There's Whisky in the Jar

Cheap flights meant a quick weekend in Dublin for Team Reid in October. 

We arrived late on Friday night, with just enough time to experience a plate of proper Irish Stew and the end of the rugby before bed.

mmm, diddly dee potatoes

On Saturday we absorbed some culture, starting with a tour of Trinity College and it's amazing library (used in Harry Potter) and a quick look at the Book of Kells - we couldn't take any photos of it, so the pic below is kindly supplied by Wikipedia, but is of a page we saw.  Just beautiful and to think, all drawn by hand by some very patient and meticulous monks...

After a bit of lunch in Temple Bar (more about that later) we went for a long walk to take in the waterfront.  On the way, we passed U2's old studio, immortalised by their fans in graffiti.  Eat that, Banksy.

An afternoon nap and another excellent meal at the same pub we'd been to the night before and we were ready to experience the Dublin nightlife that we'd heard so much about.  We made our way back to Temple Bar as we'd been advised that this was where "the magic happens".  It reminded me a lot of Courtenay Place in that it had a seemingly endless rows of bars and pubs and street performers.  Only difference was, these buskers can play.  We encountered a band called Mutefish as they were finishing up with this song.  We would have liked to hear more, but apparently it was past their bedtime.  So we headed off to re-wet our whistles in a pub with an amazing three-piece band that covered virtually anything and everything with a distinctly Irish flavour.  With the sound of a well-played penny whistle and more than a couple of G&T's/guinnesses running through our heads it was off to bed ourselves.

After a hearty breakfast the next morning, we strode off to, just let me check the spelling, Kilmainham Gaol.  Famous for being a leader in early 1900s prison design - it features one of the first examples of the "eye of god" cell arrangement I thought was just how prisons are...  The three S's were promoted here - separation, silence and supervision.  Individual cells for each inmate meant a guard could see all cells at a glance, no matter where he was standing at the time.  Also, they came up with the idea of the mugshot here, since it was too easy to have an alias but harder to hide your face, scars and tattoos etc.  Seriously fascinating. 

But as if that weren't enough, the Gaol is also famous for being the place where the participants of the ultimately doomed 1916 Easter Rising were held and then executed.  Having studied Irish history at high school, particularly the Rising, this was a real highlight, although grim. 



Hungry and a bit sober, in all senses of the word, we made our way to the Guinness factory.  Shaped like a giant pint glass, this place doesn't take itself too seriously.  But they do make good beef ribs. 

They taught us how to taste it properly from a tiny pint glass, once you'd smelled all the key ingredients and then you learned how to pour a full pint of your own. 

I liked it from the tiny pint, but something happened to the flavour when the size of the vessel was increased.  Odd.  So Kyle got to dispose of my big pint. 

And that was all we had time for, to be sure.

Four score, 6 months ago....

I know...  I've been extremely slack with my updates....  Apologies and swiftly moving on...

Following our amazing week in New York, we hopped aboard a train with Jayden and Caz to Washington, DC.  Caz's brother Mikey kindly put us up for the final week of our American adventure so we could get some culture in the birthplace of democracy. 

A dramatic change of pace from the Big Apple, DC was no less a fantastic experience and must be equally as photographed.

1 - Political Landmarks
Obviously, this is a very broad umbrella term for a city with a history like DC's.  We tried to squeeze in as many of these sites as we could and, if I do say so myself, I think we did really well.  Just a few months after our visit, the US federal government shut down and all the monuments had to close, so phew. 

Here's a quick sample of the highlights:

Mount Vernon - George Washington's Virginian estate where he lived post-Presidency, including his tomb.  The view from the porch could easily have been NZ.

On the Post-Presidential Porch

Final resting place of George and Martha

The Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument - eerie.  You can almost feel Lincoln challenging you to do something meaningful with your life or encouraging you to be a better person.  The reflecting pool was filled with algae (unexpected) and Forrest Gump was nowhere in sight. 

I abolished slavery, what have you done???

At the time, the Washington Monument was covered in scaffolding after suffering damage in an earthquake.  Kind of looks like a massive (phallic) Meccano set now.

The White House - the building Hollywood likes to blow up the most, pleasingly intact.  A few days after our visit, we were watching the Obama's on the lawn taking part in the 9/11 Memorial Service on the news.  On the tv a few blocks away.  D'oh!  Not a win on the planning front.  But, at least we had an unobstructed view on the day we did go.

