This weekend I decided to take a day off and go on a bus tour of County Wicklow. The tour promised many beautiful sights such as the Powerscourt Gardens, a tour through the Wicklow Mountains National Park, the Guinness Estate, Glendalough, and much more. Even though I'm fighting my first cold since being here, I thought it would be nice to get away for the day with some friends. However, things did not go as planned.
The day started with me getting lost on the bus--I still have not completely figured that out. I took the right bus but honestly, I had no idea what stop I needed. Eventually, I just walked off the bus and began walking in the wrong direction. Thankfully I ran into a friendly American who was able to point me in the right direction.
After finally getting to the proper location the tour van arrived. We began to drive out of the city to Dun Laoghaire. Except a person was forgotten in the city so we had to backtrack to the city. The drive was lovely though so I didn't mind that much.
Once we finally arrived in Dun Laoghaire and picked up the last few people on the tour, we headed towards County Wicklow to begin. I must mention, the forecast was snow and it had begun to start just before we entered the town of Enniskerry. The small estate village of Enniskerry was the filming location of the films P.S. I Love You and Leap Year. If you haven't seen those movies, stop everything you're doing and go watch them right now!
We traveled through Enniskerry to the Powerscourt Gardens. Voted No. 3 in the World's Top Ten Gardens by National Geographic, the Powerscourt Gardens stretch of 47 acres of land. Even though it was snowing and bitterly cold, the gardens were a beautiful sight and well worth the visit.
After taking about an hour and a half at the Gardens, we went into the town of Enniskerry for lunch. After lunch, we were to go on a tour of Wicklow Mountains National Park where the "P.S. I Love You bridge", the Guinness Estate and many more sights are located. We were then to travel into Glendalough, a 6th-century Monastic site of St. Kevin. However, the van we were traveling in broke down on the side of the road. Unfortunately, we never got to complete the tour. We were left to walk into the nearest town on a very busy road in the snow to catch a bus. Only once we reached the bus station it was another 26 minutes of waiting.
After taking an hour long bus into Dun Laoghaire, I then had to catch the DART, the Irish train, into Dublin City Center. Along the way, I met some very nice people, including another student from Syracuse studying in Italy for the semester. They were very kind and we had a very good laugh about the travels. If only my journey had ended there, though. Once I got into City Center, I could not find a bus station for the life of me. Honestly, I believe I'm just not meant to take the bus. Yes, I could've just walked back to my apartment, but with the weather being as it was and my cold acting up, I knew it was best if I just took the bus. After walking about 20 minutes in the city I finally found the right bus and arrived back at my apartment shortly after.
All in all, the day could have been a lot worse. Still, I hope to eventually get to see the other sites. The Powerscourt Gardens were really a beautiful sight and our tour guide was very kind and helpful. I do not blame the tour company at all but it would have been nice to finish out the day. Still, looking at the positives, the day could have been much worse. At least I got a good laught out of it and hopefully you all will too.
