This is how a couple from South Africa introduced themselves to us while we were visiting the Powerscourt House and Gardens. They caught us recreating some of the statues we were seeing and asked us if they could take a picture for us. We had a wonderful conversation with them, and they highly recommended that we drive up to the north to see Giants Causeway. We haven't planned to drive up that way, but we might have to after hearing about it from this couple!
Powerscourt is an absolutely incredible place to visit simply because of how the gardens were situated to interact with and compliment the landscape. Not to mention there is a huge pond at the back of the house, with a fountain of Kind Tritan blowing water 100ft into the air! We had a great time wandering the Japanese Gardens, the Azalea gardens and the formal gardens. The house itself isn't much to speak of, as it was gutted by fire in the 1970s and the only parts that have been restored are now used for shops and dining rooms.
And it hasn't rained!
But before we got to Powerscourt, we had to pay our way out of the Derrymore House in Glendalough. And luckily, the American couple that we ate breakfast with informed us that they did not take cards. So I asked Penny, the Innkeeper's wife, if they took checks. Nope. So, we backtracked through Rathdrum, found the Bank, got some cash (our cards don't work in the ATMs...) drove back through to Glendalough. We paid, said goodbye to Penny, drove back through Laragh (Laura) and got ourselves to Powerscourt, which is just south of Dublin. At this point, Charlie is getting really good at driving on the left, shifting with his left hand (yes, we have a standard transmission) and Kate's getting really good at pressing the imaginary break on her side of the car, and white-knuckle gripping the Oh-shit handle.
After Powerscourt, we backtrack again through Laragh, but this time head northwest towards Kilkenny. We took the back roads, which in this area means drop-offs on Kate's side of the car and huge tour buses barreling towards us on Charlie's side of the car. These Irish roads are not for the faint-hearted. Nor are they meant for giant SUVs. We now understand why Europeans drive such small cars - it's because bigger cars don't really fit on the roads...when we rented our car, we figured we'd upgrade to a larger sedan, but decided that we really didn't need to, and that we'd actually probably have gotten used to driving more quickly if we'd gotten a Mini Cooper. Oh well, we know for next time!
We ate lunch in a cute little town coffe shop, having something called a Vol-au-vent, which is a very common dish of meat, mushrooms and gravy spooned into and over a biscuit. We kept pressing on to Kilkenny, however, it's getting chilly enough for us to pull our jackets out of our bags.
Kilkenny is a fun town, but like all countries outside the US, most shops close down at 6pm. So our 6:30 arrival time meant that we rested and napped at our hotel (the Zuni House), watched some tv - Hollyoaks for any of you Dan le Sac fans! - and tried to log onto the internet. Until this point, internet has been spotty, but we figured that Kilkenny is a bigger town, we should definitely be able to get access. But no - and we accidentally ordered power adapters for Europe, not Ireland, and don't have a way to recharge our batteries, laptop or iPod.
So what are we to do but head out to find some Smithwick's (a local ale) and some good live music. We found both at a well-known bar called Langton's, and also ran into fellow JMU graduates there. We talked with the couple for a while before heading back to our hotel for the night!
And it's finally rained! And continued to rain and mist and rain and drizzle and mist and fog and rain constantly since then!
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