My second day in Dublin was spent with my friend Justine who was studying at University College Dublin. We walked past Christ Church Cathedral on our way to the Guinness factory. It began to drizzle and, of course, I only had on a sweatshirt, but the rain really wasn't bad. We stopped and ate lunch at a pub directly across from one of the factories and inside there was a sign that said "Guinness brewed 100 yards away." This was without question the best tasting Guinness Pint I have ever had. Some say that the further away you are from the factory in Dublin (and certainly across the ocean), the more it loses its signature taste. I can agree that to some extent this is true; there was a clear difference between a glass in the US and a pint in Ireland. Together we viewed the Guinness and Jameson Factories. The Guinness tour was self-guided but still amazing to learn about the process.

Prior to going up to the rooftop pub, I was taught how to correctly pour a Guinness which is actually not an easy task. I'll explain: first you must use a chilled glass which then must be angled at 90 degrees to allow the beer to enter the glass by pulling the tap towards you. After the glass is roughly three quarters full of the beer, you stop and place it on the bar to allow it to settle for about 2 minutes. As the beer sits you can see the oxygen and beer settle towards the top. After settled, you then push the tap away from you. This process allows the beer to be poured without nitrogen, thus allowing the Guinness signature head to settle at the top. After completing this step, the instructor commented that I had done a perfect job, a comment she only said once more to our group of roughly ten. It is now ready to be served, and I certainly made sure to cherish this beer that I poured myself.

Afterwards we continued on up to the bar located above the factory. This is the highest point in Dublin and is obviously quite beautiful with a full 360 degree panoramic view. Leaving this tour, we continued on to partake in the Jameson Tour. If you are ever in Dublin, I certainly recommend doing both the Guinness and Jameson Tours. I found the Jameson guided tour to be much better. You first watch a short introduction of the history of Jameson, afterwards 8 people are chosen to be taste testers at the end of the tour and I was fortunate to be chosen. The tour takes you through the whole process of the ingredients used and the process used to make the alcohol. While the old Jameson factory was used to make Jameson for hundreds of years, it is no longer the site, since they have moved to southern Ireland. At the end of the tour 4 women and 4 men, including me, sat at a long table where we were presented with three shot glasses filled with whiskey and water. In front of me was a shot of Jameson, Johnny Walker Blue Label (Scotland), and Jack Daniel's (United States). We were explained the difference and asked to taste for ourselves. Johnny Walker had a more oak and smoke flavor due to their brewing process. Jack Daniel's was dark, sweet, and sour. Jameson, however, was the smoothest of all three. It was so distinct from the other two with quite a vibrant flavor. After the testing we were all asked our favorite and 8 out of 8 chose Jameson. I genuinely preferred Jameson over the other two, it is without question a superior product and it should be with 300 years of history.

After the day in the city we both returned to the campus to get ready to go out for the night. Justine's Irish boyfriend, Marc, was going to be coming over with some friends. Upon meeting the three Irish friends I was amazed at how nice they were to me. They immediately were fascinated by American culture, specifically my home in the JerseyShore which I proudly defended from the show. By the end of the night they truly understood the real Jersey, at least I hope. They will be coming to the area in late summer and I promised to take them out to show them the Guido bars and the rest of the area. They filled me in on the culture, history and views of Ireland. I was happy to find out they were really into baseball, despite just learning the sport less than 2 years ago. We discussed our fantasy Baseball teams and really got along well. We sat in the living room drinking Bulmer's, which is an Irish Cider that is really good. After drinking and laughing at Guido videos on youtube, we headed out to the bar to meet up with the UCD softball team for an end of the year meeting. What a great night it was, drinking Bulmer's and socializing with the locals. Around midnight we went next door to a night club that appeared to have a lot of Dubliners. The style is certainly unique here, as much as the accents. The guys explained to me the big difference between people from south of the Liffey (Southie's) and north of the Liffey, which they said are differences in clothes, walk and speech. Overall we drank like Irishmen, danced and had a truly epic night.