Swallowing Your Pride

So yesterday Whitney and I decided to swallow our pride and take a tour, the ultimate touristy thing to do, and it was wonderful!! We took a tour of the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough. It was just absolutely refreshing to get out into the countryside and mountains. We first stopped in the Dublin mountains and got a view of the city, it looked much larger from the mountains and very spread out, but our view included the suburbs as well, so i guess that makes sense. Then along the way we stopped at a lake, i cant remember the name, but it was beautiful, in the backgroup there were mountains and the water was a dark color. Actually it was a popular place for Oscar Wilde to come and write, he would get tea at the tea shop next to the lake and would find inspiration alonside the lake and mountains. I can see why, it was beautiful! Then we continued along and saw Sally Gap, which is where parts of Braveheart were filmed, many of the battle scenes were filmed there. That was also fun, The Guinness estate was breathtaking as well, it is owned by the Guinness family and the Lough Tay is nicknamed "Guinness Lake" because of the dark color of the water and the sandy beach at the head that looks like a guinness setteling. We were at the top of the mountain and could look down upon all of this. On of the most recent guests here was Michael Jackson, interesting. We then stopped in the village Laragh for lunch and had a very expensive Irish meal. I had Guinness Stew which was good, but not worth its "tourist money trap". It started to snow while we were there which was much more enjoyable than rain, so I am glad that it was so cold, plus it has been a while since I have seen snow, it was rather refreshing. Our last stop was at Glendalough, which is a monastic settlement. It was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th centure, it was amazing how old these buildings were and how well preserved they were. It was woulderful walking through the old grave yard and reading the dates of when these people were buried here and really feeling the antiquity of this place. It was quite overwhelming. Our favorite part of the day was probably the walk from Glendalough to the upper and lower lakes, only a 20 min. walk, but it was wonderful to be out walking in the valley with the mountains surrounding us. We both became overjoyed with the surroundings, especially the moss, it was so green and made everything else look so alive. Our ride back to Dublin was also wonderful, we stopped along the way at an old lead mine to see where much of the film Reign of Fire was filmed, it made me think of some friends I had watched that movie with. When we got back to Dublin we wanted to take it easy so we went to get coffee and then went to the cinema for a movie. We saw the movie Becoming Jane, which is about the early life of Jane Austen. I am a huge fan of hers, so of course I loved it Even though they took huge a huge liberty with the truth of her life and cheesily did incorporate many of her most beloved characters into the film, I would recommend it to any Jane Austen fan, but i am not sure if it is playing in the states yet. We left the next morning for Galway and our train ride was great, we both got to catch up on some much needed reading and sleep. Galway is great, such a wonderful town. It is much smaller than Dublin, but I think that I prefer it. It was quite dreary today, but we walked around for a little while and decided to duck into this cute little coffee shop, it was a great place to sit and write for hours. We absolutely loved it. We then walked around the Bay for a while. It actually has been a relaxing day, very laid back. Oh and for dinner we were walking around and did not find anything that struck our appeal, and of all places we ended up at McDonalds. We felt so lame, but at the same time were curious as to what a McDonalds in another country was like. Well they only give you one packet of ketchup, and you then pay.15 euro for each after that, she was most kind though and gave me 3 and whitney 2. How funny! Tomorrow we were hoping to go to the Aran Islands, but because of the weather we are taking a bus tour around the area to the south of galway including the Cliffs of Moher. Hopefully the rain will hold of somewhat so we can enjoy it.