Jameson Tasting Experience in Dublin Hostel Plus Nachos in London

Jameson tasting experience at Generator Hostel (photo by TravellingFool.com)

We started off our morning hanging out in the lobby of our hostel. Normally we would have headed straight to the airport, shopped around for a bit, then sat at our gate waiting for the next stop on our journey. This day was a little different.

3 different flavors of Jameson (photo by TravellingFool.com)

This time we started our day with a Jameson tasting tour. I had ordered it when I booked the hostel but with all our delays getting there and then our busy schedule on our only full day that left nothing but the morning we were leaving to do the tasting.


As soon as the instructor greeted us, we were the only two there at 11am, he recognized EJ's shirt and they immediately started talking about wrestling. We also talked about Islay, learned more about what makes Irish whiskey different, and had a chance to try two different types of Jameson in addition to the original (one was double cask and the other black barrel). It was a great experience and from there we rushed to grab the bus to the airport.

London Police doing work (photo by TravellingFool.com)

At the Dublin airport I made a slight error and instead of taking our time through the mall we rushed to our gate where there was no food available and no way to return to the shopping mall in the airport. Pretty horrible airport experience in general too. We got off, grabbed the tube, and then when we were about to transfer for the last two stops to our new hostel we found out that the line was closed and that we would have to leave the underground and find another way. Leaving the underground was a nightmare in and of itself, the exit signs leading us in circles until I gave up and waited for the elevator instead. Once above ground we saw a ton of news vans and a firetruck. It turns out someone went to cross the tracks and got hit by the train.

So our 2 stop subway ride turned into a 2 mile walk across London dragging our luggage. The nice part was seeing big Ben, the palace, and the London eye at night. The horrible part was walking with so much luggage.

Buckingham Palace fountain at night (photo by TravellingFool.com)

By the time we made it to the hostel we were hot and sweating, only to walk in to a hot building. We got our keys and headed to the room which was even hotter and had the musk of wet towels and too many bodies in the air. The common areas of the hostel were packed with people so we started our way to Victoria Station where we would be meeting up with Elisa.


After picking up Elisa at the train station we walked over to a nearby restaurant to catch up and eat dinner with a couple cocktails. She mentioned how strange it was to have other Binghamton slash DSP people in London, because why would anyone visit London? But was happy to see us.

Pretty good British nachos (photo by TravellingFool.com)

After our burgers and cocktails we walked over to a pub and sat around enjoying a few more beers. At midnight we were debating between going to a club that was open til 6 or walking Elisa back to the train station to catch the last ride home before morning. We opted to bring Elisa to the train since we weren't sure any of us would make it that late into the night.

We hugged goodbye then EJ and I made our way back to the hostel. When we got into the room it felt like a sauna. I have no idea how anyone in there was sleeping with the blanket on them. It turns out while we were gone all our roommates decided to go to bed and close the window. I shut off the heat, hoping that would bring some relief to the sweltering hot room. It is so hot in there that I'm sitting in the TV room in my pajamas surrounded by random dudes just to write this in a bit of peace and without sweat dripping down my forehead.

All in all it wasn't a bad last night in London.