December 31, 2016 (Dublin, Ireland)

We have celebrated the new year in Hawaii for the past several years, with varying degrees of enjoyment. One year had us trying to see all the fireworks shows at once, only to be too far away to really enjoy them. One had us driving a very intoxicated friend home while the fireworks could be seen out the car window, while Auld Lang Syne blared through the radio. One was at a great party on the beach and one was with a large group at a friend’s place. There was, however, one theme that connected them all – the fireworks displays seemed to get shorter and shorter and the events around town began to diminish. From what we hear, this year was yet another letdown.

On the upside, it turns out that there are few better places around the world in which to celebrate the new year than where we are currently staying – Dublin. We scheduled a tour at the Irish Whiskey Museum on the north end of Grafton Street, which we’ve been pining to explore since we arrived and thought it a good idea to check an item off our list before the year was up. The rest of the night was left open for whatever might happen.

There were many events occurring all around the city, scheduled across three full days of festivities. We could not hit them all, but we did try to make it to several music performances on New Year’s Eve, prior to our whiskey plans. There are a great many musicians around Dublin and several frequently busking along busy roads and shopping areas (no matter the weather). There is much appreciation for the musicians and seemingly a lot of creativity in the air around Dublin.

I was hoping to find some great new music today, but most of the acts we saw were performing covers. Of course, the street musicians know their target audience and that audience typically wants to hear songs they know. In any case, there were a few original songs, mainly thanks to Midnight Therapy as the closing act for one event.

After wandering all around town to hear various people performing, we went on to our tour at the Irish Whiskey Museum. We booked the last tour of the year, a 1.5 hour tour featuring a history of whiskey distilling in Ireland and around the world and plenty of time to make your perfect blend of Irish whiskeys. The tour was informative, but our guide seemed to be a little distracted. I’m sure he was ready to be out celebrating the new year instead of leading us around the museum and answering the plethora of questions we all had. On the positive side our group was only 6 people (as opposed to the group of 28 he had earlier in the week), which ensured we had a more personal experience. The museum has some gimmicky rooms (not quite to the extent of the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland) but these do help tell the story of the development of the whiskey trade. It’s a lot easier to understand how the people distilled and enjoyed whiskey in the past if you are in a mock-up of that environment. Also, the giant bottle pouring into a glass photo-op setup was great, especially for someone of Sasha’s height.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time at the museum, and the amount of whiskey that was in our bellies was definitely worth the price of admission. The staff are all very friendly and knowledgeable and can talk for days about all the different whiskeys, distilleries, and their favorites. There is also a bar that can be accessed any time the museum is open, for which you don’t need a tour ticket to patronize. They serve coffee and, of course, whiskey.

We then attempted to walk into the main events at St. Stephen’s Green, but they were sold out already. This actually ended up a good thing for us – it started raining around 9 p.m. and didn’t stop until after we finally went to sleep for the night. After being turned away at the gates with no tickets, we hit the first place we came across for a drink – unceremoniously a T.G.I. Friday’s. A single inexpensive drink to keep us going, and on we went. The next stop was The Duke Pub, just off of Grafton Street which has been serving fine beverages since 1822. This pub is the starting point for the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl (upcoming post!) and is very big. It surprisingly wasn’t too busy this evening, and we enjoyed our drinks in relative quiet. Too much quiet, in fact. Time for a new venue. And music. And more people.

So out into the rain and towards Temple Bar we went, but never made it that far. Stepping into Sweeney’s Bar was one of the best decisions of the night. Finally, live music, excited and enthusiastic revelers, just enough space for us to squeeze in and not feel claustrophobic, and bar tenders working like mad to handle the crowd. This was exactly what we were looking for and the perfect atmosphere to enjoy the arrival of the new year.

Sasha with her wine in hand and I with my Smithwick’s (I’d already had too much tonight to keep up with the Guinness – I need more practice) rang in the new year in a new country on a new island that’s part of a new continent. And we are more than excited to see what is to come with 2017.

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