Dublin & Glendalough

This week has been jam-packed with day trips, touring, adventures and exploring all the cities around us. I think I explained it in my last post but our city, Greystones, is home for the semester and is the final stop on the train (the DART) that goes all the way up to Dublin and beyond. We use this train to our advantage since we have unlimited cards to take it.

On Monday, we took the DART to Dublin in groups to do a photo scavenger hunt. We basically all just used it as a chance to explore the city instead since the hunt wasn't graded or a requirement. Instead of boring you with a big paragraph of how the day was, enjoy some photos and captions below!

Good ole Irish flag.

The Trinity College campus.

Part of Trinity College

Oscar Wilde statue. Locally known as (excuse my language): "Fag in the Crag" 

The Department of Taoiseach (the Taoiseach is the equivalent of a Prime Minister, but not because he is a Taoiseach. It's an important difference)

After our day of sight seeing in Dublin, we had some class on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we adventured to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. Short history, Glendalough is a 6th century monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin. It was a center of learning and living that fostered a lot of academic growth in Ireland. Read more here if you are interested. Again, see more pictures below for details. (Sorry there are too many to not share with you):

The iconic round tower of Glendalough. 30m tall. It's an Irish thing.

The original gates of Glenadalough. Requires no mortar to keep it up.

Graveyard of the beautiful monastic settlement.

In St. Kevin's Church at Glendalough.

This photo cannot do the view justice. At the farthest end was a waterfall and the hills were snow-covered. It literally looked like Lord of the Rings.

Alli, Jennie, Val and Nico!

We had the best weather. I loved the light.

The glen along the river and waterfall.

The best slow shutter I could do without a tripod. 

Loved the tall trees.

Glendalough means "between two lakes."

St. Kevin's church

Classic Celtic cross in the graveyard.

Last little view of it as we hiked away.

And lastly, (I know sorry for the super long post but it will probably be another week or more until I update again) today I hiked to the next town north of us called Bray, where I hiked from on Sunday. After my hike I took the train to a town called Sandycove and walked to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced "dun leary") to explore some more. Here are a few photos to finish it off:

Me and the lovely Irish coast.

Sandycove/Dun Laoghaire

More Irish coast. Can't get over these views.

A quote from Irish author James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Dun Laoghaire's south side.

Elyse enjoying the views of the Irish Sea and an old, dilapidated seaside fortress.

And that's it for this post! I hope you made it all the way through, I know it's long. The internet is not available all the time, so I have to make the most of it. Next week we are going to Newgrange, seeing the Book of Kells in Dublin at Trinity, and heading on our first trip down to Killarney! See ya then!

Until then,

Max