Saturday morning I got a message from Carly. She wanted to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then ditch the tour to come hang out with me (I had shared my tempting plans with her). On my way to St. Patrick’s I stopped by the Castle. In my murder mystery, the detectives work in the castle. Apparently in Dublin the castle isn’t just a tourist trap, they also use the building for municipal offices. Some parts, like this garden, looked like a castle.
With cool iron doors
Then other parts were brightly colored or just looked more modern
They still kept some old guards around (look through the iron gates)
I liked this statue.
Did you know this cathedral was built for my friend Patrick?
That’s what he tells me anyway.
I found Carly and then google maps took us to the JAMESON TOUR!!
We had 10 minutes before the tour started, so the lady suggested we help ourselves to our included whiskey while we waited, then they took us into a little room. The tour guide slammed a bottle of Jameson onto the table and the canvas scroll on the surface lit up with maps and pictures that illustrated what he was talking about. The lights in the room surrounding us also enhanced the mood.
The tour was such a cool multimedia experience! It far surpassed any other distillery or brewery tour I’d been on before. It felt like I stepped into a History Channel show. At the end, instead of tasting different kinds of Jameson whiskeys we had a scotch whisky, Jameson and an American whiskey. Of course the guide encouraged us to prefer Jameson. 
After the tour we needed some coffee. Irish coffee! And that was when I tasted THE BEST Irish coffee in all of Ireland (in my opinion). This one had liquid sugar which made it more sweet and the cream was less chunky so it was creamy down to the last sip.
There were great chandeliers
Sláinte!
Next stop– Guinness. We only had one day so we had to get it all done.
I loved how the brewery snuggled in between the old buildings
I’d heard the Guinness tour wasn’t very good, so I was pleasantly surprised! We were led up into a huge gift shop where the announcements sounded like they were coming from all directions. It felt like we were in a movie set in the future. We skipped the audio guide and wove through the exhibitions. 
Again, the presentations were high tech and interactive. They covered the beer making process, marketing strategies, safe drinking tips, cafes, tasting rooms and probably lots of other stuff.
We wove our way up to the 7th floor where we found Ben and the 360 degree bar where it was hot and crowded but had amazing views of Dublin.
Mini Guinness (so they could teach us how to drink it):
We grabbed some lunch and then booked it to a hotel for an Irish dance show. This was part of their field trip, but someone in charge said that I could come get a ticket as well. Carly tried to prepare me for disappointment– it might not be very good. It was awesome. There was a guy on guitar, a woman from Riverdance who played the fiddle and a guy (who was also from Riverdance) who played the elbow pipes– the Irish version of the bag pipe, but instead of blowing into the bag, he deflated it with his elbow. They told jokes and stories, played traditional Irish songs, the woman danced, and they taught the middle school kids (and Ben) some dances too. I had a big smile on my face the whole time.
After the show the field trip walked through Temple Bar (which was the neighborhood where I was staying) so I joined them! We parted with shouts of “See you in Scotland!” They were headed to Wales the next day and I would meet them in Edinburgh.