The Capitol Building - Amazing and beautiful building that oozes a sense of historical significance.  The air and the atmosphere seem to carry the weight of the important events conducted within.  And if you don't pick that up on your own, the guides, the art and the statuary will most certainly ram it home.  It was fascinating though.  A highlight was seeing Reagan's statue with crumbs of the Berlin Wall lining the plinth he's standing on.                                                                             

The National Archives - housing the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution.  The DoI is pretty faded, but the guards had fun pointing out some of the interesting things about the documents - spelling mistakes, a handprint(which I was told by a straight-faced guard was absolutely not Nicolas Cage's) and the signatures of the giants of US political history, including the first to sign - John Hancock.  Say it with me now... OH!  So that's where that saying comes from....  Yes, yes it does.


And, arguably most important of all (to us), we got to visit the NZ High Commission, directly opposite VP Joe Biden's house and down the road from Hilary Clinton's pad.  You can't throw a stone in that city without hitting something note-worthy.  The thing that really amazed me was the nonchalant way Mikey would point these places out, i.e. "that's Hilary Clinton's house just there.  Don't stare too hard, that car over there is a Secret Service vehicle and they get twitchy if you gawp".  EEP!  Being arrested by the Secret Service is not on our bucket list, so it was eyes front til the end of the street. 

Kyle made a new friend at the NZHC

2 - Military landmarks 
We saw the memorials to the two world wars, the Vietnam War and the Korean War, but the one that made the biggest and most sobering impression on us had to be Arlington Cemetery.

Row upon row of white headstones as far as the eye could see from every major conflict and dating back from the Civil War right through to a few that were a just a few days old.  By the sheer number of stones alone, you couldn't help but be moved. 

Additionally, there was the eternal flame memorial for JFK as well as memorials to the Unknown Soldiers, constantly guarded by servicemen in full (blisteringly hot) uniforms, those lost in the Challenger disaster and in the events that inspired "Argo". 

3 - Food...
What blog would be complete without a section on culinary delights?  In this category, DC did not disappoint.  Even now, cough, 6 months later, certain meals stick out in my mind.  First up, Ben's Chili Bowl.  World famous to the locals and a favourite of Bill Cosby, this no frills restaurant serves up amazing smoked pork hot dogs, chili fries and buckets of ice cold milkshake....  Mmmmmm chili fries....  the true pity is, they only taste good State-side.

The other place I'll never forget is this pizza place Mikey took us to called "We, The Pizza".  Yep, no lack of a sense of humour there...  We gorged on delicious pizza (which they insisted on calling "pies") and hot wings with blue cheese sauce.  I was SO full afterwards.  But not too full to squish in some Ben & Jerry's on top.  

But what was truly lovely were the nights where we'd just cook in Mikey's flat and eat together round the table.  One night we played this incredibly inappropriate card game called Cards for Humanity with tears rolling down our cheeks and on another we watched Pitch Perfect.  Even Jayden gave up pretending he wasn't watching long before the end.  Good.  Times.

4.  More Sports
This time, football.  We went to see the, ahem, Washington Redskins play the Philadelphia Eagles.  Apparently the argument to change their name is gaining momentum...

Interestingly, the home stadium for the 'skins isn't in DC, we had to go to Maryland.  Getting into the ground was...  interesting...  there were STACKS of people and, as I found out, you're not allowed to take a handbag in unless it's within certain dimensions and clear plastic...!  By the time we started the long climb up to our seats, right at the top, the 'skins scored a touchdown.  The whole arena erupted into this.  It was deafening.  The 'skins didn't win the day, but we had a great time.

5. Kiwis meet a Kiwi
Mikey has a friend at Washington Zoo who happens to be the Kiwi Keeper.  She let us spend an hour or so with Pip, a teenage boy kiwi.  Naw, he was so sweet!  We got to feed him...  worms and mushed up stuff that smelled.... unique.  The mushed up stuff was ok, but I left the worms to the others.  Such a sissy. 

After all that, it was time to say goodbye to Mikey and to Caz and Jayden and head back to the UK.  I'll leave you with the theme song from the trip (yes, it had one)...