Saturday, July 9, 2016

Dublin Trip to Glendalough, Wicklow & Kilkenny

During Easter break, I had about 10 days of break. However, we had our summer exams after the break so we had to study :(
Nevertheless, A and I decided to have a short weekend getaway to Dublin and meet up our friends! 

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Day 1

We almost missed the coach to Dublin! We arrived at the station just on time and they left few minutes after that!! So lucky because this was the 2nd time that this had happened to me =_="

My first visit to Trinity College Dublin~
I have to say their buildings are really historical. I love the whole campus feel!
but most of my seniors said UCC's campus is the prettiest tho :p (although I would like to think otherwise..) hahaha




 St Stephen Green's park

 Lovely lovely weather ~






After our lunch at an Indian restaurant, we decided to have some tarts at Queen of Tarts.


Queen of Tarts
Cow's Lane, Dublin
+353 (01) 633 4681

W said they have really nice cakes and tarts. All of them costs 4 each.
The cafe is quite small and packed..I wouldn't actually recommend it if you prefer a nice comfortable place to chit chat and all..


 Victorian Sponge Cake
Delicious layered sponge cake with fresh strawberries and preserve


Decadent chocolate pecan tart (I think?) or perhaps, Queen of chocolate fudge cake...

 Chocolate Pear and Almond Tart

 Apple crumbled pie with fresh cream


My favourites are the chocolate fudge cake/chocolate pecan tart & the apple crumble pie. They're so good!!! Was disappointed with the victorian sponge cake and the other 2 tarts...
The fresh cream was surprisingly light and delicious!






Warm dinner with the peeps 

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Day 2

Our tour day!! This was such a last minute decision because we couldn't decide where we wanted to go. Initially, we wanted to visit Aran Islands at Galway but due to the accommodation problem, we finally decided on Dublin for Glendalough, Wicklow & Kilkenny tour :) 

The tour we booked was with Paddywagon and it costed 25 euros/person (student price) and I actually forgot to bring my student ID! Fortunately, they didn't do any checks before we went on the bus so yay. I was so afraid that they would be very strict on the rules & regulation, and ditched me since I couldn't verify myself as a student.

Our first destination was Glendalough, The Glen of two lakes.
A place full of history. Our tour guide, Liam, actually gave a pretty detailed description on it but I dozed off half way through..and I can't really catch what he's saying because he has a pretty thick Irish accent.

Sheeepppp











There were 2 routes to reach the peak, the bridge or the green road. We chose the bridge one, where nobody walks o____o


Tombstones


More sheep :D


The first lake:



Glendalough Expectation:

Glendalough Reality:

:( weather..y u do dis to me?! T_T









The weather was awfully bad as it was pouring heavily. We wanted to go to the waterfall for some quick snapshots but the rain was too heavy and we had to head back to the bus. :(

We drove through some of the places that Hollywood movies 'Braveheart' and 'PS I Love You' were filmed. We then traveled over Wicklow Gap, where we get a glimpse of Wicklow mountains and went back to the bus..
I guess we really came during the wrong time!! The sky was just very grey and gloomy..




Last destination of the tour - Kilkenny!
Lovely medieval town. Z said he felt that there were more shops in Kilkenny than in Galway D: hahaha

Liam mentioned that Kilkenny won the best hurling team in Ireland. It's also the place where wild hens night and bachelor nights are held; the perfect place if you wanna get absolutely mental and get hammered. lol


Kilkenny Castle:











All of the sudden, the sun decided to appear..
If only there was sun when we were at Glendalough T___________T

Alicia's Coco bo's ice cream sandwich

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Day 3

Woke up and get ready for the 1916 Easter Rising Parade. LUAS decided to have a strike on that day so we had to use the bus. Thankfully, the bus arrived few minutes after we reached the bus station. We had to walk around with our luggage for the whole parade though >_<


100th Year Anniversary!




The weather was really warm. Love it!! If only our tour day's weather was as good as this..
We wandered around the city as we had no idea where the parade was, and it was so crowded. Had to tip-toe, just to have a glimpse of the parade. We didn't really see much..and it almost ended when we actually arrived at where the parade was heading..

Hmmm..let's take a selfie instead :D

Had Subway for brunch on the aircoach!

As they were having the parade, the pick up point for aircoach was changed. Had a really hard time finding it and I almost missed it!!! T_____T
This tends to happen to me very often :/  but I arrived at Cork sharp on time (:

#irelandwanderers