Drinking Vacation in Dublin Thanksgiving 2014 Day 3

The drinking hits its peak:

• Breakfast at the Westin Dublin
• Tour of the Westin Gym
• Guinness Factory Tour
• Beer at Legends Bar
• Dinner at the Pigs Ear
• More Drinks at O’Donoghue’s
• Beers at Oliver St. John Gogarty
• Last Call at Temple Bar
• Flight Home the next day

We finally woke up early enough to get breakfast downstairs at the Westin Dublin. Just barely though. Breakfast ends at 10:30 and we got there right around 10. It wasn’t too busy since it was only a Saturday morning. They had a large assortment of hot food and pastries, along with a pancake machine, cereal, and fruit. There are a few places nearby that serves a traditional Irish breakfast so if you are not a Platinum Member with SPG, you can easily go elsewhere to get an affordable breakfast. I would recommend Brick Alley Cafe in the temple bar area. They also serve Irish Coffee and beer very early in the morning in case you wanted your hangover cure.

Westin Dublin Gym

I also took a lap around the gym. Going to the gym involves a long walk following various signs in the hallway. The gym isn’t very big at all, as seen in the first picture. That is the size of the whole gym. The other pictures focus on the different machines at the gym. The treadmills were nice and there are TVs on the treadmills, like many other European hotels.

My friend’s girlfriend landed early Saturday morning so we waited a bit in the morning for her to arrive at the hotel. Afterwards, we walked over to the Guinness Factory.

• Here is my post and review of the Guinness Factory in Dublin. I have been there last year so I didn’t take many pictures this time.

Like what I did in Dublin last year, we poured our own pint and got to drink it.

We also got a 1/2 pint from this sensory exhibit that was very cool. It exposes you to a bright environment, then a dark environment so you can focus on the taste of the beer.

We also got another pint on their panoramic roof deck as well. That day it started to drizzle so we took our time in finishing the pint. We also spent some time at the gift shop on the ground floor.

Legends Bar

Little did I know that this day would turn out to be a slow long pub crawl. On our way back towards downtown, we stopped by a bar. We had some time to kill before our dinner reservations at The Pig’s Ear. I got a cider and Irish Coffee. On the other side of the restaurant, they were setting up for the dinner and live music, which is common in Dublin. You often pay a set price for dinner and some live Irish music.

The Pig’s Ear

My friend had made some reservations for dinner that night. Little did he realize that his girlfriend was vegetarian. When we realized this, we quickly searched the menu for vegetarian dishes, but they had none. Luckily she decided to eat a bit of meat that day (shes no longer vegetarian, for the record). It was a smaller restaurant that was set in an old apartment building. The second floor was the main dining area, and there was also additional seating upstairs. It seemed as if this used to be small studio apartments that was converted to a restaurant a few years ago. The meal was great, but a bit pricey at around 30EUR a dish.

More Drinks at O’Donoghue’s

After dinner, we stumbled around the nearby area and found a lively and crowded bar. We came into O’Donoghues for a few drinks. All I remember was dim and purple lighting and very sticky floors.

Beers at Oliver St. John Gogarty

On our way back to our hotel room, we sobered up a little bit to grab another few beers at Oliver St. John Gogarty (man that’s a long name). It was fairly empty and we took up a few bar stools by the wall. It was around midnight around this time and after we had two beers, we moved onto our last stop.

Last Call at Temple Bar

I wanted to take them to Temple Bar because its just something everyone does. It is very touristy, very crowded, but it is what and Irish pub should be. It is always lively and usually a live band playing inside.

It can be really difficult to find a table (or a seat rather) so you just need to go in there, grab a drink and wait for an opening. I have seen people stand for hours inside Temple Bar and having a good time so don’t get discouraged from the crowds. We had a few more drinks there until around 3am when they turned on the lights and forced us to leave. We didn’t even notice it was so late, but it was humorous that we were getting kicked out of the bar. There were still at least 100 people inside at 3am so we slowly filed out of the bar.

It was a short walk back to the hotel. Luckily, my flight was at 7am so I didn’t really sleep much at all. I just slept on the couch for about two hours. The great thing about sleeping for two hours is that it doesn’t give your body a chance to have a hangover, but as the flights wore on, I eventually did get a hangover.

Flight Home

I woke up around 4:30am and caught the 5:30 bus to the airport. I had just missed the 5am bus but luckily the next one wasn’t a long wait. I got to the airport with plenty of time. Once I got through security, it was almost time to board so I skipped the lounge. I got a window seat and blacked out for about an hour until I realized we didn’t even take off yet. There was a delay at LHR due to fog so my flight landed about 90 minutes late at LHR.

When we landed at LHR, I had about 30 minutes to make my flight. I had a feeling that maybe I would miss the flight. In this case, it was not my fault because my incoming flight was delayed. I didn’t even bother running for the flight since it wasn’t my fault. Surprisingly, I breezed through security and managed to walk to my plane with 10 minutes to spare. I was one of the last people to board and took my window seat. I flew coach because I couldn’t find an AA flight back to JFK. It was only 6 hours during the day and I slept for much of that because I was still very tired from not sleeping the night before.

We landed at JFK on time and I went to the Flagship Lounge at JFK to kill some time before my connection to Boston. It was fairly uneventful for the rest of the way home.