Ireland: Land of Not very much Ire

so I think Ireland's my favorite country ever. I've only been here a few hours but it's friggin' awesome man.

So you've got the whole different culture thing, but they speak english. AND, that different culture is sort of your culture. So things like the Book of Kells actually mean something to you, and they're cool. I dunno. Maybe I just like it b/c it's english-speaking, the people are friendly, and i found a cheap hostel to stay at. Or maybe b/c I've had about 5 pints of beer. Not sure. But I like Ireland.

Highlight of the day: Guinness storehouse, narrowly beating out seeing the Book of Kells (beautifully gold-plated, spectacularly colored manuscript of the four gospels that was "the greatest prize in the Christian world" according to some Irish crazies in the 1100s when it was lost, and the Brian Boru Harp, the same that appears on the Guinness logo and the Irish Euro coin.

Denounced by my guidebook as "overrated", I found the Guinness Storehouse fascinating and well-done. A temple to everything Guinness, it featured high-tech displays showing how Guinness was made, a large section on advertisements (Guinness ads are some of my favorites), and of course, free samples.

I actually wound up with 2 pints of Guinness instead of the customary 1. I jumped the gun and started drinking my pint when it was about 5/6 full after waiting for about 3 minutes for the black to separate from the white, as I'd been told to do. When it became clear that I wasn't getting it topped off, I started in on the beer. But then the bartender flipped out and told me he couldn't let me drink it b/c "he wasn't allowed to serve an imperfect pint" or something like that. He'd have to pour me another. And it wasn't necessary to throw out the 5/6 full pint. I could drink both. You can imagine the fit I threw...

In any case, I hadn't really had much to eat since 11 am, so those two stouts hit hard. By the time I left, I was certified drunk. And cold. It's a good 20 degrees F colder here but I decided to wear a t-shirt. There was some drunk running going on, for sure.

Stunner of the day: the Guinness Book of records is not coincindentally named the Guinness book of world records. It's actually sponsored by Guinness. It was first written to answer typical Irish Drunk questions like "What's the fastest gamebird in the world?" and has grown into the largest copyright (Bible and Koran, etc are non-copyright) bookseller of all time. We've had copies of it for years, but I never realized that its Guinness was the same as the Guinness...

Head off to NY tomorrow to see the illustrious Miss Duvall. Should be thrilling, but not as much so, as a fresh pint of Guinness from the source.