Our next day started at Chelsea Market because my partner knew that we could find some good eats there. And we did!
Spoiler alert.
We wandered the halls looking at the various stalls. We saw everything from BBQ to Japanese to Italian specialty grocery stores. But we settled on a more traditional breakfast spot that offered both bakery items and meals.
I went with French toast, and my partner chose eggs Benedict. Or at least I think that’s what’s pictured. I don’t know eggs. I hate eggs. I’ll eat them when they’re IN something like a cookie or bread, but I cannot eat plain eggs. It’s the smell, the texture, and really every bit of them that I despise. Don’t get me started on hard-boiled eggs! The sheer audacity of some people to eat those in public. Shame!
But enough about eggs!
The food was delicious. And after eating a ton of calories, we knew it was time to walk.
We had a show we were trying to get to, and we had plenty of time to walk there. We hopped on the High Line and took in a different view of New York City. So often, the sights we see are from the street level or above the buildings.
Welcome to a new perspective.
The High Line is built on an old, elevated rail line. And it operates as a single, long park that can be enjoyed year-round.
Being above the street and just below the buildings is a terrific way to experience the city. You walk by businesses and apartments at their level. Not often can you do that.
Walking in any major city would involve multiple interruptions. Stop lights, stop signs, and traffic in general would slow your sauntering. But when you are above it all and a couple of floors above the ground, you can walk to your heart’s content.
There are a ton of funky, amazing, and wonderfully designed buildings along this walk. I’m not I.M. Pei, but I can appreciate interesting and thoughtfully designed buildings.
The end of the road brought us to a honeycomb-like structure called “Vessel.” It’s in the Hudson Yards neighborhood and right next to a mall. A mall where we hurried inside because it was starting to rain harder than the modest drizzle we had experienced earlier on our walk. My partner is not so fond of heights, so that was another reason we went inside. No reason to tempt the fears by climbing up an M.C. Escher-like set of stairs.
From there, it was about a half-hour walk to the theatre where we would see Hadestown. My thoughts on that show have been well documented. If you missed it, I’m not a fan.
After the show, we found B-Side Pizza Bar. It did exactly what we wanted. Served us delicious pizza. Excuse the blurry photo below. We were hungry and only took a photo midway through our meal. Take our, and my, word for it. It’s good.
The title is pretty self-explanatory. I am going to run through a few places in this limited series for things to do and to eat while in New York City. This also means I can expand this series to other cities in the future, if I want to.
But for now, we will stick to one place to eat and one place to do something fun. People’s definitions of “fun” vary widely. Museums may be your idea of fun, or they could be the death knell of joy. We like to visit regular museums, art & sculpture, and the like, but we also enjoy other types of museums.
I am also aiming to highlight sites that are not frequently mentioned when you think of these cities. The Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square, MOMA, etc. Those types of places won’t be featured here. I am looking for things that maybe engage other senses while also being fun.
Enter, The Color Factory.
The Color Factory is a hands-on examination of color. Is it mainly geared towards children? Yes and no. There were several children present when we walked through, and adults were also enjoying the museum.
It is a very photogenic place to visit. There is color, duh, everywhere! We first found this spot on Instagram, and the videos and photos we saw immediately drew us in. That, and looking for something that would get us out of the rain and cold. Win-win!
The world of colors and the sense of taste combine to begin our journey.
After checking our coats, we were treated to a rainbow assortment of fortune cookies. Each cookie had a different color and flavor. It was a fun way to awaken the palate. It was also a nice introduction to what we were about to experience. It was a standard fortune cookie with a flavorful surprise.
Toucan Sam would be all over the next room. We followed our noses to small, colorful vents and sniffed. Literally, breathing in the aromas of colors and the words that correspond to them. It was not a straightforward “you’re smelling cotton candy” or anything similar. The words chosen for each scent allow your mind to create a scent, and then you dive in, nose first, and smell something. Some areas were more pungent than others, but it was still a fun exercise.
