Onward to Tara and Newgrange!

Today I had another fantastic day on my second field trip of the weekend. This time, I went with my Irish Studies class. The destinations were the Hill of Tara, Mellifont Abbey and Newgrange. The field trip was actually required if you were in the Intro to Ancient Celts class (which I was), but it didn't matter to me because I would have happily gone along anyway. Considering how fickle the weather is in Ireland, we were very fortunate that the weather was gorgeous, partly cloudy and sunny (although it was very cold, in the lower 40s).

The gorgeous gently sloping hills of Tara are untouched by civilization and rife with history.

We started off promptly at 9am, arriving at the Hill of Tara just before 10am. Tara is a series of rolling hills that are very sacred to Ireland from a historical, archaeological, mythological and spiritual standpoint. In ancient Ireland, the King of Tara was said to be the most powerful king in the land. Tara was also where most of the important religious ceremonies were performed, including animal sacrifice and burial rites. Tara was also featured most prominently mythological stories, and was said to be a place of great power where the ancient Celts could commune with their gods. Geographically, part of the reason Tara is so gorgeous is because of the view. It is only a few hundred feet above sea level, but it's position allows you to stand on the tallest hill and see (on a clear day) far across the land of Ireland in any direction.

Just look at that view!

After Tara we went to two brief stops at the old and new (well, new relatively speaking...) Mellifont Abbey. The older abbey had been converted primarily into a graveyard. However, surrounded by all the dead people are two very ornate Celtic Crosses. These crosses, carved out of stone, have symbols and scenes from the Bible etched all over them. It was very spectacular to stand in front of the 1,000+ year old cross and still see the faded etchings of the scenes that the ancient artists wanted to depict.




After viewing the crosses we then hopped back on the bus for just about 10 minutes before stopping again to move to the much-more sophisticated Mellifont Abbey, which is a well-preserved ruin. You could actually see the whole floor plan of the abbey from the low cliff that we stood upon. I would also like to note that it was just a little bit warmer in this location, which was nice.

Finally, we got back on the bus and headed toward the place I had been truly looking forward to the most--Newgrange. It is properly called Bru na Boine (that's brew-nah-boyne) in Irish. Let me tell you a little something about Newgrange: it is the location of the oldest historical ruins in Europe. The area around Newgrange has many different interesting points of note, but the most noticeable thing (the thing you can see for miles as you approach) is the burial mound. A huge, circular mound embedded into the earth. The mound alone covers a whole acre and was built with over 100 million tons of material (according to the tour guide). The mound is also over 5,000 years old. It's older than the Egyptian pyramids. It is older than Stonehenge by at least a millennium. The mound was used for more than just burial--apparently it was a popular place for elders to meet and commune, perform religious services, and possibly even track the movement of the sun and moon.

Our approach to the Newgrange burial mound -- a large mound that you can see for miles coming up.

The entrance to Newgrange was designed with a unique and special "sun roof" -- a window above the front door. The window is carefully placed so that, during the winter solstice (Dec. 18 - 24), when the sun rises the light will pierce through the sun window all the way deep into the center of the mound, lighting it up for approximately 20 minutes each morning. Our tour guide took us inside the mound itself (unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside). The front door led us into a very narrow passage with giant slab rocks on either side of us. The passage gently rises up approximately 2 meters as you walk (so the floor becomes level with the sun roof). The inside of the chamber is shaped like a cross and once contained the remains of some very wealthy and influential Celts from a long, long time ago. Once the rest of the group and I were safely enclosed at the center of the mound, the tour guide turned off the electric lighting. We were plunged into absolute, complete darkness (it was a bit unnerving, to have your eyes wide open but not be able to see your own hand). Then, the tour guide turned on a special light that mimicked the effect of the sun entering the chamber during the winter solstice. It was a beautiful light. It may have been artificial but...it was a magical moment.

The entrance to Newgrange, guarded by giant kerb stones etched with Neolithic art.

After we left the burial chamber that was it, tour over. We boarded back onto the bus and headed back home. It was a very cold day, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Saying that Ireland is beautiful just doesn't do it justice. I don't think I can even put into words just how simply gorgeous these historic places in Ireland are...the rich green hills, the quaint cottages and landscape dotted with centuries-old ruins...I keep taking all these pictures in hopes to capture some of the beauty, but sometimes I feel like a picture just pales in comparison.

