A Weekend by the Sea
Last Thursday Killian and I celebrated our first year together. Time flies! We took the weekend to have a little getaway at his family's property in Arklow. I was excited because I'd been to Wicklow before (which is where Arklow is) and I LOVE it. It's called the garden of Ireland, and for a good reason. I was also excited because it's a seaside town. Below you can see the mobile park that we stayed in. It's right off the sea (1 minute walk down the road) and tucked away just enough that it's fairly quiet. The drive down was the prettiest drive of my entire life. I didn't take pictures because I couldn't do anything but soak it all in. My brain stopped functioning over all the pretty!
We picked up a bunch of food Friday night and stayed in watching movies. The next morning, we woke up to really nice weather! It was probably the warmest day since I'd arrived. Killian went out for a run while I sat out on the porch and read. I'm finally, after so many years, reading the Harry Potter books. I've seen all the movies, read the first one when it first came out so I was too young to remember, and I've even owned the series for a long time! Needless to say, it's about time. So I enjoyed a few hours out in the sunshine reading. Then, we went on a walk on the beach. I had fun finding sea glass and other treasures.
On the way back, I wanted to take a peak into this abandoned house. It's boarded up, but the windows are broken on one side and you can see in. We walked back across the river this time, which feeds into the sea.
Saturday night, we had a little date night and walked into town for dinner and a movie. The walk there was beautiful. The path took us through tunnels of trees and past a nice pond.
We went to Eddie Rockets for dinner, which is our favourite place at the moment. This was our third time in the past couple of weeks! It's basically replicating an American diner. And the burgers there are amazing! I usually get one with swiss, pineapple, and bacon. This time I went for a classic bacon cheeseburger. Killian always goes for one that has onion rings on it. Yum!
After dinner, we had over an hour to kill until our movie started. So we took a stroll along the water.
I got to see a fishing boat getting ready to head out!
Then, we came across this abandoned factory that I'd seen from a distance. Of course with my fascination of derelict structures, I was just about drooling. The fence had come down in one area, so we popped in for a quick peek. We didn't stay long because the sun had almost set and someone else was in there (we could hear the shuffling and steps) but it was SO COOL.
We got back at the perfect time for our movie. We saw The Gift with Jason Bateman. It was really creepy and strange. It was good, but the ending was very abrupt. Different than a lot of movies I've seen. We walked back the same way we'd come, and it was pitch black at that point. Killian turned on his phone's flashlight (or torch, as they say here) at one point when we didn't have any light coming through the tunnel of trees. We were swarmed by bats! I've never seen them so close in my life!!
The next morning was another beautiful morning for weather. We packed up our things and headed out to meet some of Killian's friends. Our first stop was Sugarloaf, a "mountain" in Wicklow. We climbed up the precarious loose rock and reached the peak. The view was spectacular. Between the sea and the countryside, I was in heaven.
The craziest part though, was the swarm of flying ants at the top. At the end of the video below, pause in the last frame and look at the bottom left corner. The sky was black with them! They were falling out of our clothes and hair for the next 12 hours. Apparently it's a thing across the country right now with them mating!
Our last stop was Glendalough. I'd been several times before, but only on tours. When you do guided tours, it's rare that you have enough time to properly look around a place. This was a quick stop too, but it's one of my favourite places now. It's so peaceful and beautiful.
All in all, this was a much needed relaxing weekend. Sometimes, you just gotta get away!