On the 23rd of March, Bud and I had been married for 1 year. As marriage traditions go, the gift is said to be something of paper. On the Thursday evening, Bud gave me a well planned itinerary for the events of the weekend. The itinerary involved dinner and some surprise events in and around London.
So...after a terrible day of work as well as getting lost and spending most of the day on public transport, I eagerly met up with Bud at East Croydon station so that we could venture to London Bridge together for the evening. Bud had insisted that I meet him at East Croydon station even though I was working 20 min from London Bridge Station. This meant that my journey took even longer and made me more grumpy. When I arrived at East Croydon I found Bud waiting with 2 travel bags and a whole new itinerary including plane tickets to Dublin - grumpiness gone.
The flight was only 1.5 hours and we were at our hotel by 10pm on the Friday night. Our hotel room was amazing with a massive bed and 2 bathrooms (and a not so friendly receptionist). As it was already quite late, we decided to visit a local pub around the corner (had been recommended to us by some of Bud's rugby club friends), called O'Donoghue's (Homeground of the Dubliners). The pub was packed with people and we squeezed in, an irish folk band was playing in the corner (the band contained the jolliest flute player imaginable) and a bar-man was standing on top of the bar and serving drinks. As we walked in we were served in the first minute by the bar-top bar-man and got our Guinness passed to us over the crowds. Towards the end of the night we made friends with the band and both vowed how we would love to play the banjo. We stayed till closure and drank way too much Guinness.
The next day, we made our way to St Patricks Cathedral which is a large cathedral built adjacent to the famous well which St Patrick is said to have baptised converts in the year 450. The Cathedral has a lot of Dublin's history inside and was amazing to see such incredible architecture.
We then headed off to the Guinness Storehouse at the St James Gate Brewery. We enjoyed a tour of the Brewery, learnt how to pour a perfect Guinness and enjoyed a pint up at the top of the Storehouse with a 360 degree view of Dublin. After all the walking around we were starving and decided to head off to Temple Bar in style (Horse and Carriage). Temple is the tourist area in Dublin with loads of pubs, live folk music and Guinness. We moved around between a few different pubs and didn't leave till long after sunset.
The next morning, we made our way to the Jameson Distillery. Again, a well-worth activity. I was chosen to be one of 6 to taste 3 different types of Whiskey after the tour (Jameson, Jack Daniels and Jonny Walker) and I got a certificate too. Bud wasn't chosen, and of course he was not happy about this. So he stood next to me throughout the whiskey tasting sipping on any left overs in the shot glasses.
We spent the rest of the day walking around Dublin. We visited the Famous Molly Malone statue (Bud touched her boob) and ended our amazing weekend at O'Donoghue's (the pub we started at) to finish off with listening to some more Irish Folk songs.
A wonderful surprise, a wonderful weekend, and can't wait to return! This time for longer than a weekend. The bar for future anniversary gifts has been set very high.
“May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand”
― Irish Blessing