Irish Word of the Day: winter -- gheimhridh
Winter is coming. -- Geimhridh ag teacht.

The Giant's Causeway - Belfast Trip

ALL RIGHT. So I just got back from the whirlwind adventure that was my weekend trip to Belfast. Friday and Sunday were mostly about getting there--we boarded up on a big coach bus from Maynooth, picked up fellow Arcadia students from other universities around Dublin (Trinity College and University College of Dublin) and then went on the two-hour drive up to Belfast, enjoying the pretty Irish countryside all the while. Sunday was pretty much that, but in reverse. SATURDAY, however, was SO BUSY that I seriously don't think I can easily fit it all into one post. SO I think I'm going to divide it into the morning and the evening. This post is going to be about my morning events--namely, The Giant's Causeway

Saturday Morning - The Giant's Causeway

After eating a lackluster breakfast at the hotel, me and the other 80 or so Arcadia students boarded the buses and went on an hour-and-a-half long drive to The Giant's Causeway, which is right at the coast of Northern Ireland (facing the North Atlantic Sea). First of all, the countryside is gorgeous up there--lots of green, rolling hills...steep cliffs...the sound of surf in the background. Very nice.

The shores of Ireland's Northern Coast, at the Giant's Causeway

A tour guide took us through the Giant's Causeway, which is an amazing natural formation that many say rivals Arizona's Grand Canyon. The major fascination is the wonderful rock formations. The main part of the Causeway is broken up into hundreds and hundreds of tiny column-like hexagonal pillars that are all stacked together like sticks. Looking at it, it's hard to believe that it's a natural formation. There are a lot of myths and legends surrounding the Causeway--most involving the giant, Finn McCool, who gave the Causeway it's name. The legends say that the Causeway was once Finn's home, and you can see traces of his presence everywhere--Finn's giant boot lies discarded on the beach, his pet camel slumbers beneath the cliffs, and you can see the rise of his chimney in the distance (if there' smoke coming out of it, that means the giant is in!).

Finn's Camel sleeps at the bottom of the cliff after a hard day's work.

Finn's boot lies discarded on the shore.

After the tour was over the guide set us loose among the many pillars of the Causeway, which were both perfect and dangerous stepping stones! Lots of people tried to climb them to see how close to the shore they could get (which wasn't a great thing to try, since the waves were ferocious pounding against the rocks).

The pillar formations of the Giant's Causeway

When we had explored the Giant's Causeway thoroughly enough, we hopped back on the bus and headed out--but we didn't go far! After just about a 10 minute drive we stopped again, at Dunluce Castle.

Later Saturday Morning - Dunluce Castle

Dunluce Castle is an ancient medieval castle that was built in the 13th century and remained in use until about the 16th century. The ruins are now all that remain. o.o Still, the ruins are surprisingly well-intact and you can make out much of the layout of the castle. Dunluce is still a part of the Giant's Causeway area and was the center of what was once a thriving village. Now, it must suffer the indignity of being overrun by Arcadia students.

Bridge to the Dunluce Castle's Inner Ward

Inside Dunluce Castle

Dunluce Castle was a beautiful historic sight. Unfortunately, we only got to stay for about 20 minutes. The ruins were established enough, though, that I could see how the layout of the castle once was and I could just picture the ancient kings and lords and all their servants and peasants living and working in it. And it's location on the northern cliffs was prime real estate. Today it would cost thousands for that sort of view!

After Dunluce Castle we loaded back onto the bus and headed back into Belfast, where the second part of my day took place...

First Irish Word of the Day: Beautiful - álainn
I saw some beautiful sights. - Chonaic mé roinnt sights álainn.

Once More Into the Breach!

