My last day, and a busy one. I had some breakfast at the Bewley’s Cafe on Mary Street and headed over to the Old Jameson Distillery, then to the Guinness Storehouse. I much preferred the Jameson tour – making whiskey and beer doesn’t need a multimedia presentation like they used on the Guinness tour, although finishing up at the Gravity Bar with the ‘perfect pint’ and looking out over the city was grand. I also thought the Jameson store had better swag, although the plastic bubble with Guinness encased inside that serves as your ticket is pretty cool.
With all my ‘cultural’ experiences out of the way, it was time for shopping! Temple Bar has any number of record stores (best ones: Record Collector on Wicklaw Street had a large selection of bootlegs, while SpinDizzy in the Georges Street Arcade had a nice used selection) and bookstores (Dandelion Books on Aungier Street had a good selection) and I ended appropriately with a sandwich and coffee at The Winding Stair bookstore/cafe. Later, I wasn’t in a drinking mood, so I had some fish and chips at Beshoff’s (good, but not great), and wandered around Temple Bar and Grafton Street, where they had some fascinating street performers, particularly an opera singer accompanied by an accordionist who you could hear three blocks away.
[Originally published at GoHither.Net]