Trinity College and the Guinness Storehouse | Shenanigans with Pinter Whitnick

Описание: The next leg of our adventure would be our last in Ireland. After a sleepless night at a hostel in Galway, we took the train across the country, back to Dublin. We had a tour appointment at Trinity College so we made our way through the city, taking time to stop and several sites we hadn't yet seen including Dublin Castle and the Chapel Royal. Eventually, we made it to the central courtyard of the college. Our tour was guided by a rugby player who attended the school. Though Trinity was founded in 1592, when Dublin was considered the Second City of the British empire, all of the buildings are much newer. Our guide mentioned that all of the Georgian architecture, around which most of the buildings are based, is a "newer" addition. (They're still hundreds of years old, which to an American is ancient, but to an Irishman, is recent.) The two oldest buildings were built using red brick and in general, if you see red brick at Trinity College, you're looking at an old building. We walked around the grounds, learning many interesting things and admiring the flowers. The rugby and football pitches, in particular, were so green, they almost fluoresced. The museum building, which was built in 1857, was a standout. Its exterior featured many hundreds of gorgeous and intricate carvings, each of which was unique. The interior had large vaulted ceilings with Moorish tilework and columns made of all of the major types of Irish stone.

But the primary reason we were on this tour, was to gain admission into The Long Room. This space was built in 1732 and is the longest single-chamber library in the world. It features high vaults, multiple floors accessible via iron spiral staircases, dark and gorgeous wood, dozens of marble busts, and hundreds of thousands of old books. The Long Room also served as the inspiration for the library in the Harry Potter series, but in real life it's somehow much more magical than what the books describe. As the final part of the tour, we also got to view The Book of Kells, which is an illuminated manuscript from the 9th century. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to film in the room, but the book was open to one page which was colorful, beautiful, and almost mystical. We concluded our tour and set off for lunch. Cornucopia was a delicious stop. Ordering a meal, you're given a choice one entrée and two salads. The salads were just as tasty and intricate as the main meals!

We went to The Duke for a pint and debated whether or not we should go the hostel and take a nap. We were starting to crash, but how often were we in Dublin? We decided to just stay up and keep the adventure going! We went to a famous pub called O'Donoghue's. This bar is where the Dubliners first formed and regularly performed. We walked in and discovered it was full of Nebraska fans whose team would be playing in Dublin the following day against Northwestern. I ordered a Guinness and was given one printed with the Cornhuskers logo. That served as an easy conversation starter with our fellow patrons. We chatted with many people that night including a group of four Nebraska-grads and a married couple in their 70s who never had kids and just spent their lives hiking and adventuring. A small session started in the corner and featured many songs we knew. We were thrilled when the whole bar sang along to The Auld Triangle. Needless to say, it wasn't long before the pints kicked in and we were feeling pretty hungry so we went to the Burger King around the corner from our hostel. We devoured some Vegan Royales and Impossible Whoppers and went to bed happily.

The next morning came too soon. We managed to get ourselves out of bed, pack our bags, grab coffee, and begin a long walk to The Guinness Storehouse. To be honest, the last thing we wanted at 9am after the night we'd had, was to think of beer. But as the Storehouse is the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland, tickets are hard to come by. We walked down a long street with factory walls on both sides until we reached the entrance. The Storehouse was incredible and approached a theme park-level experience. The beer-making method was gorgeously illustrated with huge exhibits. The tasting room was accessed through a dark tunnel with orange rope lights that suddenly opened up into a stark-white room. It was like being in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. The last section of the tour focused on Guinness' advertisements which was so fun and brought many illustrations to life. Finally, we took an elevator to the very top of the building and were given two pints of Guinness. This room had a panoramic view of the entire city of Dublin. We drank them quickly and happily, and set off to catch a train for Belfast. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to catch the next chapter of our adventure!
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Intro 0:00
Morning in Galway 1:05
Back in Dublin 2:59
Trinity College 3:55
The Long Room 5:16
Cornucopia 6:34
O'Donoghue's 7:48
Morning in Dublin 10:07
The Guinness Storehouse 10:35