Somewhat of an update

I have 30 minutes before my next class. So here is a very quick update. I am very close to finishing my time here in Ireland. I fly to Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday morning and will be spending 5 days and 4 nights in Scotland before flying back to Dublin. From Dublin it is back home to the US. I am due back at about 9pm on August 1st.

What have I been up to? Well let's see... A few weeks ago I took the day and actually took a tour... It was a blast. We rode on a bus throughout the Wicklow Mountains and stopped at Glendalough (pronounced Glen da lock) which is an ancient monastery (I know... ANOTHER MONASTERY!?)

(in front of a glacial lake in the Wicklow mountains)

Glendalough was very pretty as it is set on two lakes. We hiked around the lakes and I got some nice pictures. (they reminded me a bit of home, woods, very green)

(see the rain about to descend upon us...)

Later that weekend I went to Kilmainhem Gaol. This was a nice place, despite being a jail. One wing was designed during the Victorian era and they saw light as important for the reformation of the prisoners. Many people who go to it feel a sense of deja vu, however, this is just because the jail has been the used in several movies. (The Italian Job, Michael Collins, etc.) Last Thursday, my friend Jordan and I decided to go to Drogheda and to Newgrange. Drogheda is the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne, in which William of Orange and James II fought in the 1690. It is seen as a victory for Protestantism within Ireland, but to be honest, there is not a whole lot to see in the town now. (It didn't help that it was quite cold that morning and we were not feeling up to exploring.)

(Jordan and I at Newgrange)

Newgrange, which is a 15 minute bus ride from Drogheda, on the other hand was amazing. It was constructed 500 years before the pyramids of Giza. The amazing part of the construction is the alignment. Sunlight only reaches the inner chamber of Newgrange on 5 days of the year. (2 days before, the day of, and two days after the winter solstice.)

It is a neat story how it was rediscovered. It was allowed to decay to just about nothing... overgrown with tree, etc. and a in the mid 19th century a man was going to build something over the area, but when he started digging he noticed all the rock he was getting. At first he thought it was a natural quarry, however, they found the large decorative stone at the entrance before they got very far and realized this was special.

The exterior of Newgrange... the white rock arrangement is the rendering of an anthropologist from the 1960s... the interior is exactly as it was when it was built (except for the addition of some artificial light)

On Friday and Saturday I went to Cork... cute little town... One guy who lives there called it the "Center of the Universe." I was not so sure, but I did have a good time. I went to the Church of St. Anne Shandon. It has a clock tower that was known as the "four faced liar" until 1987 because every side of the clock said a different time. In 1987 it was fixed so that this is no longer the case. The Shandon is known for its bells and for a fee you can climb up and ring the bells... then you can climb up to the level above the clock and there is a terrific view of the city.

(view from the top of the tower)

Next to the town of Cork is Blarney Castle. The myth is that if you kiss the Blarney Stone here, you receive the gift of gab. So... of course I had to kiss the Blarney Stone. To do so you climb up through the castle and to the top floor. Once there you lean out this place on the top of the turret and kiss the stone.

(Blarney Castle)

It was a fun little jaunt... a bit touristy and I evidently missed the bus by about 2 minutes so had to wait at the bus stop for over an hour to get back to Cork... however, I met some nice people (one of them from Australia) and had a good time.

Cheers
~Dannielle