After testing the olfactory sense, it was time to rest our feet and let our ears in on the fun. We put on headphones and listened to a prompt. The prompt led us to draw the person across from us and use the colored pencils provided. But it wasn’t a straightforward drawing session. We used the colors as a gateway to the inner workings of our drawing partner. What is their aura? What colors remind you of them? Things like that. It also asked us to stare at them and draw their face without picking up the pencil. That was hard, no lie. I did not do my partner’s face any justice. What I drew was round but also misshapen because I drew a circle too small and then overcorrected and made a bulbous circle. Straight to the bin went that paper!
We then entered a world of sound. And as I typed that, I read it in a Rod Serling Twilight Zone-esque voice. But we did enter a room with multiple percussion instruments, xylophones, and were tasked with playing along. By playing along, I mean using the mallets and making some music.
The next two rooms were explorations of brightness and darkness. Or, that’s what I’m calling it in my thesis for my non-existent paper on the exploration of color and society.
We first made our way through a room that looked like Barbie’s dreamhouse had exploded. It was a party room, and the only thing I thought about after leaving the room was how much of a pain it would be to clean all that confetti up.
The second room was a silent disco. No audible sound, unless you were wearing headphones. Once the headphones were on, the funk was all around, and you could let the music move you through the dimly lit room. It is a fun phenomenon to experience. You see people dancing and wonder what song it is. Then you join in and find out, and once you’re finished, you go back to being out of the loop for the dance party.
The last room took us back to our days visiting Charles Entertainment Cheese. Or, as he is more commonly known, Chuck E. Cheese. It was a ball pit. Take off your shoes and enjoy “swimming” around an inordinate number of monochrome plastic balls. This was just a fun way to end the journey. It was also fun to throw the balls at my partner, who said they smelled “like feet”.
If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
Now for something to eat.
We were extremely stereotypical and went with the tried-and-true New York bagel. PopUp Bagels was our spot, and they hit the mark with these bad boys. Delicious and flavorful, while not being too heavy. The perfect balance.
After ringing in the New Year, it was time to spend our final day in Dublin. Visiting this next place had been on our list since we planned our trip.
The next stop on our trip was to Guinness.
We made the early morning pilgrimage to the brewery, and even our cab driver was surprised to be taking us there before nine in the morning. Maybe he thought we were a couple of lushes, but he surmised that we would be some of the only ones on the tour that early.
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
The queue was virtually nonexistent. We also arrived too early for our entry time, so we walked up and down the street, taking in the sheer massiveness of the space. This is the brewery for Guinness. I expected it to be big, but I was still blown away by the scale. It’s awe-inspiring.
When it was finally our time to enter, we were not prepared for what we were walking into. It’s a gorgeous building that mimics a Guinness pint. A friendly guide welcomed us in with a little spiel about the space and informed us that it was a self-guided experience. They then told us you could expect to spend, on average, 90 minutes exploring the museum.
We spent four hours there. Whoops! Sorry, not sorry. We threw off the average!
There’s a 2010 documentary about Banksy called Exit Through the Gift Shop. Guinness makes you exit AND enter through the gift shop. More on that at the end of our visit.
Above is the 9,000-year lease for the brewery — yes, you read that right. 9,000 years. We are on a 14-month lease, and that can, at times, feel like a long time. It’s got nothing on 9,000 years!
After crossing over the lease, you enter a space that is both modern and timeless. Modern in its presentation and timeless in its offerings to guests. The tour starts with the ingredients in a classic pint of Guinness.
We walked through room after room, showcasing the various ingredients and methods used to brew the Irish stout. At times, it felt like we were walking through a spaceship that housed different rooms, each preserving ingredients for humanity’s future. It’s a bit grandiose, I know, but the tour’s layout is so inviting, informative, and downright cool.
I really wanted to run my hands through the grain like Maximus does at the beginning and end of Gladiator.
