Yelp It Up

Tonight, we had the opportunity to attend our first Yelp Elite event!  Drew has been an active member on Yelp since Mere started there and after one month in Dublin (despite the fact that he's been reviewing places in Dallas for years now) he was invited to be an ELITE member!  Wooohooo!  Being Elite means you're an active balla on Yelp and you can get invited to do some cool things in the community.  Like tonight's whiskey tasting!

We headed over to Bison Bar and met some cool peeps, tasted some disgusting whiskeys (God knows I'm trying to like it but I just CAN'T yet!), got a tour of the cool bar, and really enjoyed ourselves.  Bison Bar is a whiskey bar that has expanded into 3 different bars above it and next door.  It's outfitted with old school "western" stuff, which reminded us of Texas.  Ahhh.

Welcome!

Yelp thinks Drew's special.

The had saddle barstools!  Coooool.  The bartender was talking about them and said "I don't know if any of you have been to Texas, but these are what the barstools look like there."  Drew stepped in and said "Uhh I'm actually FROM Texas and they don't look like this."  Not sure if that won us any friends but come on!  The guy didn't know what he was talking about.  What were we supposed to do?

I've hated buffalos since birth and they've always scared me, as they are demon monsters on four legs.  But I guess they had to have one here after their namesake.  It doesn't mean I had to like it though.  Even taking this picture was difficult for me.

Disco ball in the music venue!

Upstairs bar outfitted in retro furniture.

More blazing saddles and old timey stuff.

Reminded me of home.

The lineup: Jameson, Connemara Scotch (yuck), and some sort of Rye whiskey resembling Jack Daniels that I can't remember the name of.

I believe Conan O'Brien said "Scotch looks delicious, but then you take one sip and it tastes like a leather furniture store that's on fire."  Well put.

It was raining after we left so we ran into The Counter to get some burgers.  Notice that sauce at the top left?  That's RANCH!!  Not the same as home but I'll take it!

It was a really fun event and I can't wait to go to more.  Maybe I should start writing some reviews so I can stop riding Drew's coattails yet again.  Ah well!  He likes taking me.  Fun times with Yelp though - glad we went!

Tomorrow, folks, I boldly go where many women have gone before: my first American Women's Club function.  It's a "Newcomer's Coffee Group" at 10am at some woman's house in Ballsbridge.  Tracy can't go because she works so I am going at this one alone.  Alone.  I am both nervous and dreading it, mostly because I'm having Theta bid day flashbacks.  But no matter.  No one else there will know anyone either and it'll be FINE!  I'll report back afterwards so stay tuned.  Now I'm off to sleep fitfully, anticipating my morning ahead.  Sigh.  Goodnight!

Belfast: Day 2

Sunday morning in Belfast means....nothing's open in the City Centre for breakfast!  We wandered around for 45 minutes looking for ANYTHING to eat until we stumbled upon a shady cafe serving "eggs" on bagels.  It did the trick I guess.  After breakfast we walked back to our hotel and grabbed a "Black Taxi" Tour - a literal old school black taxi that takes you around the parts of Belfast that were deeply affected by the religious and political strife.  Thank GOD it was sunny out, otherwise it would have made it even more depressing.  Yay! 

So...for those of you dummies out there (me included), there's been some political and religious tension in Northern Ireland the past....gazillion years or so.  And when I say political and religious, it's virtually one in the same.  The Catholics ("Republicans") want a united Ireland, and the Protestants ("Loyalists") side with the British and want them to continue controlling Northern Ireland.  The neighborhoods are still very much divided into political/religious districts and the murals and Peace Wall are the trademarks of the many troubles of the violence and tension between them over the years.  Our cab driver, Brendan (which is a very Catholic name - he said in the City Centre he tells people his name is John to be safe) was incredibly informative and though he was Catholic, he did a good job of explaining everything in a non-biased way.  

