Glendalough and Kilkenny

A good thing to know for everybody visiting Dublin - check if Paddy's Palace still has the awesome promotion going on: if you stay 2 nights and more, you can go on a trip to Kilkenny and Glendalough in a minibus, with awesomely chatty and sarcastic driver for free. I hope it's not going to become a tradition, but when Gerald booked the trip on the rainiest day of February (after I specifically told him not to), confused the pick-up time (so we waited for one hour after rushing out of the house without even eating breakfast), I was about as cranky and hysterical as in Vienna. Well I do have to admit I tend to overreact a bit.

Anyways, it was the Valentine's day (the best day to spend it mostly fighting, isn't it?). Gerald and me both wanted to surprise each other, which resulted in me almost getting a heart attack when I woke up to make lovey-dovey breakfast and I saw the floor covered in weird dark things. It took me about 5 minutes to realize it was potpourri. So basically, I made breakfast we didn't have time to eat, I barely managed to put the bouquet in water (which during the day seeped out of the cup and got all over my passport and other important stuff), I only opened Gerald's card the next day and he found my present in the evening. I noticed the chocolates really soon though and finished them off within one hour. Oh, hello belly fat.

Our first stop was very rainy and left us in Glendalough, which is a spectacular place with over 2000 years of history. The name means the valley of two lakes, which quite sums up its geographical location. We spent most of the time in the Monastic city and then went to see one of the lakes. According to the driver/guide, it was also the shooting location for Brave Heart and P.S. I Love You (haven't seen those so cannot comment on it). 

 

 

If you're asked whether you wan to go out of the car in Wicklow in a blizzard, say you don't. It's really not worth it. Though if you're like me and you're worried you may miss on something, you'll probably get off in order to be whipped by pieces of ice and 70 km/h wind anyways. Pic by Gerald - I have no idea how he managed to take it because all I saw was white piercing cold mass everywhere around us.

Kilkenny has a small castle with lady who can welcome everybody in their mother tongue, and a couple of monasteries, churches and picturesque streets. Tons of shopping opportunities too - brand cosmetics to sweets to organic products to second hand clothes. But we didn't really have time for looking around the shops, our only stop was to eat some fast food pizza, which unfortunately became kinda slow food.

 

 

Yours truly

Vita