Glendalough & Kilkenny Tour (22.11.)

I seriously had to consult a calendar to realise that today it's exactly five weeks since we went on this trip. This is so... weird. On the one hand, this is a long time if you think about in in terms of up-to-dateness of this blog. I'm bloody five weeks behind! On the other hand, it's also a short time, because my subjective feeling is that so much time has passed since this trip. It's like it happened somewhere in the past, ages ago. But actually, that's only because so much stuff has happened in the meantime. My brain just can't cope with all this anymore. It's like my camera not being able to cope with all the beauty surrounding it (my excuse for any bad picture ^^).

Anyway, I should get started with this post before my memories get even more blurred and I start confusing the trips I went on. xD
So, this was another trip organised by the International Office, and again we were excited when we got an email from some dubious "Summer School" two or three days before the actual date of the trip. This email contained our ticket that we had to print out and show when entering the bus on the day of the trip for the first time.

Our bus. Example picture -  this is for sure not the meeting point next to Phoenix. :-P

Glendalough

First, we went to Glendalough. Let me just insert the obligatory map:

That's County Wicklow - Wicklow, as in Wicklow Mountains. You might remember them from the two hikes I attended with the Rovers. To support your memory, I'll provide the links here (apologies for the German language used in this post) and here (that was my first post in English language, so no more complaining possible :-P). 

Since we had to go there from Maynooth, we spent some time on the bus first. That gave some people the opportunity to get some sleep they lacked from the night before (I think that had been the evening with pancakes and, ahem, interesting conversation topics... period!). Which then again gave others the opportunity to take really cute sleeping pictures. I'm not going to post anything here, because I might get killed for that...
So let's just continue with the topic of this post. Glendalough, which is a valley with two lakes. You could have guessed the lake part, because lough = loch (as in Loch Ness ;-)) = lake. And since we are in Ireland, we didn't start with the lakes, but with the leftovers of a monastery.

Our guide explaining the special cross.

There was some special cross. Superstition (I don't know how else I should call it) suggests the following: if you put your arms around the cross and your finger tips touch, you will find your true love within one year. As if this cross had a clue. Especially since you apparently had to be a tall person with long arms to be assured of finding your future love. I didn't try, by the way.
While others took their tourist pictures with the super smart cross, we disappeared with a small group to walk to the lake. The second lake, which was a bit further away. According to the member of our group who had already been there, this was the "right" lake. I don't know anything about right and wrong lakes, but it was really nice. Just a bit wet on parts of the way there and back. :-P

Okay, that was not so nice but rather irritating... O.o

And for the sake of the running gag as well as for lovers of sheep: oh, sheep! <3

Somewhere in Wicklow

Before we went on to Kilkenny, we could enjoy Wicklow a bit more. :-)

Group picture taken by Win :-)

Fun Fact: Hollywood, California, was named after Hollywood, Wicklow.

Kilkenny

Then, we had some free time in the nice town of Kilkenny. I have another obligatory map, just wait for it. :-P

First, we went to a café/restaurant the tour guide had recommended to us. Absolutely not touristy, totally priced for the locals, suuure... (I went for the chips. ^^)
The we checked out the castle. Only from the outside, because we would have had to pay to get inside. And since we didn't have a lot of time (eating had taken ages...), it wouldn't have paid off.

I just like taking random pictures of rivers...

... obviously.

Then, we had a short discussion if we still had enough time to walk through the town centre to the church we could spot in the background. Result: yes!

We had time to check out the inside of the church and still made it back to the bus in time, I need to mention!