“Sláinte!” (Gaelic
for “health”, often used as a toast)
By Sunday, I felt like a true Dubliner. And so, Dabbs and I
did “Dubliner” ‘things…..after visiting the Guinness storehouse of course! Oh
the things I learned at the Guinness storehouse…clearly an essential part of my
studies this summer ;) The building is seven stories and the inside is shaped
like an actual pint (beer glass). If filled, it would hold 14.3 million pints!!
Whoa! We were able to see the lease for the land at Saint James’ Gate (where
the Guinness storehouse is located) that Arthur Guinness signed on December 31st,
1759. The lease is for 9,000 years. I think it’s fair to say that he covered
his bases with that one!! I’m pretty sure Dabbs and I spent close to, if not
more, than 2 hours walking around each floor and reading all about the history
of the beer, how the beer was/is brewed and transported, the ingredients, the
progression of advertisements, famous people that have visited the storehouse,
and then FINALLY we got the floor where we learned how to pour our own Guinness!
Evidently, it takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect
Guinness and here are the steps (according to the sign posted before entering
into the Guinness Academy): 1. Take a cool, dry, Guinness branded glass and check
to make sure it is thoroughly cleaned (not lipstick stains, etc.)—it MUST be
cool; 2. Hold the glass firmly at 45 degrees under the tap; 3. Pull the handle
fully forward towards you and straighten the glass as it fills; stop when it
has reached the center of the gold harp; 4. Leave the surge to settle allowing
the creamy head to form (the head should be 10-15mm high); 5. Top up the glass
by pushing the tap handle away from you and stop when the head is proud of the
rim (they had the coolest taps to pour Guinness—if you pulled the tap towards
you, the beer came out in a very heavy flow, but if you pushed the tap away
from you, the beer flowed out much more slowly!); and 6. Present this perfect
pint (with NO overspill) to the customer (or yourself) with the golden harp
facing forward. I am happy to say that I had no overspill and the perfect head
and Dabbs and I both received our signed certificate for the perfect pour! Now
I can’t say I didn’t learn anything while I was abroad during the summer ;) I
guess if biology doesn’t work out, there is always the option to become a
bartender in Ireland!! After enjoying our personally poured Guinness in the
Gravity Bar on the top floor of the Storehouse with a 360o view of Dublin
(which was SPECTACULAR), we were off to the Gaelic Football game at Croke Park
stadium on the other side of town—or at least it felt like it was the other
side of town.
If you have never heard of/seen a Gaelic football game, I
suggest you just check it out on YouTube because there is no chance of me doing
it any justice if I attempt to describe it. Here’s a pretty accurate video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAbWrdB9XU
. There were two semi-final games being played and we weren’t sure we were
going to stay for both, but after the first game, we were pretty much hooked
and it was gonna take a torrential downpour to get us out of there. Actually,
that’s not true. Because during warm ups of the second game, the rain started
coming down pretty hard, so we took shelter in the hallways and waited for it
to pass, which it did about 10 minutes later, and we right back out there. The
second game was Dublin against another city, and the stands were absolutely
packed. The stadium can hold up to 82,300 people, but there were “only” about
52,000 something at this game… “only” haha!!! It was such a neat game and
environment and it didn’t hurt that a lot of the players were ripped out of
their minds and a few were mighty attractive. We met some friendly people here
and there and had few chats, but mostly we just attempted to take in the huge
crowd and figure out all the rules to the new, fast-paced, highly intriguing
sport we were watching!
After the game, on our way back to the city center, we (accidentally)
stumbled upon a new part of town (as in, we got somewhat lost) that Dabbs hadn’t
seen before. It was definitely more modern and more of a business side of town,
but it was very pretty—in a modern way. One very interesting part was a small
area near the river where and artist had created sculptures depicting people
during the Potato Famine leaving Ireland. There were six adults, one with a
small child slung around his shoulders, and a small dog. It was actually a
rather haunting scene because the statues were had a dark black, sort of coppery,
appearance to them, but parts of them were covered with a yellowish-bronze
substance. Their eyes were sunken in and gave the appearance of hopelessness,
helplessness and desperation. In addition, there was even a somewhat eerie
silence around the whole area, despite being in a rather busy city. A few other
people were standing around looking and one of the ladies I was standing next
to told me that the same artist created a similar scene in Canada, but at that
scene, the people appeared to be getting off of the boat and there were only 5
people and no dog…….though the whole thing was a bit haunting really, I was
impressed with the artists ability to depict such emotion!
