Alright. I'm back from Da Dub, and there's a lot to write about. We arrived in Dublin at around 11 am to the wonderful Ryanair theme song, and caught a 2.20 euro Dublin Bus into the city. We were all very weary from our early morning travels, and we couldn't check into our hostel (the Times Hostel) until around 2 pm, so we decided to have our first Irish meal at a traditional Irish pub. The food was pretty good, but definitely not the best of our trip. As long as I'm on the topic of pubs, I'm going to end this play-by-play and just talk about the pub scene.The best area of Dublin is called the Temple Bar district. It's Dublin's center of Irish tradition, music, and most importantly, drinking. I've never seen a more concentrated area of merriment in my life. It's an old, fairly narrow, cobblestone street, lined exclusively with pubs and restaurants. There's even a Hard Rock cafe. Most of the pubs have live music throughout the day (and night), and since we happened to be in Dublin for "Trad Fest", all of the music was traditional Irish, although we did hear some classic Green Day and Oasis.
But with or without the traditional music, these pubs were RIDIC. Totally unlike any bar I've seen in the US. Since Irish people are naturally happy and festive, their presence naturally makes for a good time. Their attitude and passion for drinking is remarkable, and it seems like they view Arthur Guinness as a close friend or family member.On our first night out at Temple Bar, after purchasing our Guinness and ignorantly wondering why the bartender was just letting them sit at the bar while they weren't filled (to be explained later), we tried to inch our way closer to the live music. We were unsuccessful, but found ourselves next to fellow Americans from Cincinnati. They were both in their mid 20s, and it was a treat to run into fellow travelers who spoke an unadulterated form of English. Unsurprisingly, we ended up seeing them at other pubs that night and at other locations over the next couple of days. Very easy to make friends here.
Our first full day in Dublin brought us to the Guinness Storehouse, Ireland's most popular tourist attraction. I initially questioned if it was worth paying 11 euros for a simple tour of a brewery/storehouse, but I very quickly discovered the brilliance of the Guinness franchise.
I'll spare most of the details of our tour, but the storehouse is in the shape of a giant pint glass (the largest in the world), and is filled with information that covers Guinness's history, brewing techniques, advertising campaign, and best of all, a free pint at the highest point in Dublin. The bar at the top only serves Guinness, of course, and wow do they really take pride in their beer. 
They have a special technique where the pint glass is first filled nearly to the top. Then they let it sit for a couple minutes until they finish by topping it off with the perfect pour. Truly an art. But you can't drink it yet -- you must wait two minutes for the beer to settle. Finally, the beer is ready to be enjoyed.Believe it or not, we did more than drink Guinness during our stay in Dublin. We went on a historical tour of some of the city's most interesting sites, led by a Trinity College history grad. Our tour covered the Dublin castle (very disappointing), the viking/medieval area ("dece"), Trinity College, the former parliament building which is now a bank (very cool), and the Temple Bar district. The tour guide was very animated, spoke well, and was very knowledgeable about Dublin, but by far the best part of our trip came just hours before our flight back to our new home.
Having basically seen everything Dublin has to offer, we had some time to kill at around 1:30 in the afternoon. So, naturally, we headed over to Temple Bar for what we thought would be our last Guinness of the trip. The bar was packed with jolly Irishmen who clearly had nothing better to do than drink on a Saturday afternoon, but we luckily got a table next to an older (50s, probably) couple. It didn't take too long for Grace to make conversation, and before we knew it, our new friend Phil and his wife were offering to buy us pints. He would not let us refuse his generous offer, and we ended up conversing with this kind couple for three hours before we had to catch a bus to the airport. This experience, while seemingly minimal, is to me what traveling should be about. You can see historical sites and landmarks, and learn about history, but by far the best memories are formed as a result of the people we met.
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