Dublin Days

July 4, 2010

The flight to Dublin went fairly smoothly except for the weight restriction which left me scrambling to transfer 7 lbs. of my life from one bag to my carry-on. That and the fact that the seat wouldn't lean back were the only glitches in what was an otherwise pleasant flight.

My friend Maxwell has been staying in Dublin the last month to tend to his wife Felicity's mother-in-law who has been sick and was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport. I met him at the airport bar where he was already drinking a Guinness at 9 am. Because you must show a boarding pass in order to drink that early at the airport, Maxwell found himself in the awkward position of having to produce a boarding pass within 30 minutes after telling the bartender his wife had the passes in the airport gift shop. To his credit, Maxwell deftly downloaded his boarding pass from the month before into Photoshop and changed the date in order to satisfy the bartender. This is the man's commitment to Guinness.

After setting up my phone, Maxwell took me to The Bank on College Green, former site of the Belfast Bank built in 1892 which has the bathrooms downstairs in the vaults. I had a delicious bangers and mash that were chewy and garlicky and smothered in brown gravy with, of course, more Guinness.

Then we walked over to Mulligan's pub which Maxwell claims is the best pint of Guinness in all of Ireland. It certainly didn't disappoint. There is clearly something superior about the Guinness here than in the States. At Mulligan's the texture is smoother and tastes light and pure, like spring water with a small sugary finish on the tip of the tongue and virtually no aftertaste. Originally a shebeen (or unlicensed drinking venue), Mulligan's has been ‘legal’ since 1782, making it one of the oldest pubs in Ireland.