There's a Hard Way and an Easy Way to Climb a Mountain

To round out my detailed account of last weekend, I went with Kate and Bridget to Killiney to climb a hill known for its marvelous view of the city.  Killiney is right next to Dalkey, both south on the DART, with Killiney Hill (our target destination) right in the middle.

Lovely Dalkey

 At the train station we decided to go from Dalkey because the tickets were marginally cheaper, but I was less familiar with the directions from there as opposed to from Killiney.  In good form then I led us in the wrong direction and we ended up at a convent by the sea with cool rocks and an amazing ocean view.

killer view

 

 

sometimes you can click on the pictures to enlarge them

So after climbing all over the rather slippery rocks, we turned around and headed in the right direction.  It was a little drizzily, but we were determined.  We found the hill but the way up was not well-marked.  There was a muddy little trail some guys pointed out to us, but we thought they were talking about something else so we continued going around the hill.  Then some mountain climbers told us to go back and had us take a different much more scraggily path.  Just getting to the base of the path entailed an unclear, brambley way that I'm pretty confident was not actually a path. After that the way up was rocky and winding.  After we climbed the initial hill, there were stairs.

The hard way...

the easy way

down

up - we did get to the top of that

Eventually we reached the top of the hill and had a great view of Dalkey and Dun Laoghaire, as well as of Killiney and the south.

We continued to explore the hill walk, full of families and people with dogs (they all used the easy path to get to the top).  And then we stumbled into Neverland.

the approach: "what is that?"

"this is not Irish"

"it seems like Virginia"

"this totem pole is styrofoam"

Turns out it is the temporary set of some movie filming Neverland.  We cautiously approached the sight and the guy keeping guard I suppose told us to go ahead and go inside the cabins and all.  It felt like something from Williamsburg or somewhere else in Virginia, and smelled a bit like it too.  It was a solid days adventure.

In other news, I definitely only have class Mondays and Wednesdays.  My Shakespeare course has been moved from the beautiful classroom to the dreary windowless Arts Block lecture halls.  Gone are the lollipop clocks and woe is me.  But all else is pretty solid.  I've definitely been struggling with getting myself to do work, especially since there's no structure to most of it.  Or during the times when I have to read a book that can't be taken out of the library.  The library has awful hours and no couches.  It's not open on Sundays which is a little ridiculous for a college library.  I have a couple friends visiting this weekend, so I need to finish straightening up my room.