Me... at a monastery?! I guess it can happen!

The last two days have been great fun, but I’m glad it’s the weekend so I can just relax! We all went out last night but by the time we had a couple of drinks we were all exhausted and wound up calling it an early night!!

Today, I really just want to lay around- do some reading, writing, maybe watch a movie. Everyone is always so shocked when you say you just want to relax and not go out- “But you’re in Ireland!!!” Yes, and I’ll be in Ireland for another seven weeks! Lol.

Ellie and Jahna at the racetrack.

Anyway, Ellie had heard about horse racing going on Thursday night so some of us went to that for a couple hours. I’d never been before so it was kind of cool.

At the racetracks.

The track was freaking huge! But the horses only ran half of it. We didn’t make any bets- though I should have because the horse I picked for the second race actually won!

On the train ride home it was a bit weird though… we had some Irish guy come up and talk to us (with this crazy thick accent so he was hard to understand). He’d clearly been drinking a bit and was with some of his friends. He started making fun of one of his friends and that friend got mad and took it out on us! He said some mean stuff to Denise and then called my other friend a whore. It was rather interesting… like I said he was clearly drunk! And we basically told him he should go home and sleep it off! We were a little worried they were going to follow us when we got off the train since we got off at the same stop- but luckily they went their own way.

We went to Captain America’s after that, haha, and got some drinks and dessert. Then we made our way to Cassidy’s where we met up with a bunch of other people. They have a really great acoustic guitarist there and we spent most of the night listening and talking with him.

Jahna and the Hugh Heffner wannabe at Cassidy's

There was one old guy there that I swear was Ireland’s Hugh Heffner! Haha. Somehow he kept getting the girls to dance with him- but as I told him, I don’t dance!

Dancing at Cassidy's

(Though Bobby did get me to dance for the last one of the night… a rarity, trust me!)

Yesterday we went to Glendalough, which used to be a monastery. It was a monastery about 1400 years ago! And I think was one for about 900 years.

The Round Tower at Glendalough- one of the tallest in Ireland!

There’s a really tall, circular building there- over a hundred feet high! It was originally a bell tower but was probably used as a lookout during the Viking attacks as well.

There’s also a cemetery there with graves ranging from 1400 years ago (!) to today!

The cemetery at Glendalough- some graves are 1400 years old!

(Mom, you would’ve of loved it!) They’ve closed the cemetery so that no one else can buy plots; however there are still some people alive that have plots there. I guess about thirty years ago they made a list of all the people that were still to be buried there and their name had to be put on the list.

The cemetery and cathedral at Glendalough.

Today, there are only seven people left! On the way in, during our guided tour, there was an elderly gentlemen that we let pass who stopped for a minute to say hi to our tour guide. We later found out that he is one of the seven people to be buried there! Apparently his wife is buried there as well, and he comes in most days to see her grave… he also used to be the caretaker of the cemetery!

This is a picture of the monastery’s cathedral.

Pretty plain for a ‘cathedral’ right? Well, I guess it was built back in the 10th or 11th century!

The cathedral of Glendalough's monastery.

We learned that for a building to be a cathedral it doesn’t have to be big and grand- all it needs is for a Bishop’s throne to be there. I guess this monastery had a Bishop for hundreds of years- at one time Glendalough was higher in religious status than Dublin.

"Inside" the cathedral of Glendalough's monastery.

"St. Kevin's Kitchen" - really it's a church though but was originally misnamed!

This is a building called “St. Kevin’s Kitchen” I believe. It was misnamed because originally they thought that small bell tower was a chimney and they assumed it had been where the monks used to cook. In fact, this was actually a small church. It’s really famous in Ireland and some even refer to it as the “Mount Rushmore of Ireland.” Btw, it’s named after St. Kevin because he is the priest who founded the monastery back in the 6th century!

Looking down at the lake at Glendalough.

I actually wished we’d had more time to look around the cemetery but with the guided tour it was sort of hard to do. Then afterwards we went on a two-hour hike up the mountain.

Beautiful waterfall at Glendalough- little dark because my flash wasn't cooperating.

At first I wasn’t going to go because it was already thinner air and the night before I’d woke up not being able to breath. But I had my inhaler with so I figured I would give it a shot.

Pretty stream in Glendalough.

It wasn’t too bad, but I did need my inhaler a couple of times. I think it was only about three miles, but the scenery was beautiful! I kept trying to take pictures to capture how beautiful it was- but I think it was one of those scenes where you truly can’t capture it unless you’re actually there!

Looking down at the monastery from a couple miles up.

(Oh and our good weather has finally left us- the cold came in yesterday, and the rains began today. Welcome to Ireland!)

written by

kmr788 on June 6, 2009 from Glendalough, Ireland

from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland

Send a Compliment

Dear Kelly.
My goodness - you have been a busy girl!!!!! We have been involved with re-decorating here at Ricci Manor so we did not really sit and read all your blogs until this evening. The pictures are wonderful and Ireland is surely a beautiful country.I will be glad when you come home so we can go through the pics again and you can tell us exactly what we are looking at. Grandpa and I were commenting that the cities look so clean - the streets seem litter free - and of course as per expected - everything is so beautifully GREEN!!!!
It sounds like you have covered a great deal of territory already in your "discovering Ireland" tours. You were quite right in saying some of the towns looked like post cards - they are really charming. You also seemed to have met quite a diverse group of people and they all sound like a lot of fun.
We enjoyed the pics of your dorm - it seems very nice. The idea of the common room is neat as it gives you all a place to come together and relax and enjoy one anothers company.
We hope that getting into your classes will be as interesting as you seem to think it will be. We know you realize what a golden opportunity you have before you and we are thrilled for you to be experiencing this exciting time in your life. I would like to be a Grandma for just a minute and ask you to be more aware of your limitations regarding your asthma. Let us not have visiting your local emergency room be part of the Irish experience!!!! We love you and will write again soon - take care of yourself, Gran-mi-ma and Gran-pi-pa.

Aunt Mary Ellen's email is: s.ricci@comcast.net.
I was going to ask why there were no pictures from the nude beach but when I read they were all 40 year old men I'm glad you didn't take any.
Gran-pi-pa

written by Daniel A. Ricci on June 7, 2009

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