Down to the Seas: Coming Round the Mountain

Our time in Dublin has come to a close, for tomorrow morning we fly into Paris, and our flight leaves nice and early, at 6:50. Sleep is elusive on this trip, but no matter. It’s worth it. Today we took a bus tour of Wicklow National Park and stopped at a good many places. We began by driving through the wealthier neighborhoods of Dublin and what struck me was the size of the homes and yards. They weren’t large at all! In fact, most everything in Dublin isn’t any larger than it needs to be, except perhaps for the giant needle in the center of the city, the Spire of Dublin as it’s called. The bus also drove through the neighborhood with all the embassies. Quite lovely.

We continued up into the mountains, rolling hills of heather and peat bogs that have been harvested for fuel for generations. We got out to view Guinness Lake and passed the source of the Liffey River (which runs in front of our hostel). Up on top of the mountains it’s COLD (to which you might say “duh”). Taylor and I were way underdressed and shivered for the rest of the day. We stopped for tea and scones at the highest village in Ireland before continuing into Glendalough, a monastery built in the 6^th century. The structures there are only from the 9^th century since prior to that they were made of wood. Quite the place! Roaming through the many gravestones I kept an eye out for Farrells and there were a lot…found a Thomas and John. We ran counterclockwise around the Round Tower, which is supposed to bring women luck in finding a husband. Lunch followed soonish after at Fitzgerald’s, a bright yellow pub in Avoca. I had some Colcannon soup, an Irish food that warmed me up. We were also offered a shot of Jamesons. Quite a few locals were sitting at the bar watching a cricket match. Speaking of locals, we met a group of three young Irish boys who shared their Shisha (what they call hookah here) with us last night and called me out on my pronunciation of my last name. Then one asked if Ohio was in South America. No, my dear, not quite.

When we got back from the tour, we were tired, it was dark (it gets dark by 4), and we were cold, so we returned to the hostel to blog and drink hot chocolate. Our new roommates are from Italy and Austria. On the bus we sat behind a girl who lives 5 minutes from where Taylor goes to school. It is both a large world and a small world, I have come to find. We shall fall asleep to the excellent mix of music coming from the pub next door; nothing like ABBA or Gangam Style to put one to sleep!

A joke from the bus driver:

What did the shepherd say to his dog? "Let's get the flock out of here."

Must be said in an Irish accent.