Our first “day in Dublin” started at a reasonably early hour. No sleeping in for us! We actually had to get up early because we had a tour planned. We had looked online during the planning stages and found a tour that looked interesting. We had wanted to take it on Tuesday, the second day in Dublin, but they only offered it on Monday, so that was what we had to do!
After getting up and indulging in the somewhat meager breakfast, we walked down to the Pizza Hut to get picked up. Yeah, Pizza Hut. As a side note, we hear that they’re way fancy in Europe, but we haven’t been in one.
The bus was there within minutes and we hopped on. Joni was rarin’ to go!
Actually, we both were!
Oh I kid!
On the way out of Dublin we got some history about some of the stuff there. Remember that old church from yesterday? We got that little factoid during the start of the tour. We made our way through the old part of the town, then into the area that used to be outside the city wall (and hence tax free), past the old suburbs, through the new suburbs, and finally onto the highway. I guess Ireland has been doing a lot of highway construction over the last 15 years so all the roadways are really new.
Something that I noticed in England but didn’t get a picture of was that all their fields are separated by trees.
They’re especially important in Ireland as they provide important homes for wild animals. During the summer months its actually illegal to cut down a hedge. Weird, huh?
We rode the bus for a bit before we arrived in Kilkenny. There’s a big castle there (called Kilkenny Castle) and they have some old style stores on the main street. We also learned from our tour guide that the prefix “Kil” has a special meaning. See, when the Irish were “annexed” by the Brits, English became their main language. Gaelic is still taught in school, so everyone in Ireland knows at least some Gaelic. Most signs are in both English and Gaelic.
Anyway, when names of places were being Englishized, they just took the Gaelic pronunciation and turned it into English. That’s why “kil” is so popular. In Gaelic, “kil” means “church”. So Kilkenny is actually Church Kenny (or Church Kenneth) in Gaelic. And now you know why so much stuff in Ireland sounds like it was named by a serial killer.
We arrived in Kilkenny and were let off right next to the castle. It’s a typical Irish looking place.
Joni did not seem impressed.
Oh, I KID!
We decided to take a stroll around the grounds to see what was up. There were a ton of woods with nice paths going through them.
We happened to find the outer wall of the grounds. Right outside that there was a little stream with a neat looking bridge.
Heading back into the grounds, we continued along the path until we came to the far corner of the grounds where there’s a little duck pond. It had ducks, as is expected of a duck pond.
After the ducks, we headed back toward the castle, taking a little shortcut across the main grassy area.
Joni thought it was like a meadow, so she did a little dance and sang “The hills are alive, with the sound of music…”
I joined in, but less enthusiastically.
I was still amused by the hill however, just in a different way.
As a side hilarity, we saw that a path was closed because they were spraying in that area. I guess that won’t stop some people.
We took a peek into the castle to see if it was worth going in, but it didn’t seem too interesting and we had a limited time in Kilkenny, so we passed on going inside and instead just walked around to the back where there was a small garden with a fountain. It really wasn’t all that interesting.
The tour guide mentioned that there was another little garden across the road that is nice, but not well know, so we went over there and took a walk through that. It was extremely small, but well groomed. It also afforded us a bathroom break and a little browsing through the gift shop that’s right in front of the garden.
We decided to head to a grocery store to grab some cheap lunch. We had almost made it there when we smelled something wonderful. It was just a little burger stand with a single guy working in it, but it smelled just divine, so easily distracted, we went there and got burgers and fries… chips. They call them chips.
The sad thing is that you can almost see the grocery store there. It’s hidden just behind the building on the right, next to that one with the red and white storefront. Oh well. It was worth it.
By this time we getting close to our departure time, so we headed down onto the main street to see what that was all about. It had little shops and whatnot. We actually stopped into a few toy stores and discovered tiny animal family toys. They were super cute. Of course, there was something else that was much more interesting in one of the toy stores, but that’s better left for my blog.
Before we knew it we were out of time in Kilkenny, so we headed back to the bus and headed out of the city. On the way to the next stop, Glendalough, we heard more about Irish history and myth. The tour guide told us about fairy rings and magic trees. Fairy rings are raised rings of ground that are said to be the homes of fairies. The fairies move from their summer ring to their winter ring on Halloween, so that’s an important date when people can interact with the fairies.
