Traveling Outside the City Limits

Yesterday morning when we got to Trinity we all loaded onto the bus and went to Glendalough. Glendalough is an old monastery where monks used to live. There is quite a rich history in this place, from the old cemetery with tombstones dating back to the medieval era until the present, to the old churches and crypts. There is a famous lookout tower on the cemetery grounds as well, where the monks would watch for approaching vikings. The vikings used to attack the monastery quite often, and the steep hills and surrounding valleys served as protection for the monks when the vikings would pillage them. The scenery here is gorgeous. While my camera is still broken, Brad took pictures and I'm attaching some below. The views speak for themselves.

Cemetery at the monastery

The lookout tower. The walls are a meter thick

Lower Lake at Glendalough
At the Upper Lake

After Glendalough we got back on the bus and went to Wicklow, a small town about a half hour away that reminded me somewhat of Safed in Israel. We all got lunch there. I had mushroom soup and then fish and chips. It was fantastic. Then we took a tour of the Wicklow Gaol. This was the kind of place where the tour guides dressed up like prison keepers from the 1800's. The jail was pretty cool, but definitely meant for a younger audience. There were a lot of mannequins set up in the different cells, and a few facts inscribed on the walls. I liked Wicklow a lot and it was nice to see some life outside of Dublin.

Last night was great. We decided to make a potluck dinner between four different apartments and then two more people from the program. There were 13 of us total. I made my special pasta with vegetables and and cous cous. Other dishes at the potluck included beef stew (couldn't eat it, obviously), homemade potato chips, asparagus, bruschetta, garlic bread, stirfried vegetables, and these delicious strawberries filled with cheesecake batter. Lots and LOTS of carbs. Of course we had lots of wine and other alcoholic units. This went on for a couple of hours and it was a lot of fun. We're planning on doing more of these potlucks in the future. Here are some pics:

Group shot

Yeah...

After the potluck we went to this pub called Porterhouse and talked to some of the locals there. I talked to these two guys, one of whom knew who Tim Tebow is and who claims to gamble a lot on the NFL. He bought my friend and me some drinks, which the Irish like to do. I had an absurd conversation with someone else about how awesome it would be to get drunk with the Pope (this sounds random, and in context it was. Someone had made some comment about Catholics), because it would be you the Pope and God just chilling in the Vatican. The guy was loving this and laughing uncontrollably. It ended when his friend said, "Ye, but who the f*** cares about religion anyway?" (This anecdote sucks but I'm keeping it here anyway) Well, drunk nights and foolish plights, it was a good time nonetheless. My friend wanted to find herself an Irish husband, but disappointingly didn't. We left when they closed and I finally went to sleep at 4:30. Great day yesterday. We're planning on taking it easy today.