Monday, February 20, 2012

P.S. I Love Ireland

So this last weekend I went with our group of friend to Dublin and was able to get some free Guinness, stand in the same spot Gerard Butler stood in, and take in some beautiful scenery in Wicklow National Park.  We headed out for Dublin early Saturday morning so that we would have the afternoon to take in some of Dublin. Dublin is a large city the consists of various districts from the ghetto like, to the rich, and then of course Temple Bar. They even have horse drawn carriages that will take you anywhere in the city. I stole an opportunity to pet one of the horses while the driver was away :) I have been missing my Casey boy and it was nice to have the familiar scent of horse on me. After getting checked into the hostel we decided to hit up the Guinness Factory tour, a must see while in Dublin.  The tour takes you through all the ingredients needed to make Guinness and the entire process of making the treasured Irish beer. At the end of the tour you are able to go up to 360 bar where you get a free pint of Guinness and can take in the views overlooking Dublin. Now I'm not a huge fan of the honored drink of Ireland but hey it's a free pint and you can't waste that. So I drank up my Guinness and took in the views around me.  Once we had all finished our pints we decided to get ourselves a Irish dinner. I decided to get some traditional fish and chips as this is one of the only traditional Irish meals I hadn't had yet. The meal was really good and then to top it off we all got some dessert to share. I shared an apple crumble with Nina and it was delicious! That night we took part in a pub crawl, we figured it was the best and cheapest way to find all the best pubs in Dublin. We just had to pay 12 euro and we got into each pub without having to pay the cover charge, which can sometimes be over 10 euro in a single pub, we also got a free Guinness at the first pub and free shots at every pub after that.  A couple of the pubs we went to had live music which was really cool. I could sit in those types of pubs all night and listen to the Irish musicians. The last pub we went to though was by far the highlight of the crawl, not because of the music or the drinks but because of simple the place itself. It was Whelan's, the pub that was featured in P.S. I Love You! The pub where Gerry is singing Galway Girl and Holly walks in wearing his leather jacket and he follows her around singing.  This is one of two spots that I was at this weekend where Gerard Butler also stood, I was one happy girl! :)
Sunday morning we were up bright and early for our tour through Wicklow National Park. We went on the Wild Wicklow tour, which was a excellent choice, our guide was a younger fella who was extremely nice and very funny. The tour started with a stop at Dublin Bay, where we watched some people swim in the freezing water. It is though that the water there is somehow healing and will give you strength. The bus then stopped just outside of Dublin in a cute little oasis for some tea and coffee. To give you an idea of how fun the tour was when we got back on the bus if you had some coffee or tea you were asked if you wanted to make it a irish drink by adding a shot of Jameson whiskey to it. Part of this tour included a fifth of Jameson that had to be finished before the end of the day. We made our way up into the mountains of Wicklow and our next stop was the monastery at Glendalough.  The monastery itself was interesting but the real beauty was past it at the lakes of Glendalough and the waterfalls found there.  It was a short hike to the two lakes, the really pretty one was the second of the two.  This lake was also the lake that was filmed in the movie Leap Year, the scene after the wedding where she is drunk sitting looking out at the lake. Part of our group then decided to take a little more difficult of a hike to some waterfalls in the distance. The hike was well worth it. The falls were so pretty especially with the sun shining on them. Yes I said the sun! We ended up with a gorgeous day where we actually got to see the sun! After Glendalough we moved onto Wicklow National Park. Our first stop in the park was Guinness Lake. This lake was named because of the owner of the land at the time who was part of the Guinness family but it also is believed to be in the shape of a pint glass and is dark in color like the beer.  At this lake is where it was our job to finish off that Jameson whiskey. The entire tour group stood overlooking the lake while our guide gave an Irish toast after which we all took a shot of the whiskey. I have to say it did help warm ya up a little bit cause it was pretty cold up there. Our next and final stop was in the middle of the park where yet again I got to stand where the sexy Gerard Butler stood. We stopped at the bridge where Gerry and Holly first meet in the movie. At this time of the year the purple flowers haven't bloomed yet, they don't until July and August, so it didn't look exactly like the movie. A lot of the scenes from Braveheart were also filmed in this park. On the way down out of the park our guide taught us all a little song about the bog, which is the type of habit the park is considered. It went a little something like this.
 "O-ro the rattlin' bog, the bog down in the valley-o
O-ro the rattlin' bog, the bog down in the valley-o
 And in that bog there was a tree, a rare tree, a rattlin' tree
With the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o
 O-ro the rattlin' bog, the bog down in the valley-o
O-ro the rattlin' bog, the bog down in the valley-o....(it continued for a couple verses ending with this)..
Now the flea on the feather, the feather on the bird, the bird in the egg, the egg in the nest, the nest on the leaf, the leaf on a twig, the twig on a branch, the branch on a limb, the limb on a tree, the tree in the bog, the bog down in the valley-o." 
Now imagine a whole tour bus group singing and clapping along to it. It was great craic!
Overall it was a great weekend filled with lots of fun and beautiful scenery.  Here are some pictures for ya.
Me with my Guinness overlooking Dublin.

Dublin Bay

Upper Lake at Glendalough.

Waterfall in Glendalough.


Guinness Lake.
The group at Dublin Bay. 


The girls on the P.S. I Love You bridge. <3

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