This is just a cool water feature highlighting that Guinness is made up of 95% water. Yes, you read that correctly. 95% of that rich and creamy goodness is water.
The tour then progresses through the brewing process and invites us into the inner workings of being a brewmaster. Not too much, because there are still trade secrets along the way, but we are given a window into the world of creating Guinness.
As the brewery has aged, it has modernized its process a bit while remaining true to its original identity. There is a focus on sustainability and on embracing science to pave the way forward for the brand. It’s easy to forget that brewing beer is a science (hell, my oldest sister wanted to be a brewmaster when she went to college, and she majored in chemistry. Now she’s a CRNA [Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist], so she’s still helping “sedate” people, but in a more medically appropriate way.) Science evolves, opening doors to newer methods of practice.
Guinness looks to embrace that.
After making our way through the brewery process, it was time to finally enjoy a taste. We entered a room with a few dozen other guests, and a brief talk was given about the space, and that only guests of legal drinking age in Ireland were allowed to partake. Still, some people tried to sneak their younger kids a sip, feigning ignorance, but they were quickly met with a firm “No.”
I mean, if you’re going to sneak a kid a drink, do it the way I did and my sister’s before me: Hypothetically, pay a person hanging out front of a liquor store to buy you a couple of handles of liquor or a case of beer, and let the purchaser use the leftover cash to buy themselves something. This is all hypothetical, of course.
Our entry treated us to a, literally, little Guinness, and boy, was it delicious. I resisted the urge to pound the small shot of liquid, wanting to savor it. I knew that there would be an opportunity for more tastings, but this first initial morsel was a welcome delight.
After finishing our little Guinness, we entered the world of Guinness adverts. On display were various ad campaigns, slogans, and characters that Guinness has used over the years. It was a real treat to wander through the brand’s history and see how it has evolved over the years.
After taking a trip down memory lane for Guinness adverts, it was time for us to really whet our whistles. For our tour, we added on an experience at the Guinness Storehouse, where you could have your photo laser-etched onto the foam of a pint. We had no idea what the results would be like, but we were amazed at how unique and fun the experience turned out to be.
It’s our faces! On pints of Guinness! The sad part came when we had to drink our faces away. It had to happen, but my face tasted deliciously.
After this pint was finished, we made our way up to the top of the brewery to yet another bar. This one was different from the others that populate the building in that it came with quite a view. I’m going to interject here and say that we did, in fact, stop and eat midway through, so we were not just pounding back beers on an empty stomach. We strategically ate midway through at one of the restaurants in-house and then drank more beer. This wasn’t our first rodeo at a brewery.
I mean, look at that. A perfect pint. I had only learned about “Splitting The G” a few days prior, and my attempt was folly. If you are unfamiliar, “Splitting The G” refers to taking the first sip of Guinness and drinking just enough to leave your drink level somewhere in between the gap of the “G” in Guinness. I am terrible at it; my partner got closer than I did, which means we just need to practice — of course, in moderation.
Walking through the bar’s space was truly a treat. The weather had finally cooperated for the first time on our entire trip, and the sun was bright and shining. The top-floor bar offers a fantastic 360-degree view of Dublin and, on this day, beyond the city limits too. I don’t think we could’ve asked for better weather.
After spending nearly four hours inside, it was time to leave. We only realized how long we had been there once we reached the top and saw the sun starting to set. We made our way through the gift shop and purchased a few items that we couldn’t live without. It was mainly a pin and shirt for me, and some magnets as well, but the real treat was in the glassware my partner ordered beforehand.
She went ahead and bought us personalized pint glasses etched with our last names. It is a lovely keepsake for us to remember our visit to Dublin.
Oh man, I did not realize how tired I looked in this photo until it was staring me in the face on my computer screen. Well, that is what happens when you spend over four hours at a brewery tour and eat and drink your way through the experience. It was a lovely day for a Guinness and an excellent way to spend our final day in Dublin.
Who knows where the spirit of adventure will take us next!
