Touristy Day!

My boyfriend Will has come over to visit me this week and I thought it was about time I did some touristy stuff in Dublin so we bought tickets for a city sightseeing bus tour around Dublin and we hopped off at the infamous Guinness Storehouse! It’s probably one of the most visited attractions in Dublin and after going my self I can see why! It was waaay bigger than I expected, its like a museum and we learned about the whooole process of how Guinness is made and marketed from how the hops are grown, harvested and fermented to how its transported around the world and how the adverts have developed over the years, we also learned about Arthur Guinness, how he signed a 9000 year lease on the factory and how he and his poor wife had 21 children and only 10 of them survived through to adulthood.

The bus tour took us around Trinity College, Christ Church, Croke Park, the Georgian Quarter and past the building I work in! I learned so much about the history behind the buildings and statues I walk past every single day it was really educational I’d definitely recommend it to anyone visiting or living in Dublin.

I particularly enjoyed learning about the packaging design and advertising while in the Guinness factory, I think vintage packaging is very inspiring whether is food packaging or fashion packaging I think the elements are transferable across different products.I loved learning the story behind the fish on the bicycle advert, the quote “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” comes from the Australian filmmaker Patricia Irene Dunn, in the Guinness advert which was produced in 1996 (the year I was born!) showed flash backs of women doing job traditionally associated with men, it then shows the women drinking Guinness in a bar, followed by a short clip of a fish riding a bike along the pier, I love this feminist idea of women not needing men, doing jobs like driving lorries, and digging up roads and drinking something other than “girly” cocktails, I love drinking Guinness and any man who thinks it looks masculine or unattractive can do one.

On the tour you get the chance to taste different kind of Guinness, learn how to pour the perfect pint and that the end of the tour you get a free pint in the Gravity bar which has an amazing view of Dublin.