From there, we moved onto happier things: shops, food and
pubs. We walked through a few shops and I made some very minor purchases—the fact
that I was flying RyanAir and my bag had to be under 10kg really limited my
fun!!! Then we stopped at a pub named Fitzgeralds for dinner where I had some
delicious Beef and Guinness pie along with a few pints of Guinness to chase it
down ;)
We decided after dinner to head back towards campus so I
could get my stuff packed up because I need to be up at 4:50 am the next
morning to get the bus to the airport….yuck!! But when we got back to the
apartment, we decided that we should probably go to Kiely’s one more time so
that I could thoroughly enjoy my last Guinness in Ireland. We agreed that we
would have one or two drinks and leave by no later than 11 p.m. And we were
sticking to this plan, until we were polishing off our second pint and found
ourselves in the middle of some really good conversation—one that should most
certainly not be broken by a long trek home, so we ordered up “just one more.”
And as we were getting ready to leave again, Dabbs realized that some important
soccer game was on TV and so “we couldn’t leave just yet.” Well while watching
the soccer game, we started to the locals who were hanging out at the bar and
watching the game as well—one of them being the attractive young bartender from
Friday night and his friend, so of course I wasn’t going to complain. Turns
out, he remembered me and Dabbs as well—probably because they don’t get many
out-of-towners there very often. They were all very, very friendly and Dabbs
and I were having such a good time talking and laughing with them that we didn’t
end up leaving the pub until close to, or possibly after, 1 a.m…..and I still
hadn’t packed up my stuff……
Needless to say, my wakeup call came wayyyy before I was
ready for it….ugh!! Dabbs was nice enough to walk me to the bus stop since I
was way too turned around to figure out where it was; he wasn’t quite nice
enough to speak to me though….haha…he’s even less of a morning person than I
am. In his defense, it was too early for anyone in their right minds to be even
remotely pleased about being awake. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long for
the bus to come.
My travels back to Montpellier were far less anxiety ridden
than the ones to Montpellier. In fact, I’m not sure if it was because I was too
tired to care or what, but I had absolutely no anxiety at all; I just went
about my business as if it was something I did everyday…which I do travel
pretty often, so you would think I would have reached this point a long time
ago.. Dublin airport was much larger than Montpellier or Leeds and was a bit of
a mess to get through. The security line was all sorts of crazy and jumbled and
took quite a while to get through, but fortunately I had tons of time. It took
all I had not to fall asleep waiting in the terminal. I very promptly passed
out when I boarded the plane and I slept the whole 45 minutes to Leeds. In
Leeds, I had quite a while to wait, so I took a nap at a table in one of the café
places. I then woke up to find that my flight had been delayed for an hour and
half…thank goodness I didn’t have any connecting flights. I also slept for the
whole 2 hour flight back to Montpellier. When I got back to Montpellier, I had
to wait 40 minutes for the bus that I needed to come to the airport and then I was
finally on my way home. I got back to Claire’s at about 6 o’clock and did all
that I could to stay awake until dinner. Then immediately went to bed.
It’s interesting how nice it felt to be back in Montpellier.
I was a little surprised at my excitement in returning “home” to Claire’s
house. I enjoyed every single second of being in Ireland with Dabbs and it was
so nice to have the company of someone familiar and comfortable. Yet, getting
back into Montpellier where I knew where I was and I knew how to maneuver the
transportation systems and where I now have a routine and a few people that I’ve
grown accustomed to seeing and talking to every day was rather exciting. I was
so relieved to come back and plop down on the sofa and watch an old western
with Peter while we talked about our weekends. It’s just really interesting how
quickly we adjust to situations—and often how subconsciously the adjustment is.
How ironic that it took me leaving Montpellier for a weekend for me to realize
how partial I had become to my “life” here. And I’m so happy that I did it
because now I am so much more content with my routine here. I am aware of how
fond I am of the relationship I have with Claire and Peter and how much I enjoy
my work with Marion and Fred and how much I have learned about Montpellier. I’m
so glad I was able to realize all of this before I left for good. I think it
will make the next part of my trip here all the more enjoyable :)!
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire