Day two started with Starbucks. Beautiful, American Starbucks.
Properly caffeinated, we headed to meet our tour bus at the Dublin Tourism center, which of course was not open as it was Easter Monday, which is a public holiday in Ireland (and most of the rest of Europe). Note to self: move to Europe. Rather than being able to wait indoors in the tourism center, we had to stand out in the cold rain listening to a busker sing American songs, among which was "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," a mistake on several levels, the highest of which was that it caused my mother to whistle that God forsaken song all day long...... and then some. I am not on the bright side at 9am after standing in the cold rain for 20 minutes.
We boarded the bus and met Stephen, our tour guide for the day. Stephen was a highly knowledgeable and entertaining tour guide, who grew up, as he claimed, the youngest of 10 siblings. This caused an attention complex in Stephen, who clearly became a tour guide to satisfy some not-so-repressed "no one listens to me" feelings from childhood. Stephen doesn't like children, or people who speak while he is speaking. Stephen may actually be an only child now, as it's entirely possible he killed his 9 older siblings simply to be heard. I digress. Stephen kept telling us to be quiet, and that we were being disrespectful. His response to a cell phone ringing was "Seriously, people. A cell phone?" If he hadn't given us entertaining insight on the origin of faeries, leprechauns and other Irish folklore.
We traveled first to Forty-Foot, which was a swimming area outside of Dublin where old-timers swam in the morning.
Next we traveled around Wicklow, which is absolutely breathtaking. We saw fields of sheep and baby lambs that had just been born, and infinite shades of green as far as the eye could see.
We all had lunch at a cute little pub. Mom met a Kieran! One of the stated purposes of this vacation for my mother was meeting as many Rory's and Kieran's as she could.
We then made our way to Glendalough by way of a lake shaped like a glass of Guinness
(including a sandy area that illustrated the head of the beer). I couldn't get a good picture because I was too scared to climb close enough to the edge of the top of the cliff to get it. This will be a theme that comes up later in our trip.
Glendalough was absolutely breathtaking (this will also be a word that is overused in this recap). Everything about it was lovely. Mom and I walked to the second lake via the boardwalk. We heard a lamb in the distance. Mom was convinced the lamb was saying "maaaaaahm" and calling out for its mother. She desperately wanted to climb the fence and look for the lamb.
After returning to Dublin, we went for drinks at the Westin in the Vault Bar. The Westin Dublin is in an old bank - the bar is in the vault downstairs. We then headed to Ciao Bella Roma, an Italian restaurant in Temple Bar. We all shared a couple
of pizzas.
of pizzas.
No comments:
Post a Comment