The magic trees are just trees. People believed that a tree’s roots and branches were the same, so that if you flipped a tree upside down, it would look the same. This symmetry served as a connection between the world of man and the fairy world underground. So, trees were important. A fairy ring with a tree in it was doubly good. The tour guide said that this superstition survives today, and most farmers won’t remove a fairy ring or cut down a tree in a fairy ring.
We also learned about sheep. Specifically that in the higher parts of Ireland, there are no fences, so all the sheep herds just mingle together. The owners spray paint them with different symbols/letters to tell them apart. We got to see some labeled sheep on the way through the mountains to Glendalough.
AND we learned about a program that a department of the Irish government has that tries to save trees. Every Christmas tons of trees are cut down in the mountains. So, the government has a program where you can get a tree from them for a fee, they go out to the mountain, dig up a tree, and put it in a big pot. They then deliver this potted tree to your house. You use the tree over Christmas, then they come back, pick it up, and replant it in the forest. Obviously not all the trees survive this, but it’s better than none of the trees surviving!
There was a ton of rain on the way through the mountains, but it cleared up a bit when we arrived. Glendalough is interesting for a few reasons. First, there are some old monastic ruins there. One ruin in particular stands out.
People think this was used either as a hiding place from Vikings or as a lighthouse to guide travelers.
The second interesting bit is that lakes. There is a “low” lake and an “upper” lake. The tour guide told us that the upper lake is quite nice, so we decided to walk the mile up there to see it. The walk brought us through forest areas again. Some parts of it were just downright creepy.
Some parts were just downright beautiful.
Along the way we had to contend with a ton of bugs. They looked like gnats, but they bit. I’m covered in itchy bumps. Stupid shorts. It also started raining just a bit. Despite these difficulties, we made it to the lake in record time.
It was certainly worth the walk.
The little bit of rain gave a nice mist that Joni really thought gave it a great Ireland feel. I’d have to agree with that. By far, this was the nicest little trip we had. It was interesting to see the countryside and some nature, and it was much more interesting that Stonehenge. No offense to Stonehenge.
The lakes weren’t the only interesting things. There was a little waterfall up a hill a ways that we walked up to.
We figured that we should start heading back to the bus by this time, but we made it a point to have Joni sit on this weird tree branch.
She even made a bug friend!
The walk back was a little different. We elected to take the alternate, slightly longer, trail back. It brought us through a little marshy area, then past some sheep.
We eventually arrived back at the monastic ruins next to where the bus dropped us off. We didn’t have a ton of time, but we wanted to take a quick peek.
It really was beautiful out there. Truly what you think of when you think “Ireland”.
The ruins were really interesting. We didn’t get a ton of time there and we didn’t learn much about them, which were bummers, but there’s just not enough time in the day… tour… the day-tour.
With that, we walked back to the bus in the rain, hopped aboard, and headed into the city. On the way into the city we went by St. Ann’s church which is where Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, was married. Neat factoid.
There were two different drop off points we could choose in the city. The first was where we had been picked up. The second was down on O’Connell Street, a main drag in Dublin. Joni talked me into going to the second stop. She’s so smart. We got dropped off and got to see the Dublin spike. I’m not sure if that’s its real name, but it should be. We didn’t get a picture of it, so you’ll have to Google it, or check out my Ireland phone book tear video.
It was pretty cold and rainy out, so we dropped into a little place for tea. Well, tea/hot chocolate… and a scone. You gotta have the scone. Actually, having never had a scone before then, we didn’t technically have to have a scone, but we’re glad we did. Scones are tasty.
Fully sconed, we headed back toward the hostel with a stop at a grocery store to get some dinner for later. We got carrots and Irish soda bread. The soda bread turned out to be really good with butter. I think it’s a little hard to eat plain, but with butter it’s nommers. Or mampfers if you prefer the German word. 😀
We spent the evening just kind of chilling out and resting. It was a big day running all over the dang country! We fell asleep fairly early with the intent of hitting hard the next day, since “tomorrow” is our last day in Dublin.
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