On my mom's last day in Ireland, we went to a seaside fishing village called Howth. It was a really nice day out, and surprisingly there were lots of people around. There was small market where we got really yummy homemade bread.
Then we got to walk a mountainous trail along the shore! After our hike we ate great seafood for lunch. I'm so glad I got to show my mom Dublin!
On Saturday we did the number one tourist activity here in Dublin - Touring the Guinness Storehouse! In the storehouse you get to learn all about the Guinness family (actually great philanthropists) and how Guinness is made.
I also showed my mom Phoenix Park, where all those wild deer are! You can get pretty close to them, and two male deer were actually fighting with their antlers.
Today we took a day trip to see some of the countryside of Ireland. We got to walk around Glendalough, a beautiful spot that used to be a monastary. It has two beautiful lakes - here's a picture of us in front of one! We got to do a lot of exploring.
The trip also included a drive through the Wicklow Mountains and to a great spot to view Guinness Lake. Much like a pint of Guinness, the lake is almost black in color, and they actually brought in pale sand to make it look even more like Guinness! It was really windy, hence my hair being a bit crazy in the picture.
In the morning my mom and I took a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, an old jail in Dublin. This is where many Irish Revolutionaries were held. Later we walked around the National Botanic Gardens, which was free! There were lots of cool cacti and bonsai trees.
The picture is from our walk around the University College Dublin campus - this mural is right in front of the science center!
My mom arrived in Dublin today! We had a low-key day but did a lot of walking. I showed her a bunch of the 'must-sees' in Dublin - St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College, the Spire, and more important things like Butler's, a cafe with the absolute best hot chocolate and lattes (just kidding, but they're seriously amazing). We had lunch at the Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub!
Happy St. Paddy's Day! Paddy's day here isn't that huge for people who are actually Irish, and they tend to avoid the massive crowds downtown. Surprisingly, we did not do the very touristy thing of going to the parade downtown. Instead we visited Croke Park, the stadium in Dublin where Gaelic sport matches are held.
If you haven't heard of Gaelic Football or Hurling, I strongly encourage you to look them up on YouTube! These two Irish sports are like combinations of multiple sports, and they're both contact, so they are very intense to watch. Croke Park is the third largest stadium in Europe, and we got to see both a Hurling and a Gaelic Football match. So it was still a pretty eventful St. Patrick's Day.
Later that night, we got to catch up with Ainsley, my teammate and the goalie of the field hockey team - Swat Reunion! She's studying in Scotland and was visiting Ireland with her sister.
We are back from our trip but on to more activities! Tyler Zon of the men's soccer team came over from London to see Dublin, and two of my Irish friends took all the Americans on a coastal hike!
We walked from Bray to Greystones - over a hill (not technically a mountain) called the Bray head. Sometimes being in the city makes me forget we are so close to the ocean. The trail was beautiful, and there were lots of people paragliding above us!
