s a must do!

From there we had a couple of hours to kill until our next activity, and though we bought some things from Lidl yesterday for lunch, we walked past the oldest pub in Ireland (apparently) and just couldn’t pass it up. I can tell you already, Irish pub food is sooo much better than in England. There’s actually some flavour? Revolutionary. They’ve got a great balance going between comforting and traditional food, but also lots of great flavour and interest. I’m a fan of food in general, but definitely a fan of Irish pub food specifically.

The walk from the Guiness Storehouse to the EPIC (Every Person Is Connected) Irish Emigration Museum was around 45 minutes, and we got there at 2:30pm right in time for our entry. I didn’t hear anything about EPIC before arriving in Dublin, but I saw an overwhelming amount of insanely positive google reviews, and we had a free afternoon, so why not? Overall I really enjoyed the experience. The aim of the museum is to display Ireland’s history in terms of its people, and how and why the vast majority (70 million) do not live in Ireland itself. It delves into Irish pride, war, famine, influence, success and celebration. Again I really appreciated how much effort was put into the displaying of the information- it would’ve been too easy to just do the basic museum formula, but it was clear EPIC had a lot of time and thought (and Irish-ness) behind it. We were given a passport at the start which you stamp at each room, like you were ‘emigrating’ through the museum, which I thought was a cute touch. I also really liked the layout of the display; it was in a snakes and ladders sort of situation, a simplified IKEA showroom, if you will. The flow made sense, and it painted a vivid story of Irish people. I would highly recommend EPIC as well as the Storehouse, just make sure you’re not short of time! We spent just over 2 hours there, and we definitely skimmed over some bits.

Another thing I realised in terms of the Great Famine (also known as the Potato Famine) is that I new absolutely zero about it. I knew it was a thing, a lot of people died, and it had something to do with potatoes, but that’s pretty much it. I don’t know why my brain assumed this, but I genuinely thought they could only produce potatoes, and everyone started dying of malnutrition and scurvy. But that’s not really a famine is it? The dots were never joining. Turns out (ding ding, revelation time) the Irish farmers didn’t really think it through that a monoculture of potato wasn’t really the most reliable source of produce, so when a single crop fails due to disease, there’s a good chance that all the crops will fail. And that’s exactly what happened. Which of course makes so much sense than whatever my dumb-ass brain thought happened. Anyway, bit of a tangent lol.

Walking back through a different section of the city we diverted past Trinity College, just to say we’d seen it. Come to find out we were missing out on a really cool experience in their Old Library (go look it up, it’s bonkers beautiful). And even though it’s probably a massive rip-off, Dad and I being big literature nerds means sorry, we can’t leave Dublin without going in. So we’ve booked that for tomorrow, hopefully there’ll be enough hours in the day!

Back at the Airbnb, we vegged out for a bit before getting some pizza from a hole-in-the-wall style pizza restaurant right under our apartment building. I’m about to have a shower now and then have some dessert (we got tiramisu as well of course) then head to bed. If we thought today was crazy, it has nothing on tomorrow, so definitely need a better night’s sleep tonight.

Catch ya tomorrow!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x