Let's begin.  Brendan first took us to the Protestant section.

Shankill Road is the main road in the Protestant Working Class area and these murals are dedicated to the shit that went down there.

Here are some views of the Protestant Working Class areas.  Note the Union Jack flags flying everywhere.

This is a famous mural called "The Sniper" - it's kinda like the Mona Lisa in that the sniper's eyes and gun follow you no matter where you are in the square.  Scary.

I thought this was a cool picture of a mural until I realized that the Gold Rush mural was painted after the Protestants raided a bunch of Jewish homes and found bars of gold inside and stole them.  I don't THINK SO!  

This guy was famous.  For something.  I'm sorry I don't know what it is.

Our black taxi!

This mural was depicting the children's lives in 1969, and that bombings, violence, and fear were an every day part of their summers.

This was an old, beautiful courthouse that has been ransacked and left to ruin after years of no one using it.  It's right outside the Protestant/Catholic area, with the jail (second picture) across the street.  Neither one are being used.  It's sad that these beautiful buildings are just sitting there in disrepair!

Brendan also pointed out that there are several gates in the Catholic area that are closed every single night at 6 or 7pm, to try to prevent conflict.  Can you imagine?  Geez.

This is the Peace Wall!  It seperates the Protestant and Catholic areas and is about 5 miles long.  There are more murals and graffiti along the wall, and lots of people leave their names and messages on it too.

Leaving our mark on the Peace Wall.  Peace, love, & Solomons.

Catholic Memorial Garden, honoring those who died.

These are the apartments next to the garden, on the other side of the Peace Wall.  Notice that they're caged in to protect themselves.

Bobby Sands.  Big time IRA Volunteer.

I'm sorry if this is disrespectful, but doesn't this look like Ron Burgundy?  Just a little bit?

A mural of Guernica!  Cool!

International Wall - displaying world events.

The Europa is the "most bombed" hotel in Europe.  I don't think I'll be staying here any time soon.

Belfast City Hall.  A pretty building in the midst of this dark city!

Pizza break before the train home.

You know when you've stopped along the sidewalk to enjoy the slice of pizza you've bought to eat before the train, and you set your Diet Cokes down on a pillar and you look down and there's a POTATO sitting there?  Yeah, us either. Only in Ireland.

A large clock near our hotel that we kept calling "Little Ben" - though I don't think that's what it was actually called.

The final kicker of our trip was seeing a huge red stain on the concrete near our hotel - it was too red to be ketchup and I knew exactly what it was.  Drew insisted that he was going to pretend it was just face paint.  Ha.  With that, we grabbed our bags and headed to the train station, back to civilization in Dublin.

Like I said, we're glad we went, we saw what we needed to, but we have absolutely no reason to return there.  The Black Taxi tour was really interesting and...sad.  Sad that people still live this way, that both sides continue to do stuff to rile each other up, sad that there is STILL violence going on (Brendan said "Yeah, about a year ago a huge Loyalist leader was killed out here in the street, in broad daylight, in front of tourists and everybody!"  Yikes.), sad that we all can't just get along!  But as Drew so astutely pointed out, even though we're shocked and appalled by this lifestyle, there's still division and tension and racism in the States and all over the world, even though we don't see it everyday.  Come on people!    Let's all just hug it out.  If only.

Our next trip should be to a more uplifting place so stay tuned for that one!  Peace out!

Belfast: Day 1

Drew and I decided on a whim to head to Belfast up in Northern Ireland for a quick weekend trip.  There's a ton of beautiful scenery and touristy views even farther north of Belfast that require a car, but we didn't have the time or inclination to go see those right now.  We'll rent a car and go some other time.  Overall, we're glad we made the trip to Belfast to see what we wanted/needed to see, but we are SO GLAD we don't live there.  It happened to be a bank holiday weekend so I'm thinking lots of people were out of town, because it seemed a bit like a ghost town.  And while the Titanic paraphernalia is really wonderful, the ongoing political and religious tension is NOT.  No thank you.  (More on that later.)  We had a great time though, just the two of us, enjoying our time togeths and being stress free.  Whew.

