Sleeping Beauty - Dublin to London

After finishing the last blog post, I hightailed it to the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery for my tour at noon. I got my “daily grog” free whiskey drink, which I had on the rocks. Early workers for John Jameson & Sons Company, called the Barrel Men, got their “daily grog” once at the start and ends of their working shift. You can find a tribute to the Barrel Men on the bottom of each Jameson bottle.

The guided tour went into the history of the company and the various processes that go into making the whiskey. The end of the tour had us sampling different types of Jameson, including a “Crested” variety that is not sold in the US. We learned about the “tears” on the inside of the glass and how to “nose” the whiskey to figure out what the whiskey might taste like.

After the tour, I was sufficiently buzzed and walked around the city. I walked by St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Camden Street area, popped into some thrift stores, looked at some street art, and ate at Boojum, the Irish version of Chipotle.

I returned to the hostel to do some laundry, when shortly after I succumbed to the symptoms of jet lag and fell asleep before I could check out the Irish pubs one last time.

I left my Dublin hostel long before the sun rose to catch my London-bound flight from the Dublin Airport. Security was a breeze, but once we got on the plane, weather delays had us sitting on the tarmac for 2 and a half hours. Surrounded by busy business-folk who weren’t keen on making conversation, it gave me a good chance to catch up on the show I’ve been watching, an anime called Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure.

I landed at London Heathrow and took the Tube to my hostel. The first thing I noticed upon walking out onto the city streets is that there are a LOT more people in London. Dublin isn’t a big city, but a city nonetheless, and it seemed like a quaint little town by comparison to London.

I checked into the hostel and immediately went out to explore the surrounding area. I’m sure I looked quite bewildered by my surroundings; the impressively well-preserved ornate buildings, the much larger crowds, and the double-decker busses (that are, in fact, everywhere, and not just a tourist gimmick).

One staple of the UK that I have heard of is the chicken restaurant, Nando’s, so I went there for a late lunch/early dinner. What I didn’t know is that Nando’s is actually a South Africa based chain. The chicken breast was juicy and the PERi-PERi sauces were delicious and spicy. I ordered a side of Macho peas because they’re my favorite veggie, but what I didn’t expect was a seasoning of chili, parsley and… mint??? An unexpected flavor, but I actually enjoyed it!

I made a plan after Nando’s to take a short nap, wash my hair, and then catch a concert for an indie artist I know at a venue a little outside of the city center. Unfortunately, jet lag symptoms struck again and I ended up sleeping well past the start of the performance 😭

In my sleepy stupor, I decided this was going to be the last of my jet lag symptoms. I booked a day trip tour for the next day, set my alarm, and went right back to sleep.

This morning, I wake up no problem, get on the Tube and walk to the bus platform. The woman looks at my ticket, at her list, back at the ticket, back at the list, and then says “um, this ticket is for the 14th of March”.

🤦

Thankfully, I rescheduled the tour with no issues or fees. So, I had the day to do whatever I wanted! I walked around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, had a coffee and pastry at a small cafe, and then got on a double-decker bus (the top part, of course) bound for The British Museum!

This was a gigantic museum. They should really call it “The World’s Museum in Britain” or something, because there’s way more than British stuff in there. Artifacts, statues, trinkets, weapons, masks, texts and artwork from across all of human history could be found here. I followed an audio tour made by the museum about LGBTQ history on Spotify for a short time, until it stopped telling me where to go (annoying). I was particularly intrigued with the exhibits about Money and Clocks.

I left the British Museum and had a burger at The Royal George, a kinda-hidden pub near the museum. I’ll likely be back there tonight for their Thursday night comedy show. I just wrapped up writing this, as well as booking my train ride and hostel in Paris hostel while sipping on an espresso martini. Once I post this, I’ll be off to the pubs to meet some people and ask some Londoners what I should do tomorrow!

Oh, and I won’t be sleeping at weird times anymore, I promise!