At the end of my last post, I said that this next one would be “EPIC.” That is true. In the most literal sense, it was an EPIC day.
This is because we went to EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum.
The rain was still relatively constant, and getting ourselves out of the wetness and into some dry spots was crucial. We had heard some terrific things about this museum. Family members had been there before and highly recommended it to us; additionally, it was voted “Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction” at the World Travel Awards in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Aside from the giant letters out front, the building is rather unassuming. This is because the space the museum occupies was once a warehouse, and it is all underground. Yes, the exhibits are all underground in a space that was once vaults for shipping and customs.
Right as we walked in, we knew we were in for a treat. The curators and creators have crafted a space that is interactive and inviting while also being extremely informative. It is, for lack of a better word, epic.
This museum is about the emigration experience of the Irish people. It takes you through centuries of history and data in a way that is both highly educational but not overbearing. What I mean by this is that they could have easily slapped a bunch of slides, paintings, and models together with an ass load of words providing descriptions. But they didn’t do that.
There is a perfectly balanced usage of models, artwork, and historical documents/accounts that is presented to guests. At no point did I ever feel bogged down by the info I was reading. There is an honest flow and rhythm to the museum that keeps you moving while also keeping you engaged in the room you are in.
This room showcases the various modes of transportation used by the Irish to emigrate to other countries. Seeing the progression through history from wooden ships to jet-engine airplanes highlights just how long the Irish have been traveling around the world.
This is not to say that other people from around the world have not been doing the exact same thing, because they have. The Irish are often regarded as the quintessential example of emigration. There are Irish people everywhere (especially on March 17th, hahah), and this museum highlights their experience.
Walking through the museum, we were presented with a lot of history. Some of it is not easily swallowed because our collective pasts are full of triumphs and tribulations. In the early days, the Irish were forced out of their homeland by, you guessed it, the English, as well as famine and war. It was not always a peaceful emigration or an emigration by choice. A significant portion of the museum’s first few rooms focuses on the collective experience of those who left the country. These people ranged from farmers to families to convicts.
According to my AncestryDNA test, I have 0% Irish ancestry. I am mostly English, German, and various Scandinavian countries. So, since I am not Irish, that leaves me to either be “The Good” or “The Bad.” Let me know in the comments which one you think I am! (Please don’t. I don’t want to moderate all of those potential comments.)
The second half of the museum highlights and pays tribute to the Irish descendants and emigrants who made a name for themselves in various fields around the world. I was drawn more to the film and literature aspects of the exhibit, but there were also plenty of politicians, scientists, and other academically focused individuals featured.
There is an entire room dedicated to the Irish authors and those of Irish descent. I was drawn to the works of Cormac McCarthy, whose book, No Country for Old Men, I read while I was living in Australia, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. If you click on the second image with me in it, you can see that I am pulling the book off the shelf. This act triggers a recording of a passage from the book. It was enjoyable to walk around and see just how many Irish authors, as well as authors of Irish descent, exist in the world.
After making our way through the entire museum, it was time to go to another museum. If I had told my teenage self that I was going to be walking around Dublin, going from museum to museum, and not just getting pissed drunk because it was Ireland, and that’s what some people do when they visit, he probably would have called me a loser. Thankfully, I am not a teenager, and I know the value of museums and historical buildings.
Also, I doubt teenage me would have enjoyed just drinking anyway. I didn’t party. I rented two movies every Friday from Blockbuster. One for Friday night and one for Saturday night. But my social life from ’99 to ’05 is not on trial here!
Escaping the rain once again, we found ourselves at the National Gallery of Ireland. There were numerous paintings in this place. Some we enjoyed, but for the most part, it was full of things that did not interest us.
I’m going to be honest. Portraits of battles or self-portraits from the 16th century, or similar works, do not interest me. The museum housed many paintings of this type. That is not to say that it is not a beautiful space. Because it is! I think by this time of day, after spending all of those hours on our feet, we were tired and wanted a break from engaging our brains. We had already taken in a lot of info at EPIC, and then to go to another museum was a bit bullish on our part.
