Our second to last day in Dublin, we took a bus out to a neighboring town called Lucan, where the professor leading the trip grew up. We received a walking tour of the town which was kickstarted with a journey to some castle ruins. And what a journey it was. We may have possibly taken the wrong bus to get to Lucan. It took us in the right direction, but didn’t stop where we thought it would, so we had a bit of a trek to get into the residential part of the town, where we’d be spending most of our day. Our first meeting place was meant to be the castle, itself, but even after getting directions from a friendly local, we still couldn’t find it. As it turns out, the remains of this old castle - which also functioned as rectory for a local priest for a time - is tucked away behind a modern apartment complex that is currently being constructed. Our professor and our tour guide met us on the side of the road, where we had taken up residence in our directional defeat, and they led us through a small gate just to the right of the construction workers. The castle is located at the top of a small hill. It’s overrun with nettles, which may or may not have ruined one of the three pairs of jeans I brought with me on the trip, but it offers a spectacular view of both Lucan and Dublin. And the purple dandelions that appear to have sprouted up among the nettles were too bizarrely pretty for me to pass up the opportunity to get a photo of them.