Because Ireland is such a small country, most of the Irish students go home on the weekends. In February, my housemate Sally invited Maddison, Kelly, Nicky and I home with her to Wicklow. We had an amazing time and I totally understand why everyone goes home on weekends. I mean, they get to socialize during the week and then lounge all weekend- it's the best of both worlds!
Settle in for long post filled with lots of pictures. Maybe grab a cuppa tea if you really want to feel like you're in Ireland!
After only a 2 1/2 hour train ride across the country, we arrived on Friday afternoon and our first activity was to bake brown bread. In the short time we had been in Ireland, we had already fallen in love with brown bread and were so excited to make it ourselves.
As someone who isn't a huge baker, I found the recipe to be really simple and the final result was super delicious! Maybe if you're lucky (aka if I find the time), I'll share the recipe here soon!
We made the baking process into a competition by splitting into two teams. Despite using the same ingredients, recipe and process (and a slight mishap when our pan tipped), Team Kelly and Mary DEFINITELY made the better loaf.
Brown bread might be my favorite food in Ireland (and I really LOVE fish and chips so that's saying something!). It's great to have at breakfast because it keeps you so full!
On Friday night, Sally's mom, Margo, made us Spaghetti Bolognese that was seriously incredible; I think I must have had three huge helpings. Some of Sally's friends come over that night and we got to know them a little bit. Both Sally's family and her friends were super welcoming to us and didn't seem to mind that four of us were crashing for the weekend.
We woke up early on Saturday to go to Glendalough, which is only about 45 minutes away from Sally's house. Even though we never left Ireland, we did pass through Hollywood!
On the way up to Glendalough, we stopped at a scenic overlook. Even though the fog was sitting on the mountainsides, the views were still incredible.
We found a wooden trail that acted as a skinny bridge from one part of the overlook to another. Naturally, everyone channeled their inner Beatles.
That is, until I got involved and made the whole thing totally ridiculous. Naturally.
From my vantage point up there, I could see a deer gently walking through the grass. I was a little scared of it, but everyone told me to take a picture of it. If you look really hard, you'll be able to see it!
After a few more twisty roads, we arrived in Glendalough. When I was getting ready to come to Ireland, I had a guidebook that mentioned all of these places with crazy names and it sort of stressed me out because I didn't know how to pronounce them, but now I know a lot of them. Glendalough is pronounced Glen-da-lock and it's a gorgeous area with tons of hiking trails in the Wicklow mountains.
Many of the old buildings and castles I've seen in Ireland are falling apart (in the most beautiful way possible), but the Round Tower is surprisingly well preserved.
The monastery is more typical of the other stone structures I've seen. The fact that it is crumbling doesn't make it any less gorgeous though. You can even still see some of the intricate molding in the picture below.
From Monastic City, you could see the mountains in all directions.
The monastery and the Round Tower.
Just for scale: see those little ant-like figures at the bottom of the tower. Those are my friends! Now, I know we're not the tallest bunch, but you can still see how massive the tower actually is.
Now, that thing above us that looks like a big window? That's actually the door. Sally told us that the monks saved the town during an attack because they were able to hide everyone in the tower and then pull the ladder into the building behind them. How cool is that?
This charming cottage is actually a visitors center with a sprawling green field behind it. This was also where the wedding in the movie Leap Year was filmed!
And finally, the lake! Look at how gorgeous that is!
On Saturday night after returning form our full day at Glendalough, we had takeaway from the Chipper down the road. A chipper is a fast food restaurant that serves deliciously greasy fried food and of course "chips" (fries). Sally had told us about this particular chipper before she even invited us to Wicklow and I have to agree with her, it's the best chipper in the country. (At least compared to the others I've been to). This chipper sells something called curry rolls, which are essentially rice and curry sauce wrapped in batter and fried. Sounds amazing, right? I'm hoping one Sunday night, Sally will come back to Galway with a bag of curry rolls to share!
On Sunday, we had a full day before we had to catch the train back to Galway. We started the day off at Duckett's Grove, a nearby haunted castle. Apparently, when Sally and her friends were in secondary school, Duckett's Grove was a popular place to sneak into at night and spook yourself out. As much as I love ghost stories, the dense fog was eerie enough for me!
Despite the spooky feel of the castle, it was still stunning. Sally said that in the summer, people picnic and play on the grounds surrounding the castle.
Sally's friend told us that she saw a dark shadow in this window one night. I looked hard for a ghost, but didn't see anything. Can you?
Our next stop was Kilkenny Castle. This castle was totally different from Duckett's Grove because it's more of a museum. It's well-kept and decorated with pieces from the time it was in use. You weren't allowed to take pictures in the castle, so you'll have to trust me when I say that it was super luxurious. We walked through the exquisitely decorated bedrooms and the library. They even had a room solely to display their wall-sized tapestries and then another long room to show off the massive portraits of lords!
Once we finished wandering through the castle, we wandered the streets of Kilkenny. It was a lovely town, but I didn't take enough pictures of it.
We browsed a bookshop and some makeup shops for a little bit before heading back to Sally's so her mom could drive us to the train station.
On the way out of Kilkenny, we spotted this reminder to "Carpe Diem". I'd say we did a pretty great job of that this weekend!
Sally, thank you again to you and your family and friends for hosting for the weekend. We had such a fun time and Wicklow is a beautiful county!
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