My favourite pieces were the ones shown above. The one on the left is a gorgeous infinite loop of wood that truly looks as if it is melting and bending in the hallway.
The painting on the right was part of a rotating exhibit that showcased portraits by young artists. I also really loved the artist’s description of their work. If the image is too small to read the description, here it is:
‘This is a portrait of my youngest brother on our holidays. I wanted to immortalise this moment of him in the pool with the rainbows dancing on his skin, to capture his joy and youthfulness. I enjoyed painting this portrait because I was constantly reminded of all the fun he has on our family holidays and all the fun we have together. It’s my favourite picture of him because it really shows who he is, a boy who has fun everywhere especially tumtha (immersed) underwater.’
Directly across the street is a well-known sculpture of Oscar Wilde. Even at night, it is a well-lit spot to visit. Even if the park is closed, you can quasi-scale the fence to get a solid photo of the sculpture. Which I may or may not have had to do…
After dragging our bodies across town, it was time to do a little bit more walking! This time it would be to dinner. It would be a walk with purpose. With it being New Year’s Eve, there were heaps of people out and about. No amount of rain could keep the people out of the streets, pubs, and restaurants tonight.
We walked by the famous Temple Bar and, like everyone else, we took a photo. We did not, however, try to go inside. The place was bustling, and the people inside looked a bit like sardines in a tin can. Not our scene. We ended up at a spot down the street called The Quays Bar. We didn’t have a booking, but we lucked out and were able to get a place. The service was excellent. The food was exquisite. It was a really lovely way to end our evening.
While we were eating, we decided we wouldn’t make it until midnight. That’s not in our wheelhouse anymore. We would rather sleep than stay up late to watch fireworks. As luck would have it, there would be some fireworks later that night. Just not actual fireworks.
That night, while we were watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I had an epiphany. *Spoilers if you haven’t seen this movie before* At the end, when Indy is reaching for the Holy Grail, his father is holding onto him but losing his grip. He continually calls him Junior to try to get him to pay attention. Indy is fixated on the Grail. It is only when his dad calls him by his preferred name, Indiana, that he listens. Indy uses the hand that was grasping for the Grail and grabs a firmer hold of his dad, who then lifts him to safety.
It’s a poignant moment because the entire film, Henry (Dad) has been calling Indy “Junior,” and in this moment of clarity and acceptance, he sees his son for who he truly is. It was in that moment that I thought about my life with my partner and our dog, whom I had named Indiana (because we found out that Indy took his name from his beloved childhood dog of the same name). I knew that there was no one else I would rather be with, and I asked her to marry me.
After a damp evening in, it was time to explore the city of Dublin.
A damp evening turned into a wet day. We began it by walking through Trinity College, which is home to the Book of Kells. I am still not entirely sure what they are (although a quick search tells me that it is an 8th- or 9th-century illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels), but I was told it was a “must-see.” Sadly, the viewings were booked solid, and we could only walk by the line to get into the experience. The line was long, though! That means it is a spot to see when it is not booked solid.
Our jackets were a bit damp, but our spirits remained high because we then ventured on to our next spot: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After getting close to the Cathedral, we zigged and zagged through the streets trying to find someplace to get a coffee.
Well, “we,” meaning my partner, needed a coffee, and I needed a tea of some kind. Wandering the streets, we found a cozy spot that was catty-corner to the Cathedral. You can even see it in a tastefully artistically framed photo below. Then you’ve got the real deal: an in-focus church right next to it. I didn’t plan on putting these photos bam-bam next to each other, but it was serendipitous, so I did it.
From the street, it didn’t look hectic. We then turned a corner to the entrance and saw where the tour buses dropped off hordes of people. Then we saw the line to enter. There were heaps of people! The line did move quickly, though, so there was that.
