Day trip to Bray

Today I took the DART about 12 miles south of Dublin with Maura and Kayla. We left early in the morning and took the Luas to the city center, walked to Tara Station, and then took the DART to Bray, Ireland. Bray is a city that is situated between the Wicklow hills and the ocean. The weather was really nice today and we actually saw the sun:-) The good weather made the coast seem even more beautiful than yesterday and walking around was more enjoyable without getting soaked. The train ride to the south was beautiful in itself because we were able to see the coast all the way down. The coast had a mixture of beaches and rocky outcroppings and the variety was interesting.

When we arrived at Bray we walked through the city and found the beach area. The beach went on for about a mile and families were all over the beach. We were able to go down to the beach and touch the water which was really fun. The water wasn't as cold as i thought it would be, but I still don't have the desire to jump in. There were many dogs that were braving the water and it was fun to watch them splashing around. We walked down the beach and saw Bray Head, a 650 foot cliff facing out to the sea. People were walking up the hill so we decided to take a hike. The trails were not marked and there wasn't a map so we chose the nicest looking trail and walked along the coast for about an hour. We reached a sign that told us we could no longer continue due to danger...so we decided to take a trail up to the top of Bray Head. The climb up was really hard due to the mud and rocks, but we made it up slowly. We ate lunch on the top of Bray Head and looked out at the ocean, the city of Bray, the city of Greystone, and the countryside behind us. After looking at the beautiful views from the top and basking in the glory of our climb we headed back down on the muddiest trail I've ever been on and miraculously I didn't fall! After getting back to the city of Bray we rewarded ourselves with amazing ice cream. We walked along the beach one last time on the way to the DART station and decided to come back to Bray on a nicer day in April to experience it in great weather. This weekend was really great and I finally am starting to experience the more rural areas of Ireland and getting to see the coastal life north and south of the city!