Today was a fun outing into Dublin. I still think it's so cool how I can just set out from my apartment, walking, go all the way across Maynooth to the train station, take the train and wind up in the middle of Dublin. Then from there, I'm so urbanite that I no longer need a map (well, I memorized my route ahead of time). Using the trusty Spire as my landmark, I found Cineworld, the Dublin movie theater (one of them, anyways, and most likely the biggest). The theater was huge! It was four stories tall and had things like a cafe  and game room and around 17 screens. I showed up way early--the movie I went to see, Untouchable, was actually an hour later than I thought, so I suddenly had two hours to kill. So, to waste time I decided to explore the area. I didn't have any real direction in mind, just picked a street that looked interesting and decided to see what was down there. I never strayed too far from the movie theater. I went into Penny's, a huge Macy's-like department store. I went to lunch at this cool retro diner and had a chocolate shake and chicken burger (yum!). Then, just down the street from the Cineworld, I found my haven--the Chapter Bookstore, a huge Barnes-and-Nobles-like bookstore with two stories full of books. The bottom floor had new books and the top floor had used ones. I must've stayed in the bookstore for a half hour at least. They had all the books I could possibly look for. I definitely know where to look, now, if I ever want to buy an actual, physical book instead of an electronic one.

So finally I went to the movie itself, which was great. It was a real feel-good comedy, not like most of the movies you see these days. It was one of those based-on-a-true-story type deals that was really just about two characters, but I really liked it. I was smiling the whole time, which is always great. Afterwards, I pretty much went straight home, making the long trek back to the train and then walking across Maynooth. The whole day was just so neat.

When I got back, I totally made myself some pasta. It was all microwaveable, but I had to add ingredients and mix and stuff so I consider that cooking. Also, when I got back we discovered a leak in our boiler room, but the leak actually came from the apartment two floors above us and we (Kate and I) met one of the guys who lived there and chatted for a bit, so that was nice.

Irish Word of the Day: movie -- scannán
I went to the movies. -- Chuaigh mé go dtí an scannáin.

It's Rainin--Nope, it's Sunny out.

I thought I was used to crazy weather. In Texas, the temperature can be completely different from one day to the next. It could easily be 85 F, sunny and clear skies on Monday and 50 F, cloudy and rainy the next day. The reason why it never snows is because the temperature changes so fast that the world doesn't have time to get cold enough for the snow to actually stick and stay.

Ireland is like Texas on steroids. I feel like the weather here is in a hurry to get somewhere, but I'm not sure where that is. Today, when I woke up it was partly cloudy and altogether rather pleasant out. I didn't bring an umbrella. By noon I noticed that some clouds had started to take over, but still altogether OK. When I get back to my apartment, I'm just getting comfortable when all of the sudden whoosh! I look outside my window and it is pouring out. Like the clouds just decided to vomit all their rain on us in one big spew. I stare at the torrential downpour and it lasts for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Then it stops. It's cloudy again. A few hours later there are patches of sunlight out.

And this is a typical day in Ireland, ha. I've actually gotten in the habit of keeping a small umbrella in my purse because there's just no guarantee it won't spontaneously rain. The ground always seems to be at least a little muddy. But while Ireland does have crazy weather, I will say that, unlike Texas, the temperature stays relatively the same. It's been in the 50s pretty much every day since I got here, occasionally climbing up into the 60s or dropping to the 40s at night. It feels kinda strange, how the weather can be so ADHD but the temperature is persistent, constant, and assured. I like the temperature. It's cold enough that you just have to wear a light jacket but it's not too big of a deal to take the jacket off. Really, you mostly need to wear a jacket for the rain.

So that's my observation for the day. Today was a day of downs and ups. It started with a near panic-attack. I've been having issues figuring out this one class, PS202: Perception & Memory. To make a long story short, upon entering the class everyone assumed that everyone had already been told what was going on, except I hadn't. There was a handbook passed out to all the non-international students, but I never got one. Because of that, I discovered today that I missed a lab session for the class. It was so annoying! I feel like I'm having to figure out what's going on in that class by second-hand information--I only found out that there was a lab at all by talking to another student in the class. The teacher never mentioned anything. I'm not even sure who the teacher is for that class--we get a new speaker every few sessions. The actual classwork is fine (in fact, some of it is review for me) but now I'm having to frantically email teachers to figure out how to make up this lab session I missed. grr!

That was my down point. My up point was when I got a free lunch at a nice restaurant, courtesy of the Arcadia program. They mostly wanted to check up on us, see how we were doing. It was nice. And I finally went to the store and got some more long-sleeved clothes, including one that I thought was quite fashionable!

It's the weekend now, and it's one of my rare relaxing weekends. I have plans to head into Dublin one day, but other than that I'm mostly chilling. Cheers.

Irish Word of the Day: Weather -- aimsir
The weather was crazy today! -- Bhí an aimsir dÚsachtach inniu!