Our hike started at the south end of the promenade. We had our backpacks, our shoes, our PB&J for lunch, and we were off! We decided to take the road less traveled and head up to Bray’s Head. There is a cross at the very top and the views from the top would be amazing. Because of all the rain, water was pouring down the path from the top of the mountain. It made hiking interesting! It was so much fun to hike up through ferns (and some not as fun prickly bushes) and as we got higher and higher, the view became more and more spectacular. I didn’t realize I was a pretty good hiker until this trip. I was always in the front and I loved being out in nature. It was a lot of fun!
We finally reached the top of the mountain and the view from the top was incredible! I could see the ocean, all the county Wicklow mountains, Sugarloaf Mountain, the Irish sea cliffs- beautiful and truly spectacular! The picture does not do it justice…
We hung out at the top just taking in the scenery for a while and around noon we continued on our hike. We headed out along the sea cliffs and up in the mountains toward Greystones. We saw ponies, snails, birds, and a bunch of beautiful yellow and purple plants scattered about our view. The trail we took was the one less traveled and it was not marked all that great. We ended up taking the trail down through some small farm houses and property. We had to hop a couple fences and we didn’t quite know where we would end up. It was definitely an adventure! We reached a street which we followed down toward what we hoped was Greystones. A few backyards and small trails later, we found the sea cliff trail which led us into Greystone. I have to say- my sense of direction is pretty amazing! I was a great hike leader!
We made it into Greystones around 2:30 after a beautiful 4 ½ hour hike. It was probably the highlight of my trip so far. Ireland is gorgeous!
We had lunch and then went and explored the town. Of course we went down to the beach and I was amazed when I saw a group of teenagers about to get it in. It wasn’t raining, but it had clouded up around 2pm and it was no California weather. Thank goodness it was nice and sunny for our hike! We really lucked out with the weather!
At 3:30 we took the DART back to Trinity. A bunch of us decided to go out to dinner since it was our last night in Dublin, so we got some of our packing done, got changed and 15 of us met up to go out to dinner at 8pm. We walked all over trying to find a place to eat (one we all agreed on and could afford). Somehow we ended up at the funniest place down in Temple Bar. It was called “Thunder Road Café” and it was USA themed. It was kind of like a Hard Rock knock off with motorcycles, music videos, and a ton of USA memorabilia. There was a rotating motorcycle over our table because no restaurant experience is complete without the shadow of a motorcycle spinning over your table for an entire meal! The best part was their tiger print tablecloths…oh man…
Dinner took a while and we left to go to a pub around 10:30. We ended up at Porterhouse Brewery and Pub right across the street from Trinity University. I had a pint and then called it a night around midnight. It was nice to have everyone out together. A few stayed out until 3am and lets just say they were going to have a rough morning trying to get all their stuff together for Belfast…we’ll just have to hope and pray they are on the bus at 10:30am.
It was an amazing day and I am so glad our hiking trip worked out. I still want to go hike the Wicklow Way and Killarney National Park, but this was an amazing experience! I am really excited for Yosemite now too!
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