Day 23: July 1, 2013 Irish Countryside, P.S. I Love You, Braveheart, and Back to London

Today was amazing! We woke up at 8:00, got ready, then packed up all our stuff and headed out. We grabbed breakfast at the corner French bakery which was yummy. We were meeting George our busdriver and our bus in front of the Gresham Hotel. We had to wait for a while so we just chilled, took pictures. An old guy walking down the street decided he wanted to be in our picture so we took one with him as well.

We got on the bus, picked up a few people on the way. He was playing Irish music and would pipe in with cool facts about the city and history. Our first stop was at the beach DunLaoghaire Harbour and shoreline. We got out and took a million pictures, walked and climbed on the rocks, picked seashells, just breathed in the ocean air.

We got back on the bus and drove through Dalkey and Killiney, home to the rich and famous such as Bono and Enya, or Daniel Day Lewis. We then drove a little more and stopped at Avoca Handweavers for a ittle pit stop. We got hot chocolate and Kasee and I shared a chocolate eclair. We tried to use the ATM but it wasn't working. We took pictures of the beautiful flowers everywhere then got back on the bus. 

We drove up through the hills and beautiful countryside. We drove past Braveheart was filmed and saw the village and everything which was way cool. Then we carried on to the bridge from P.S. I Love You where Hilary Swank first meets Gerard and says, "I'm lost" it was so cute! We took a million pictures and everyone else on the tour with us (mostly old people and families) were getting impatient and honked at us haha it was just so amazing! I really hoped Gerard or at least some Irish fellow would walk by but nope... *sigh* 

We drove by this lake where they filmed the Vikings show on the History Channel. It was so beautiful. It's owned by the Guinness family so they are a little loaded. 

We continued down to the a little city where we had lunch at a hotel pub. I had mashed potatoes and some bread which was actually really good. We then drove to Glendalough, a 6th Century Monastic Settlement. It was really cool because they had a big tower surrounded by a graveyard. We listened to George talk about the history and then we walked down past these beautiful lakes, hiked up to this tiny waterfall that was a little anticlimactic, then walked back, got ice cream, and got back on the bus. 

George was doing a whiskey tasting and we were all like uh nope I'm good thanks though! I slept a lot of the way back to Dublin. We got back around 6:00. We met everyone back at the hostel and left for the airport around 7:00. I didn't have any troubles with my bag in security this time! This did however grope me - they claim it was a random search but I claim BS, they just hate me and recognized me. I kept saying that if I had to go through the same ordeal as before, I was going to throw a fit and probably be sent to an Irish prison wearing my leprechaun hat. They didn't post our gate number until 9:00 so we walked around and found something to eat - Burgerking - gross! We went to the gate and chilled for a bit then got on the plane. I sat next to Jess and we chatted the whole time and looked at pictures, the flight went by very fast. We got on the train then the tubes were closed so we got on a night bus. We finally got back to the flat around 3:00. I showered real quick then unpacked and went to bed. I love Ireland! Hope everyone is doing well. Love you!