A Whiskey Day

I woke up very early and was all packed and ready to go at eight. I did go to sleep at eleven already, so I guess it's no wonder. I went to the bar last night for one Smithwick's, but the dance course in progress and the non-stop "slow-slow-side step" really isn't that interesting to listen to for longer than you need for having a pint.

Today I got to see some history of whiskey distilling in Kilbeggan. I visited the world's oldest working distillery, the Kilbeggan distillery. Before I entered the museum, I had the biggest breakfast I've had on my tour so far in the restaurant next to the distillery. The tour itself was interesting, but because it was Saturday I didn't see real action besides the bubbling in the fermentation vats. The old distillery has been turned into a museum and it was full of old barrels and equipment. The light was not really good for pictures, but there are still some in my Dropbox folder. The new and working part of the distillery was amazingly similar to the old one. Some things had changed, but the main procedure was more or less identical to the old one. In the end of my tour, I got to taste some of the 5 year old Kilbeggan whiskey. I'm absolutely no whiskey drinker, but that stuff was better than I expected. An interesting experience and learning about whiskey is absolutely something you should do while in Ireland.

A side note: The Kilbeggan independent distillery lost it's independence in January this year when the Jim Beam company bought the distillery. This has been a good thing for the employees and the company so far (a lof of capital that wasn't available in Ireland has already flown in), but how long will it take before the capital starts ruling over the traditions?

My next stop was another place famous for it's whiskey, Tullamore. I wanted to do a comparison with the museums, but that didn't unfortunately work out. The Tullamore Dew heritage centre is closed until August. The town itself was full of life and very attractive. I took a stroll through the city and took some pictures.

After Tullamore, I tried to find an entrance to a nature heritage area called Hawkswood bog about 8 kilometers south of the city. I didn't find an official one, but I just went in from the small road going next to the area. It was not as easy as I thought, but when I got to the real bog area, it really looked similar to Finnish bogs actually. One thing I didn't really understand was why the bog still had ditches if it's a protected area. This way it'll be dried out soon.

I arrived at Colin and Jutta's about an hour ago, took a shower and now the dinner is almost ready. Goofy got used to me faster this time and now he's all love again.

Tomorrow Dublin!