Ireland Thursday

This post was taken from my Ireland Travel blog: britandsadiegotoireland.tumblr.com

So, we had another bit of a rough start this morning, but it all worked out. Apparently, our wake up call was sent to the room next to us, so we didn’t get up at 7 like we had planned. Thankfully, Sadie woke up at 8, and we hustled our way down to Busaras (bus station) just a little ways off from the city center. There, we hopped on an Eirrean tour bus for the Newgrange/Boyne Valley Tour.

Our driver’s name was John, and we had a whole slew of people from Philadelphia traveling with us…and apparently, they all thought we were Irish. Bonus! This tour was worth every Euro. John was well informed, and while a bit soft spoken, had a lovely dry sense of humor.

We first stopped at the place of an old monastery that was now just ruins and a graveyard. It had 3 huge celtic crosses, and tons of old gravestones. The town and the walls of where the buildings used to be were still in fairly good condition, so we got lots of great photos.

After that, we traveled to Newgrange. Newgrange is one of many many passage tombs in Ireland, but it’s probably the biggest. We first visited the visitor’s center, which had a short movie and a walkthrough exhibit on the area and the people that built Newgrange. It’s older than both Stonehedge and the Egyptian Pyramids, and was built to honor the sun. After the visitor’s center, we ate lunch (and fed part of it to our bird friend Walter), and took a short bus ride to the entrance of Newgrange. The entrance way is due east…so when the sun first rose on the winter solstice, a shaft of light would shine through the passageway, and let the people know that the gods had not forsaken them, and that light was returning to the world. We got to walk through the passageway, which was very neat. You couldn’t do it if you were claustrophobic though! At several places, you had to turn sideways to get through.

After we walked through the inside, we got to walk around the entire tomb. There were several stones around the place, as well as a stone hut and a circle of stones, and little pathways. We ended up climbing on top of the tomb, only to find out you weren’t really supposed to do that….(our next blog will be Brit and Sadie go to International Prison) We celebrated not going to jail by eating chocolate cake…it was delicious.

After Newgrange, it was on to the Hill of Tara…the throne of Irish Kings. We watched a very cool slideshow given by one of the farm owners nearby, and then walked around. TONS of mounds…that we WERE allowed to climb on. We climbed on the mound of hostages, and the interlocking circles. We touched the stone of destiny, but since it didn’t roar, we must not be the true queens of Ireland (personally, we feel the stone is mistaken). We also walked down to the Holy Well of Tara and made wishes. Brit also took a bottle of water back with her…people had left little shrines in the well, and a candle was burning in it. Very neat.

By this point, we were on our way back and very, very tired. After making it back to city center, we grabbed a quick sandwich and headed back to the hotel early.

We just booked our bus and tour tickets for tomorrow, so boy will we have some stories for you! Not only are we getting up at 4:30 am to catch a taxi to catch our 6 am bus ride to Galway, we’re taking a tour of the Cliffs of Moher, a few castles, Blackhead lighthouse, and the Burren. Why the early getup, you ask? Because all the tours that started later cost nearly twice as much. We’re getting a great deal…..

So yeah…that’s where we leave you for today! We need to get to bed ASAP…and we triple checked with the front desk that they had our wakeup call correct.

Love,

Brit and Sadie