We hopped on a train bright and early on Saturday morning and in 2 hours, we were in Belfast.  We walked to our hotel and checked in and headed out to get lunch at Made in Belfast, a BEAUTIFUL restaurant in the Cathedral Quarter that had some good Belfast Lager and the best steak sandwich with the best sauce on it I've ever had.  Too bad it was Drew's and I couldn't eat all of it.  

These signs were allll over the city.  It was like their touristy advertising theme, that really made no sense.  
(Just googled these ads, and it says that with all of the events, celebrations, and projects coming up, this is "their time" to "turn the tide and confidently put Northern Ireland on the global tourism map."  Whoops.  Sorry, Northern Ireland - this blog isn't doing you any favors.)

The Big Fish statue, 10 metres long, decorated with pictures and words depicting Belfast's history.  Kinda cool.

We then headed over to see the Titanic Museum!  The museum was opened in April 2012, on the anniversary of it's launch and sinking.  Belfast lays partial claim to the ship because it was built and outfitted here.  After it was finished, it sailed over to Southampton in England and took off from there.  The museum was really well done and took you through several sections of history: the city Belfast was during this time, the shipyard and construction, the launch, it's outfitting, it's maiden voyage, the sinking, the aftermath, the myths and legends surrounding the Titanic, and it's place in our culture today.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Titanic Museum!  It was made to look like the bow of the ship, and the height of the ship.

Thumbs up.

The Harland & Wolff Shipyards/Offices (the company that built the Titanic) - the cranes are the width of the Titanic.  

There's me, in the N!

Not sure.  But pretty, regardless.

Pretty self-explanatory.

A huge crew of Garda as they drove the Olympic Torch of the Paraolympics in the museum for an hour.  

We were waiting in the queue for our tour time and we played the game where you shout out an emotion and they have to make the face really quickly.  His was "surprised".  Ha.

Drew loves the Pound Sterling.
(Northern Ireland is part of the UK so we had to use pounds.)

But who is this lady??  We couldn't figure it out.

Once inside, you're whisked up this elevator shaft to begin the tour!

Picture of men at work.

The museum even had a RIDE that took you through a simulation of what you'd see in the building yards!  Cool!

Beautiful view.

First Class state room.  Where I would have stayed.
Just kidding.

Second Class state room.  This looks doable.

Third Class state room.  VERY tiny but hey...can't be picky when you're tryin' to get across the pond.

Cool shot.

Another lovely view.

You'll never let go?  You DID let go, you bitch!  I'll never forgive you for this!!!!

The entire museum was incredibly impressive, and you can tell that the city put in a ton of time, effort, and money to make this museum what it is, and a main tourist attraction.  A cab driver told us later that the Northern Irish had a lot of shame after what happened, but they've all realized that the Titanic was in perfect working condition when it left their shores.  "It was when they turned it over to the British that things turned to shit!" he said.  Well put.  Haha.  

We then walked over to the Titanic Dock and Pump House to see where the Titanic was held until it's maiden voyage.  This place was evidently a feat of engineering, full of massive pumps and hydraulic accumulators that could fill and empty the dry dock pretty damn fast.

This humongous pit was where the Titanic was kept!  It could fill up with water and be emptied in no time.

He's good looking.

We got a cab back and I took a little cat nap and Drew used the wireless in the lobby and had a beer, and then we went to check out some pubs and restaurants in the area.  We had a couple beers in a crowded pub and then walked around trying to find a restaurant - evidently you have to have reservations ANYWHERE you go in this city so we finally found a cute place, Hill St. Brasserie, that agreed to take us in at 9:15.  It was a delightful meal and we were home and in bed by midnight.  It was a good day full of good stuff with even more to come!