Jameson Distillery and Wicklow

I decided to do another whole post for Jameson, since I have a whole bunch of photos for it. So, Friday rolled around, and a bunch of us decided to go to the Jameson Distillery! It was very, very cool. Pretty much just as cool as the Guiness Storehouse, but not quite as big. 

We got a guided tour, as opposed to Guiness, which was a self guided, and our tour guide, Hugh, was really cool. We learned how the aging process works, and why an 18 year old whiskey is so much more expensive than say a 6 year old whiskey. 

Barrels that the whiskey is aged in.

 The best part of the tour was when I got to be a taste tester. This is the mat that they gave us, with the Scotch on the left circle (I must have given mine to my friend Nick) Jameson went in the middle, and the Jack Daniels on the right.

This is the Church of St. Michan, which is where the catacombs were. The inside of the church was not really anything special, but of course the tombs were, which had no photography allowed.

"This Do in Remembrance Of Me"

Sort of looks like a Harry Potter podium

This morning we woke up and went to breakfast around 8:00, and left to catch our bus at 8:30. The ride to Wicklow was gorgeous, as evidences by some of my terrible "through the window" pictures. 

These next few pictures are the field where Braveheart was filmed. Apparently, quite a few movies were filmed in Wicklow, including, My Left Foot, P.S. I Love You, Saving Private Ryan, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Lassie.  

This was a bridge from P.S. I Love You. We were driving really fast, that's
why Karen's hands are in it, I had to move quickly to get the picture.

This was our fist off the bus photo opportunity, and it was GORGEOUS!!! I felt like I was actually in a post card. I'm not sure which lake it is, but regardless, it was beautiful.

Me standing awkwardly. I need other people in my pics.

After we left that lake, we headed to the Wicklow Mountains, which are in a national park. We went on a 30 minute hike up to another lake, but first we crossed over this river:

Beautiful, I know.

And past Rapunzel's tower:

And our first stop was St. Kevin's monastery. St. Kevin was this really weird guy who wanted to be spiritual, but didn't want to be a monk, so instead he just lived as a hermit in a cave on the side of the Wicklow Mountains. He one day sort of accidentally started healing animals, and soon became a spiritual leader to many people. Then some people from the Catholic church asked him to build a monastery. He didn't want to at first, but eventually gave in, with one rule: Every year, for the duration of Lent (40 days before Easter) he was allowed to go live by himself and be a hermit. The church said fine, and he built the monastery. 

I was looking out for ancestors, and maybe found some!

This was Christine McHugh, she was 52 when she died.

And here we have Edward McHugh (weird, right?) and James McHugh!

Seriously though, Rapunzel's tower, right?

Our final destination was the lake further up the mountain. It was outrageously warm! I took a shoe off so that I could take a step in it, and it felt like bathwater. We hung around there for a few minutes, and then needed to head back to the bus. Overall it was an awesome day, and I am so so so glad that I decided to go on this trip to Wicklow.

Oh and I wanted to show everyone back in the States what it looks like at 4:30 am here. Bright as day. Good thing I have awesome black out curtains :)

4:31 A.M.

Wating and waiting and waiting for Godot...

If anyone ever recommends to you that you should go to a play called Waiting for Godot, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO. This was probably the most boring piece of entertainment I have ever seen in my entire life, and I have seen A LOT of boring movies and read A LOT of boring books. That was last night at 8, and it didn't end until 10:30, so after that a lot of us were desperate to do something that we would actually enjoy, so we ended up watching Bridesmaids :) Once that was over, it was around 1:30 am, and, naturally, I wasn't tired in the least, so I wrote a movie review of In the Name of the Father (which is actually a great movie with Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson). Today, I woke up a tiny bit late for class, but I was actually kind of gratefiul because class is SO boring and pretty much a waste of time anyway. So I went late, and no one really noticed, and after class we all went to the Jameson distillery!! it was so cool. I can't decide which I liked better, Jameson of Guiness, because at the end of both you get a free drink (at the end of Jameson I had a Jameson and cranberry juice, DELICIOUS!). I also got to be one of 6 people in my group to be a taste tester at the end, and I got to try Jameson, some brand of Scotch, and Jack Daniels next to each other and see which ones were the best (definitely Jameson). After that we went to St. Michan's church, one of the oldest churches in Dublin. but what is really interesting about this church is what was underneath it. On either side of a tunnel lined with limestone and mortar are long narrow galleries filled with coffins. All but one of these are still active, meaning if someone died and was related to a family who owned one of these tombs, they could potentially be placed in there. The last time a  person was placed in these tombs was 17 years ago. In one of the galleries, we were actually able to see 3 real life mummies! I was shocked when our tour guide told us that we could - and were supposed to - shake hands with one! We all went into the gallery and grabbed hands with one real life mummy, just reached out and gripped the bones. It was really creepy. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed, but a couple of people took some while the guide was not looking, so those will be up soon. I can't believe I only have 9 days left here. I know that I will come back here at some time in my life, and I hope it's really really soon.