the roads are getting nearer

Sunday, April 23, 2006

` Sunday, April 23, 2006

One of my colleagues who was Irish herself had strongly recommended visit to the Guinness Storehouse on my weekend visit to Dublin. So off I went, post-brekkie (which strangely consisted of the usual suspects at the London hotel, excluding waffles) hopping onto one of those open-air tourist buses in the city centre, it being an exceptionally beautiful morning where the sun made its long-awaited presence felt in the first possible rites of summer. Bless the weather whenever I had a spot of sightseeing to do, it really did help to brighten up the pictures and my day.

The city itself is a somewhat low-lying version of London (but of course, the very friendly natives will beg to differ). There were the pristine cathedrals, buildings with ancient facades, cobblestone streets and the river (although the Liffey is way tinier than the Thames but you get the idea). One of the best things is that similar to Prague, almost every spot of attraction is within walkable distance as long as one had good soles and an average energy level.

An rather interesting running commentary spiked with political jokes and innuendos from the driver came with the 14euros sightseeing bus ticket (valid for 24 hours but the buses apparently do not operate after 7.00PM) and my first drop-off was at the St James's Gate brewery. For a fee of 12euros after discount, one would embark on a self-guided 7-storey tour and detailed visual lesson on how the national beverage of choice was painstakingly made based on the well-kept tradition and 'secret yeast'. The highlight for most of the visitors would be to end the visit with a complimentary pint (or half-pint in my case) of Guinness brew at the top-storey Gravity bar, which also captured a bird's eye view of the city and made for a good scenic pitstop. I surrendered after 2 attempts at consuming the dark malty liquid, succumbing to the bitter end-taste which was not really my glass of stout (pun intended).

I suppose the real highlight for me out of the different phases of information provided was how they had marketed the drink in the earlier days, using a caricature that somewhat resembled detective Hercule Poirot in the Agatha Christie mysteries. What was also interesting was the light-hearted yet mass-appeal tone of the advertisements, as compared to the latter-day commercials represented by voluptuous women or alpha-males. According to the producers, Guinness is "good for you". A little nugget that was revealed about Arthur Guinness having 20 and more children probably more than help proved the point of the sales pitch. So that was the secret substitute to the little blue pill!

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