Glendalough

It is my last day in Dublin today. Woke up at 7am and ate my leftover McDonald's chicken. Left my backpack at Harrington Hostel and only brought my camera bag and a paper bag with the shirts that i bought from Caroll's to replace the Ireland shirt that had a tear on the side although I did not had it swapped for a new one until i finished my trip.

GLENDALOUGH.WAS.AWESOME (blip entry today)! I cant get enough of it and i wish we spent a lot of time in there coz i wanted to walk the lower and upper lake but didnt have enough time. I realized that I was only able to see the Lower Lake and the best part of Glendalough was actually in the Upper Lake. 

Kilkenny castle was also amazing but i was so disappointed that they didnt allow pictures to be taken from inside the state apartments. However i was able to get good photos from the grounds and garden until the rain poured down on me.

I had a very late lunch (soup and sandwich) and so I only had a few minutes left to look for the cathedral. Turned out there really is no Kilkenny Cathedral (it goes by a different name). I asked the locals in the cafe where i had my lunch and they dont know of any Kilkenny Cathedral. I went to the tourist info centre and realized that it was called Cathedral Church of St Canices and Round Tower. It had me thinking that locals really don't visit the church anymore since they don't even know where the most visited Cathedral by tourists is. But it was just the sincere mistake of our tour guide coz he was always referring to it as Kilkenny Cathedral instead of its proper name.

The location where some of the highlands in the movie Braveheart was shot was also mesmerizing. I could look at the vastness and beauty of the hills forever. Too bad we only had to pass the area. To be honest, if I would have to choose between the Cliffs of Moher tour and the Glendalough tour, I would have chosen the latter. The areas that the tour visited were more eye-full than the cliffs of moher. Yes the cliffs were amazing but it was just that, cliffs.

As we travelled back to dublin, I had an extra time to visit one attraction. I took the time to go to the grounds of Trinity college. There was no tour
available when i arrived as the last one was at 340 and I arrived at 6pm. I was still glad to have taken a few photos of the exterior of the college's buildings.

Got to the airport in time for my flight - i first went to the wrong terminal (should be in T1, i went to T2). Good thing the other terminal was just a walking distance in the next block. Boarding time was a bit late but we arrived on time. Dublin to Birmingham flight was so quick! I went to the check-in desk while i was still in Ireland surprisingly the Ryan Air personnel didnt even check my passport. She just took my boarding pass and stamped it  right away without any word nor ask for my passport whatsoever. And yeah, there was no visa check in the UK upon arrival as well.

I was supposed to take the national express coach back to pool meadow bus station but thought id take my chance and see if there are trains back to Coventry  (the coach would have gotten me to coventry but i will have to wait for an hour), good thing i was able to catch the last train to
coventry just in time! Got a taxi to Leam from Coventry, which was
a hold-up at 30gbp (there goes my one week meal allowance!) but all is good since i got a good chat with the driver who was talking excitedly
about his cute niece (we even got as far as him showing me a photo of his niece)! 

All in all, the day was amazing and tiring but worth it. I would do it all over again if given the chance. But for now, back to reality (i.e. phd)