Glendalough and the Russborough House

On Friday, I woke up at 7am, got dressed, and packed my backpack with water and snacks for Glendalough. "Glendalough (/ˌɡlɛndəˈlɒx/; Irish: Gleann Dá Loch, meaning "Valley of two lakes") is a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland, renowned for an Early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin." We met at the bus stop at 8:15am and left at 8:30am. It was only 45 minutes away. so we got there by 9:30am. Only about 40 people went on this trip. There were two options for us, a strenuous hike or a lakeside walk and only 8 people did the lakeside walk. I chose the hike as I've never gone a real hike up a mountain. It was definitely strenuous getting up the mountain with 600 wooden plank stairs. We basically walked up at least ten flights of stairs to get to the first landing, and I immediately sat down under a tree when we finally made it. The views were absolutely beautiful once we got to the first landing seeing the lower lake. Then we continued up the mountain and stopped to see the upper lake. We took a different much more relaxed path down the mountain, and then stopped to see some deer and the monastery founded by St. Kevin. After our three-hour adventure in Glendalough, we took the bus to the Russborough House where we had burgers and sausages for lunch, and then we went on a tour of the house, which was beautiful. After the tour was over, we watched sheep dog herding with two border collies. Then six of us (not me) ran around the field trying to herd the sheep in a pen, which was pretty amusing. At around 4:30pm, we got back on the bus to go back to UCD. Once we got back, I showered, changed, and took the bus downtown to The Church Bar and Restaurant to meet Erin. We had drinks, and I ordered a small appetizer of nachos and a Kopparberg Mixed Berry. Nick, Fran, Dean, and VIcki showed up, so we found them, talked, and everyone ended up getting a Kopparberg as well because it tasted so good. At 11pm, Dean and Vicki left to take the bus back, and the rest of us walked to the The Workman's Club. We just had one drink before getting a taxi home, I got an Orchard Thieves, and we got back at around 12:30am.

 Lower Lake

 Upper Lake

Monastery

Russborough House