True Ireland

February 17

Teeling Whiskey Distillery Tour

For this week's Thursday tradition, Megan and I went on a tour of the Teeling Whiskey Distillery! Our other roommates really want to do the Jameson tour, so we decided to wait for that one until everyone could go.

The tour was so cool! We actually got to go inside the room where all the production machines are. We even got to look into the machines and see the whiskey being made through all the various stages. After going through the distillery, the tour ended with a tasting and cocktail. I tried a tiny sip of the whiskey and didn't like it, but I still enjoyed the spirit of going on the tour.

February 19

To the Coast!

On Saturday, we took it pretty easy. One of my roommates had a cousin visiting, so while they were in Bray, Megan and I went to Dún Laoghaire for lunch and a walk on the pier! We went to a small cafe called Shoe Lane Coffee and got delicious ham and cheese toasties.

The weather was beautiful, and we saw some really cool cloud formations over the mountains in the distance.

At the end of our walk, we got ice cream from Scrumdiddly's!

February 20

Finally Real Ireland Weather

On Sunday, we went on a day tour to the Wicklow Mountains and Kilkenny through Wild Rover Tours! We woke up bright and early to take the bus into Dublin to one of the pickup stops. On our way, we of course stopped for coffee at Bittersweet Cafe.

Our first stop on the tour was a sheep farm in Wicklow! We saw a demonstration of the farmer's sheepdogs herding the sheep, which was so cool. After that, we were able to hold baby lambs. It was one of the best experiences ever and definitely one of the best in Ireland so far. The lambs were so soft and adorable!!

After visiting the sheep farm, we were on our way to Glendalough, which means the valley of two lakes in Irish. We walked through the old Glendalough Monastic Site, which was very fascinating to see.

After we walked through the site, we walked past the lower lake and passed a bunch of waterfalls. Because the weather has been so rainy in Ireland the last few days, the waterfalls were flowing very strongly. I had never really seen a waterfall before, so it was so cool to finally see one and then many!

Everything was so green and mossy. I have to assume that Glendalough might naturally be rainier than Dublin.

After passing by all those waterfalls, we made our way to the upper lake, where we got a beautiful view of the valley and another waterfall far off in the distance.

It sure was rainy though. While looking towards the upper lake, my hat almost flew off my head because of the wind. We were being battered with rain at this point, but that didn't stop us from carrying on and continuing to see what else Glendalough had to offer.

We saw a sign that was pointing towards a waterfall, so there we went. The waterfall had a lot of water flowing down it, but it was no wonder that it was due to all the rain and the storm that had just blown through Ireland in the days before.

After seeing the waterfall, we went in search of a quick bite to eat before we had to board the bus. We found a food truck, and I got a huge bag of fries, which were delicious!

We finally made it back to the bus... soaking wet. My jacket was not waterpoof enough for the weather, but at least the temperature was warm. The hike would have been kind of miserable if it had been rainy and cold.

After Glendalough, we drove through the rainy and sleeting weather through the Wicklow Mountains! On our drive, we passed by many flowing rivers and flooded fields. Our tour guide told us that he had never seen the rivers flowing so much in years, so the rain that we were getting was definitely out of the norm.

Through the Wicklow Mountains and to Kilkenny we went! We arrived in Kilkenny in the late afternoon and grabbed a bite to eat so that we could all take some more time to warm up before exploring the windy streets of town.

We walked around the town a bit and then went off to explore Kilkenny Castle, which we learned has a pretty violent and bloody history. This was our first real castle we saw in Ireland, so that was cool!

After our very short walk around the castle, we headed back to the bus because it was so windy and cold, and we were still pretty drenched from Glendalough.

The bus ride back to Dublin gave us some time to unwind and dry a bit. It was an absolutely fantastic day! Our tour guide was funny and also very informative. He provided us with a very interesting history lesson at each stop we went to, which made the sites we were seeing that much more meaningful.

It was another wonderful weekend abroad!

Cheers!