Co. Wicklow

Today we took an all day field trip to County Wicklow, right outside of Dublin. First, we visited Avondale House, the birthplace of famous Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell. We learned about his influence on Irish home rule from the British, a goal never accomplished in his lifetime (Ireland reached home rule in 1914, and gained their independence in 1921), and also saw some of his furniture and lots of other old stuff.

 Avondale House and gardens

It was a gorgeous day (sunny!), but Ireland definitely has bipolar weather. Wisconsin changes weather daily, with one day being 94 and the next 65 degrees, but Ireland changes by the hour. It will rain for an hour, and then get really sunny and warm for another hour, then back to rain. It's definitely necessary to wear lots of layers and always carry a rain jacket or umbrella with you. From there, we went to Powerscourt, a beautiful mansion with tons of gardens, set right in front of the Sugarloaf mountains. They call it Sugarloaf because of the quartz on the top of the mountain, which makes it look like it's sprinkled with sugar. I'm still not entirely sure what this place was, probably because I fell asleep on the bus while the tour guide was explaining it, but it really was gorgeous there.

 Sugarloaf Mountain and some of the gardens of Powerscourt

 They had an entire garden devoted to roses! 

The house itself

After that and a quick stop for lunch, we went to my favorite place of the day, Glendalough. It is the site of a former monastery and most of the buildings are over a thousand years old. It was raining at the beginning of our tour (again), but the place itself was beautiful, set between two lakes. I especially liked the old high crosses, many of which have dates of them from the 1700s. We also went into a former church, with a stone roof that was still on. The acoustics in that place were absolutely incredible, and several of us (including one of our professors!) sang a song together there. Then we took a short walk down by one of the lakes, and discovered this really cool waterfall. 

 Glendalough in County Wicklow

 The ruins of a church that is almost 1000 years old

 Sunny Glendalough

The waterfall 

From there we headed back to Dublin, where I had my obligatory pint of Guinness (I'm not a fan...), and we toured several local pubs, including one called the Fuzzy Lemon. Despite the name, we had a good time, and overall it was an exhausting, but good day.