The craic was mighty !

(Note: This post is for Tuesday, July 29, 2008.)

Today we left our beautiful hotel in Cork, bound for the last leg of our trip in Dublin. Luckily the trip from Cork to Dublin was one of the smoothest (despite longest) we've had, as we got to travel some roads that were less than a year old and not quite so hilly as those we've been traveling. Since we spent all morning traveling, we didn't have much time to to sightsee once we got to Dublin, so a group of us quickly dropped off our belongings and headed to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour (and a free Guinness).

Upon entering the Guinness Storehouse you see embedded in the flooring a copy of the lease for the building which when signed was to last for 9000 years! While Guinness has been certainly surviving since then, it's crazy to think that they still have 8000+ years to go on their lease! The Storehouse is also designed as the largest pint glass in the world - it would take 4,000,000+ pints of Guiness to actually fill it. After exploring the Storehouse (including the history of Guiness and how it is made), we ended at the velocity bar, which is the highest point in Dublin, where we got a free pint and a 360-degree view of the city (luckily it was sunny while we were up there, so we could see pretty far!). I also finally discovered what people are talking about or what shirts means when they say "the craic was mighty." Apparently "craic" or "crack" in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England means "fun or lighthearted mischief, often in the context of drinking or music." In Ireland when people ask, "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?" it doesn't refer to drugs as it does in the U.S., but rather, "How are you?" or "How have you been?"

After the Guinness tour, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but were disappointed when we found out there was a service in progress and we therefore couldn't go inside. We got some pretty pictures of the outside though! As we were all hungry by this point, we all stopped by a pub on the way back to the hotel, where some of us has the biggest pieces of fish we've ever seen and the best chips we've had on the trip (I swear, we're becoming experts on french fries we've eaten so many!).

Now we're back at the hotel, and I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open and it's raining outside, so no sense in going out. Tomorrow we have a LONG day at UCD, so I'll suppose I'll head to bed early tonight.