Wednesday, May 21st, 2025
Today was the last day that we had a cultural activity, which was a visit to the Guinness Storehouse! This tour was not until later in the day however, so we started the morning going to Dublinia, the Viking settler museum inside the Christ Church Cathedral building. Unfortunately, I was feeling extremely tired today, and barely able to focus fully on the museum, but from my time there, I learned about how Dublin was initially founded by Vikings that came from Norwegian countries.
I will say, the museum was interesting, but in my honest opinion, I found it odd to be what it was inside the beautiful building of Christ Church. I will preface that I understand that Christ Church was one of the first things that the Vikings built to establish Dublin, so it makes sense, but the museum itself felt almost too “playful” for it to be inside that building. But, I digress.
That evening, we met in the lobby of the apartments at 3:40 PM to head to the Guinness Storehouse. Even before we went inside you could smell the aromatic hops in the air. The smell itself was surprisingly delicious, a heavy scent but with a hint of sweetness to it. The storehouse was unreal, in size and in luxury. You can easily tell that the Guinness is the backbone to Irish culture from the moment you walk into the door. They take much care to make the experience a fulfilling one, starting with a friendly introduction at the very front where I learned that the building is designed to be shaped like the world’s largest Guinness pint (which I think was hypothetically able to fill 4.3 billion pints). Additionally, they showed the original signed-lease, which lives in the floor of the building, signed by Arthur Guinness himself – solidifying the 9,000-year lease that is still going (proudly) strong. In addition, as you go up the floors, there is an opportunity to learn about how Guinness is made, do a tasting, learning about the origins of Guinness’s iconic advertising, and (of course) a free pint of Guinness (of soft-drink) in the upper floors.
There is no doubt that Guinness is a staple to the Irish community and culture, and the experience itself was a fun and symbolic way of ending finishing off our trip!