Celebrating Guinness

The past week or so has been a week of Guinness for me, and on Thursday, it was a night for Guinness lovers everywhere. As I'm sure most of you know, Thursday marked the 250th anniversary of Guinness, so here is my tribute to Arthur.

Last weekend I went to Dublin and got to check out the Guinness Storehouse (i.e. the Guinness Museum.) It is located near the river in the heart of the city and you actually start smelling it before you see it.



The outside looks like an old factory, all made of brick and the streets are cobble.





The interior of the museum is designed like a giant pint glass. It actually holds the world record for the largest pint glass, very clever.

There are 7 stories of the museum, taking you through how they brew Guinness, old and new, the time-line, advertising, and of course, taste-testing. You can even pull your own pint if you want! Which I, of course, did. They even gave me a piece of paper signed and dated saying I am a certified Guinness server, ha.





















At the very top of the museum is a bar with a 360 degree of Dublin. It was jammed-packed in there by the time we got to the top, but we stayed long enough to get a few good looks (and a few photos too.)





For the 250th anniversary, I went to a local pub, Macy's, with my boss of all people. He had organized the making of a make-shift coffin with a skeleton of Arthur Guinness inside so that at 17:59 everyone could come outside with a pint of Guinness and get their photo taken together. I was in charge of the photo-taking portion. (Hopefully we'll get to put a little tid-bit in this upcoming issue of the messenger.)

















The rest of the night was spent, well, drinking Guinness. ha. Also, later in the evening, a guitar was brought out and passed around to those who could play while the rest of the pub joined in singing. I think that is so awesome. Is that possible for that to happen in the states? What do you think they'd do if you brought a guitar into the C.C. Club (in Minneapolis) and tried to get everyone singing along? haha, they'd think you're nuts and kick you out, I'm sure. Which is really too bad. Watching everyone singing, having a blast - absolutely no inhibitions or lack of confidence, made me wish I could play guitar (or sing in tune for that matter.)







Well that's all for now, and I think I may be laying off the Guinness for awhile.. ha.

Cheers!
Karen