Weekend 2! WICKLOW and GAELIC FOOTBALL!!!

This weekend involved a day tour to Wicklow as well as a ball game. County Wicklow is south of Dublin by less than two hours in a car or bus. We caught the bus early that morning around 8 am or so. There was a group of about 6-8 of us and let me tell you it was sure an adventure!

Nicole and mine's bright shining faces :0)

That's Maggie and her friend from home... Emily I think?

This is Rachel and Julie... for some reason this pic would only show up in "small" form.

SO everyone the night before had gone out to the pubs and needless to say woke up this morning not feeling in their prime. Kim however I would say had the worst of it...

She was car sick and trying to sleep the whole time. Poor dear.

We made a few stops on the way to Wiclow. One was by the coast in a town called Dun Louraigh (I think I spelt it wrong) it's pronounced Dun Leary and it was just a short stop for a few pictures.

If you can't tell by the reflection I took this one in the bus.

Sea port where all the boats come in to dock.

I'm blue and da ba di ba and di and ... any way the bathrooms here were very... blue

By the coast... You like my moustache?

Next stop! Wicklow mountains! YES!!!

Another crappy pic from the bus of the gorgeous countryside!

Ha ha Nicole was NOT hungover... just the gentle lo of the bus put her to sleep :0)

SO this was our next stop! YEA inside the Wicklow mnts you see this Lake... I forget the real name but it's nickname is Guinnesse Lake. WHy? because the dark color with the light sandy beach looks like a pint of Guinnesse of course! (everything in Ireland revolves around guinnesse :)) Also, this ... large peice of property is owned and has been owned by the "Guinnesse" family. Ya know the ones that started the Guinnesse brand. Well they actually rent some of the houses on the property to famous people like Tiger Woods who have lots of $$$$...

close up of the foam/beach

Ah! cute! group shot! I prefer these... my backside is much cuter than my front :)

So we hoped back on the bus and drove through the mountains aka rolling hills until we came to our next quick photo opportunity. Any one recognize the bridge?

Recognize the bridge anyone? well in P.S. I Love You (the movie right?) this is where the two main characters meet! AH! that's great right? so of course we had to stop here!

Here's a great pic taken of the mountains from the bridge

here's the stream that runs under the bridge

ANd more green

We hoped back on the bus and continued our journey through the mountains to our final destination... wait... one more pit stop. We stopped to get a glimpse of a small but steep waterfall running down into a small valley/home of the local postman.

can you see the water? it wasn't very big

Now can you see the water? um... no you can't. But I sure look cute!

Our next stop was in Glendalough (however you really spell that)  valley. It's a small little village inside the Wicklow mountains. We stopped there for lunch. I had a wonderful Irish lamb stew.

looks good right?

So this is where we ate lunch.

This is the surrounding area of Glendalough Valley. It was sooo beautiful! I would have loved to spend more time together!

Maggie and Rachel

The monastary between the trees. So cool!

Cool tree covered in moss!

The upper lake. It was really nice

SO gorgeous!

Lake again

more pictures of the lake

we hiked to the waterfall

The falls

the monastary again

After our time in the valley we went to another village  where they have the Avoca factory where they weave Irish wool products.

all the dyed wool

one of the weaves

This is the weaver

Wicklow was gorgeous and I loved it! I am so glad I got to go and only wish I had spent more time there. This concludes my rather long and boring stories of Wicklow :)

Week 2 Play Time!

This post is dedicated to my play time during that second week (June 21st- 26th)

So everyone needs a little playtime right? Well during the day I might be stuck inside but only until 5 or 6! And guess what? The sun doesn't set here until after 10 so I still have plenty of time to go exploring, when I'm not too tired that is.

Monday I wanted to go for a run, so I hoped a bus to City Centre and made my way over to Trinity College where I found a park called St Stephen's Green. It was really pretty and is said to be the most famous park in Dublin. Here are a few pics I took as I did a few laps around the park.

 The big brick arch is the entrance to the park. It was really tall... though you can't really tell from the picture. The park had your typical lawns but it also had a very pretty pond in the middle where there were a few swans! I love swans and they are all over the place down here. There were also a lot of cool statues and fountains.

After running I decided to go exploring in the shopping center right next door. The "mall" looked super cool from the outside! And on the inside it only got cooler! (if that's a word?) so awesome!

Outside on the street I saw a few of their cars....?

 Or it's really a tourist mobile but I still thought it rather cool. The guy pedals it like a bike.

Also along the street were a few street performers, playing the guitar and singing, and then there was the statue man. I saw him outside the bookstore window and had to laugh!

He moved! Really he's not a statue and some teenagers were poking at him. I wonder what he's made out of... ;0)

Sometime later that week, I don't really recall when now that I think about it but I went into City Centre again after work and this time we hit up Henry Street. It's a shopping district filled with all sorts of your typical European mall stores. I met up with my roommate Nicole and we explored the local fashion.

Oh so sexy in our barets!

WOrk it girl in that animal style!

I did a half squate to make sure that it was blatently obvious how tight my floral skinnys were :0)

I almost bought this one! ugh! I just wish it wasn't 70 Euro!!!

Totally digging the bows right? hot?

After our little fashion parade we happened across this Bar?

It's called the "Church Bar"... why because it is actually an old church that when was no longer in use they turned into this super fancy pub/restaurant. We decided to give the place a shot. We walked in and saw that they had done a good job at keeping the "churchy feeling" inside

but don't be fooled... it's still a bar

And fyi... the Irish hamburger here was delicious!

And it also had one of the fanciest bathrooms I've ever seen!

After the restaurant we went back out to the streets looking for a good time ;0) We hit a few more stores, including Elvery's where I bought my Gaelic football/hurling Jersey and sweatshirt. Which by the way are all very very cute! I wanted to buy half of the store tho. I love sporting good stores! Well it's time to end the tale for now! Peace out!