Chapter 20: New Friends

I awoke at 4:30am to hear the American roommates discussing their night out, "Dude, where's Gideon?" Adam asked.
"He went home with a girl." Allyn said.
"No way! Good for him."
I then slept until 10am and got up in bed to ask the smelly Englishman drunkard for the time who then proceeded to tell me all sorts of ways to survive by finding water in the Australian desert, "And you drink the water out of the frog's pouch." And so I ask again for the time, saying I need breakfast and he says, "10:15, you may have missed it." Yeah, because of you!
"No, it finished at 10:30." I say instead and go downstairs and eat.
I spend most of that morning on the phone with Anna and my parents and at around midday and a half I hit the road for the Jameson Distillery. Walking in, the distilled smell of Jameson's honey and vanilla hits you and then you are met with a hundred bottle wall of the stuff at the bar. As the tour began the guide asked for volunteers and I raised my hand and received a small cardboard tube, "These are important, keep them for later." As the tour went on we saw a stuffed cat sitting up above us, "Moe used to average 23 mice per day, so they honoured him when he died by stuffing him and keeping him in the distillery." We passed into the next room and there was a small tasting barrel of malted barley, which tasted strangely like buttered popcorn. At the end of the tour, us volunteers were informed that we would get to taste 2 other whiskeys on top of our free glass of Jameson. The 2 others were Johnny Walker Red Label 12 Years, which is a Scotch Whiskey, distilled twice, and the othe was an American Whiskey, or Bourbon, Jack Daniels Black Label, distilled only once. Jameson is distilled 3 times. The Scotch was too smokey and tasted only of woodfire smoke and the American was too watery. Jameson tasted best and had the best smell - like vanilla and honey. At the end of the public tasting they presented us with "Official Whiskey Tasters" certificates, "That you can keep safe in your cardboard tubes." The guide said, smiling, giving us also our complementary glass of Jameson.
When I left the distillery I realised that I had had 4 shots of whiskey before - here I checked my watch - before 3pm on very little in my stomach. I wandered down Purnell street til I hit this small Italian place which served a range for relatively cheap. In there I conversed briefly with a mother of two about travelling and journal writing and soon left for the hostel.
As I got in, I met the Americans in the lobby and we decided to head out to the pub where I met Ross the barkeep. When we arrived the placed was packed and Ross put us at a pivate table just up the stairs and we ordered Guiness and Irish stew. We spent our time talking about girls - me bringing up Anna at everything - music and our various injuries.
"You're wise beyond your years." Allyn said when I told him I was 20, he being 24 and Adam being 22, unsure of Gideon's age, but likely in the same range. We soon left there at around 9:30pm and went back to the hostel to chill.
Allyn was set on going out again as he had failed to pick up the previous night, "I just have to!" he said. I felt too tired to hit the town anyway, considering how the following night would be, but Adam went out with him. I stayed in and just lazed before going to bed around midnight.

- from the Journal, 30th December 2008.