The train station was brick on the outside and modern on the inside with ticket machines and all that jazz. Jason was very fascinated by trains so we spent a few minutes before meeting the others to take pictures around the station.
The ride to Midleton was approximately 25 minutes with a roundtrip ticket costing about 7 euros per student. I've noticed that students get a lot more discounts at various venues and businesses here than they do back in the States, no complaining there.
The train ride was moderately paced and we got a good look of the countryside and greenery.
After arriving and finally figuring out the orientation of the city map poster at the train station, we headed to Main Street, which leads to the Jameson distillery. A quick word about Jameson- Jameson is a well-known Irish-produced whiskey. It has two branches, one in Midleton where the whiskey is made and aged, and one in Dublin where the whiskey is bottled and shipped out.
Before arriving at the distillery, however, we got sidetracked by the local farmer's market on the way. Here, we found small booths of ice cream, smoked salmon, meats, curry, produce, chocolates, and even flowers. Many of the booths allowed us to sample their products, which were all heavenly since we are a group of starving college students. I was lucky to sample a bite of brownie, which I can't remember if it contained caramel or not, but was the most scrumptious softest brownie I have ever had. I also tried smoked salmon and chili smoked salmon. Since we were very short on money I didn't get to buy a fillet of the chili salmon that I had really enjoyed, but more to come about that later ;) Melina ended up getting a bowl of curry, which looked delicious and smelled even better. Jason and I shared a bowl of irish cream liqueur and brown bread ice cream, which is really quite amazing and much better than you can possibly imagine. The boys all got a nice hunk of dark chocolate to chomp on, and Alex and Andrew got a good hunk of blue cheese as well.
When we finally arrived at the distillery after much food adventures, the admission was ten euros for each of us, and after some time, we met up with our tour guide. She led us through the various distillery buildings, summarizing what goes into the whiskey, the triple distilling with the giant copper pot distillers. At the factory, each Jameson cannot be bottled and shipped until it has been aged for at least 4-5 years on average. Though a whiskey must be aged at least 3 years to be called a whiskey. Jameson also makes a special 12-year-old whiskey, which is offered exclusively at the distillery. Jason and I got a small bottle of the special 12-year-old whiskey that came in a fancy case for only 4.50 euros. The cashier dropped the case into the bag rather hard though, so neither of us know if the bottle inside is actually still intact since it's too special to open just yet. After our tour, we all received a complementary whiskey drink. I chose a mixed drink of Jameson whiskey with gingerale and lime, which tasted very well together. The guys chose to sip their whiskey neat, which I think is good too but a bit too strong for me to handle in the middle of the day...
This is me being standard tourist in front of a copper distilling pot. They had a bigger one inside that was the original. In fact, our tour guide said that the entire building had to be built around that one pot since it was so big!
So. Much. Whiskey.
Whiskey chandelier! Hope those are empty...
A look at the inside of one of the mills...
This is the water wheel that helps to power the mills. It is powered by the stream that runs under it, which you can't see from the picture.
At last our drinks! Mmm
After the distillery, we had some time to kill before heading home on the train, so we checked out a few local businesses. Mostly art galleries and antique shops. We stopped at a bookstore on Main Street for a while, where Melina and Jason read up on some Irish history and I found a good book on Irish cooking.
"All you can eat data!"---- if you say so!
Later that night after we were back in Cork, we met up later for a round of beer at The Francescan Well, a microbrew pub that is literally a five second walk from my front door. I tried my first Friar Weiss and it was absolutely the most delicious beer I have ever had. For the first time in my life I could finally understand how some guys could crave beer. I had to make sure I didn't drink it all too fast because the microbrews are quite pricey and I wanted to savor it all!
With lots of happy nommings and love- come back for more foodie adventures later!
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