Day Four

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

At LAST, I thought, a bus. Seeing as how our two destinations for today were in County Wicklow far from Dublin, certainly we would have a bus and I could give my tired feet a well-needed break. And yes, we did take a bus. A public tour bus. Who apparently overbooked the tour so that five of our group didn’t have seats. Which led to Bus Eirann having to try to bribe people for refunds and when that didn’t work, having to get a whole other bus and convince five people to get on that one and follow us. (Why we just didn’t get on that bus, I’ll never know.)

Finally situated, we headed off to the mountains south of Dublin. By this point, we were all so tired (and hungover) that we had absolutely no idea where we were going other than that we were going somewhere out in the country. We finally arrived in Powers Court and found a very stately home. But the real reason to visit Powers Court is for the gardens. Stretching for acres, there are Japanese Gardens, Italian Gardens, walled gardens, fountains, and statues (even a pet cemetery).

We took our time exploring the gardens, finding particular interest in the Japanese Garden that had a lot of hidden nooks and secretive staircases, one nook apparently looking like something out of Fern Gully. The dolphin fountain unfortunately had no dolphins, which was mildly disappointing. I found particular interest in the shops—a shame that the scarf I liked cost 30 Euro.

We regrouped and got back on the bus, now heading toward Glendalough. I had absolutely no idea what this place was, but it was nice to be driving through the Irish countryside and seeing lots of sheep (even though we were on very windy and narrow roads in a giant bus). When we arrived, all we could see were ruins dotting the countryside. Apparently Glendalough is an ancient and well-preserved monastery from the medieval times. So, naturally, we took a tour of the ruins, seeing a still-intact round tower that was common of monasteries of the time, and a graveyard that stretched out as far at the eye could see.

After a quick rest and some ice cream, we went back to Dublin where we rested and grabbed a quick dinner from the store across the street. Then, it was out on the town to pubs (naturally). Apparently a lot of the group wanted to go to some bar that appeared in P.S. I Love You (I’ve never seen it) so we ended up hiking halfway across Dublin led by the Irish guy in charge of housing. Well, turns out this was more of a club than a pub and they wanted to charge us a 10 Euro cover…which we all refused to pay. So they lest us in for 5 Euro…which still sucked. And when we got inside, none of us could hear each other because the music was so loud and nearly got separated because it was so crowded and dark.

Needless to say, a few of us ended up standing in a corner. After all, if I wanted to go to a club, I could have stayed in Chico or Sacramento. So it was eventually decided that we would split and go back to Kennedy’s. Somehow I managed to navigate the streets of Dublin sans map and we got to the pub, finishing the night off with a Guinness before heading back to NCI to pack and sleep.

Because the night is always better with Guinness.

Next stop: Galway

(Finally settling in)

(Powerscourt Gardens, Inside Fern Gully, Cemetary at Glendalough, Round tower at Glendalough)