We were given the option to either take a guided tour or walk around the church with an audio tour. We opted for the self-guided audio tour. If you have never done an audio tour, you walk around a room or building and enter the corresponding number for what you are looking at. A pre-recorded voice comes on and tells you all about what you are seeing. It goes beyond what you read on the plaque. It adds depth and dimension to the space, allowing you to move at your own pace. If you’re not feeling a particular aspect, such as a mural or sculpture, you can move right along. A place as highly trafficked as St. Patrick’s, they do carry audio tours in multiple languages.
Right away, we were blown away by the structure, the space, and its upkeep. This place was built in 1191. 1191! And it is still here! Major kudos to the country of Ireland for preserving this space, allowing travelers from around the world to visit.
I am no longer a particularly religious person. I attended a Catholic high school and then a four-year Catholic university, but I grew up attending an Episcopalian church. Once I became an adult, my parents let me choose whether I wanted to continue attending church. I declined. It didn’t add anything of value to my life, so I decided it would be better to distance myself from church rather than go through the motions and feign interest and belief.
St. Patrick’s is both a religious and a historical space. I walked through the space, disregarding my spiritual beliefs, and took it as an opportunity to visit a significant building.
Just like when we walked through St. David’s, this space reminded me of the church I used to visit when I was younger. That church was also surrounded by stone, but it had more carpet. St. Patrick’s is floor-to-ceiling stone. It truly is a beautiful place to walk around. Do I remember everything that I heard on the tour? Absolutely not. That was nearly 10 months ago.
Now THESE! These Death Masks were something to see. This may sound trite, but I first read about Death Masks after reading Dan Brown’s Inferno. Sidenote: The movie was fine, but the ending lacked the punch that the book delivered. He’s a solid writer who moves the plot along very quickly, rarely keeping the reader bored. Plus, he’s got a new book out now, so that’s also fresh in my mind as I look back at my photos of the Death Masks.
Jonathan Swift, mask shown above, is famously known as the author of Gulliver’s Travels. He also served as Dean of St. Patrick’s from 1713 to 1745. He lived to be 77 years old and was a notable figure within the church and community, so I can understand why they would create a mask of his face and display it.
After examining a wide range of stained glass, tapestries, and various other works of art, it was (I don’t want to say refreshing, but it’s the best word I’ve got right now) oddly humanizing for the hallowed space we were in. It brought the ethereal/godly environment back to reality. Seeing the face of a man who lived 300 years ago makes the church and the entire Cathedral more human. It reminds us that the past and history were lived by real people and not just names on pages.
Exiting the Cathedral, we still saw throngs of people queued up to enter. It was also still very wet outside.
Next to the Cathedral is St. Patrick’s Park. It’s a lovely green space in the city that offers a welcome respite from the city’s hustle and bustle. I was also trying to follow the dog in the lower right corner of the photo above. The dog was too far away for me to say “Hi,” so I took a sneaky picture of it instead.
With the rain coming down, walking to our next stop was out of the question. We hailed a cab and made our way to Darkey Kelly’s Bar & Restaurant. We were searching for a traditional Irish pub that would fill our bellies and let us rest our weary feet from all of the walking we had already done. We found that in Darkey Kelly’s. Below, you can read the story of the pub’s name.
Do you see that red rectangle at the bottom? Merchandising. Merchandising. I can’t help but say that in Mel Brooks’ voice from “Spaceballs.” Anyway, my partner has this wild fascination with flat caps. I have no idea where it comes from or why she is obsessed with them, but she is. As we ordered our food and drinks, which were delicious by the way, she pointed to her menu and asked something of the server. He left, and then after serving our beers, he brought a flat cap. My partner had bought a Darkey Kelly’s-branded flat cap for me.
I didn’t know what to do other than wear it.
I don’t think it really suits me, but I have been told otherwise by numerous people. Anyway, that is where this part of our journey ends because the next part of our story is EPIC.
John Kidde Writes 