Ireland | the Guinness Storehouse

My birthday is the day after St. Patrick's Day.  For as long as I can remember I loved St. Patrick's Day.  I loved it because I loved having a holiday close to my birthday.  I think shamrock shakes from McDonald's are awesome.  And one of my favorite things to eat is corned beef and cabbage.  (Oh and Karen and I learned that in London they call corned beef "salty beef".  You're welcomed for that fun fact.) So it comes as no surprise that I've wanted to spend my birthday in Ireland, and what better birthday to celebrate than my 30th!  Yay!

While I'm not a big celebrator of my birthday, I was very excited to go to the Guinness Storehouse and learn how to poor a proper Guinness (a dream come true).  Karen and I woke up extra early for the St. Patrick's Day parade which was basically a bunch of American marching bands and very weird European theatrical performers. The gaps in American and European culture were very wide in the parade.  But another post on that later.  Once we were done with the parade we went straight for a taxi and off to the Guinness Storehouse.  We arrived at a perfect time when it was relatively empty.  (Karen suspected everyone was probably still making their way from the parade.)

First thing we did was go through the tour of the "brewery" which, like the Jameson Distillery, was only a mock up.  Karen and I breezed through it and went straight for some yummy food.  We had several restaurants with different types of food to choose from, and we decided upon Gilroy's.  I ordered the "Rich Guinness and beef casserole with mashed potatoes" with a half pint of Guinness and a dessert of Guinness ice cream and fruit.  The casserole was absolutely delicious.  It melted in my mouth it was so good.

At first we thought, "Is this it?" as it seemed like the Storehouse wasn't as big a deal as we had heard.  We had already explored a couple of levels, when we realized we had totally missed a bunch of floors. Because it was St. Patrick's Day different parts of the Storehouse were buzzing with bands and performers.  And on each floor there was some kind of demonstration or exhibit to explore. The Guinness Storehouse was really great fun, and we spent a good portion of the day enjoying it all.

I went crazy when I discovered a pouring class was included in our entry ticket.  The little lady showed us the proper way to pour a Guinness, and I felt so giddy doing it myself.  Guinness in Ireland is so much better than in the States, and I wondered if it was because it's being poured incorrectly.  Needless to say, I love learning and taking classes, so of course I loved learning how to pour a proper pint. Yay! Hurray!

If you're ever in Ireland, a visit to the Guinness Storehouse is a fun touristy thing to do.  Make sure you buy your tickets online; you get a discount and don't have to wait in the long line to enter. All the images were taken using my Fuji x100s and iPhone 4s.