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My day started off in front of a Pizza Hut in the city centre of Dublin. Thanks to wonderful advice from Zach and Jenny, I managed to find a tour that went to the Boyne Valley, making stops at the Hill of Tara and the Bru na Boinne.
The Hill of Tara is an ancient royal sight of the Irish High Kings, where 142 kings were crowned. It lasted up until Saint Patrick came and converted Ireland in 432. This is one of the highest points in Ireland, and, because of that, you can see 23 of 32 Irish counties. Although very little remains in terms of ruins, the spot itself still has a lingering regal air.
Newgrange is a 5000 Neolithic Ritual Centre and Passage Tomb that dates back before Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Gaza. The early farmers that built this place were astronomers who added a light box and solar calendar into the passage, which, on the Winter Solstice each year, illuminates the cremated bones of the dead in the inner chamber which (it is hypothesized) was a symbolic technique to celebrate rebirth in the afterlife and the dawning of a new year.
Getting there was pretty easygoing. I will say that it is actually bizarre being with tourists, specifically American ones. Although yes, I know, I am not technically a resident of the UK, after living there for three months, you suddenly see a separation for the people here on vacation. Mind you, it's worse in London, but it was a bit shocking, then, being with tourists and Americans who were complaining about the size of things here or other minute things.
Our tour guide, Mary Gibbons, was, quite frankly, brilliant. She was quite knowledgeable and firmly believed that you should actually learn something while out seeing the world. For the entirety of the trip, she was talking to us about history and trivia of Ireland and made the experience a lot greater through her information. At the very start, she went over general details, even telling the story of an Irish writer who was convicted of treason by the British and was asked to come to his trial to determine his fate. Of course, he didn't go, but they tried him guilty anyway. After that, they sent him a letter notifying him that he had been tried and sentenced to execution. Being the brilliant and witty writer that he is, he wrote back to them that, seeing that they both tried and convicted him in lieu of his presence, they should executed him in the same way.
The Hill of Tara was our first destination of the tour. We walked up to the ground, passing a statue of Saint Patrick and a Catholic church, complete with gravestones. The actual site, however, was almost completely bare. Rolling green hills marked the site that had once been the home and focal point of Irish kings and ancient legends. I walked up to a hill which had a giant stone in the middle of the site. From that point, on all sets of the horizon, you could see, well, Ireland. It was breathtaking; in between little section of towns and clusters of homes, the very land rolled in and out of view. Green pastures were everywhere, and the little dots of sheep could be seen, grazing and tending to the lambs that were recently born.
I walked to the very edge of the site, near a bare tree adorned with ribbons and ornaments. Little trinkets littered the ground, such as shells or beads. Beyond that, there was a stone cross. Beyond that, the church loomed above the green hills that made up Tara. Although it was ominous, it still provided an interesting parallel between a pagan world and Christian one.
Back on the bus, we traveled through the Boyne valley. We passed sheep and lambs (it was the lambing season) and even saw a pig farm. Two pigs had escaped there, once, and it became a national news story, where people talked of their pig love and their attempts to run away to be together forever. Eventually, after months of searching, they were found, but a company bought them and kept them alive and well for the rest of their happy days. Apparently, they managed to escape capture for so long because they had the sense to travel only at night.
We also went through several towns, all of which contained a church and, of course, a pub. We saw castles and abandoned monasteries and were able to view the wonderful land of Ireland in general. By the time we got to Newgrange, it was midday.
As soon as we got there, we had a bit of extra time to eat and explore the museum. It was a fairly nice place. We saw a video about the actual site and its history and I found out that we were actually arriving there, not on the Winter Solstice, but on the Spring Solstice, which was amusing to me, at least. The museum itself was quite nice, but nothing compared to the actual place itself.
We had to take a shuttle up to the site, passing smaller hills which, as I was told later, were actually other burial sites where cremated bodies most likely lie. But, these were nothing compared to the magnificence of Newgrange itself.
The rocks that went into constructing this giant structure came from all over Ireland, some having to travel hundreds of kilometers. Similar to Stonehenge, some giant monoliths were probably transported using a roller system (forgive me for not using the correct, scientific term).
There are many theories as to why this structure was built. There is a light box at the top of the entrance that does let the light in at the Winter Solstice, a phenomena that lights up the cavern and illuminates the cremated bodies that were sent to rest there. However, there are also very round rocks that are wedged between the white face, which could signify its connection to life and death (life being fertility; the rocks are often described as egg shaped. There were also some penis shaped artifacts that were found at this site). The entrance itself was guarded by a massive entrance stone, which was decorated with intricate Stone Age art (generally geometric shapes or swirls), and, before modern stairs were put in to allow visitors to go through, people had to climb above the rock to get in.
The Mary Gibbons tour was particularly fantastic in that, unlike a lot of other tours, we actually got to go inside. Because it was a fragile structure (and had faced considerable defacing before the 1970s), only a few people were allowed inside at a time, and our tour actually had a specific time slot allotted for us to go in.
After you pass the entrance, the cavern becomes a lot smaller than what you would expect. I had to duck my head down several times as I passed layers of rock. Sometimes, swirls and decorations were marked on the rocks, similar to those on the entrance stone. Other times, marks of graffiti could be seen, dating back to the middle 1800s.
Inside the cave, there were four smaller caverns that formed a cross shape. That is, including the passage, there were three small shrines, one in front, one to my right, and one to my left. Above, rocks were piled in an extremely high ceiling in a layered fashion. This was done in such a way to divert rain from getting in. The people who built this obviously wanted it to last. Unlike the front of Newgrange, which had been reconstructed after it had been discovered, this cavern had not been tampered with; the place that I was now standing was the work of people who had lived 5000 years ago.
Each shrine held a special reverence, but the right one had the most decorations surrounding it. This might be due to the significance held to the right side of different objects. In spite of the fact that the remains of the bodies that had been cremated were gone (perhaps the work of vandals), the giant, flat stones that once held their ashes still remained.
After looking a bit around the cavern (it was quite crowded), our tour guide (not Mary Gibbons, but a specialist who actually worked at the site), simulated what the cavern might look like when the sun rose from the horizon on the day of the Winter Solstice. The cavern became completely black; the smell of rock and old dust lingered in the air as the group looked to the ground to see a slight beam of light break through the darkness. Slowly, the light grew and expanded, moving out to the shrines and illuminating the swirling decorations that adorned the rocks around us. And then, with the same quiet way that it creeped into the cavern, the light faded.
When we exited the cavern, we were given a bit of time to walk around the site and see the outside of Newgrange. There were several giant stones with patterns on them that made up the base of the hill, and in the distance, other hills, other burial sites, could be seen, although none could compare to the presence or stature of Newgrange.
We took a shuttle back and crossed the Boyne river back to the museum. The Boyne river, which snaked through Newgrange and lead up to the town, could actually tie into the reason why Newgrange was built where it was. It separated the land, providing a border for Newgrange to rest on. Furthermore, a lot of spirituality was attributed to rivers, and this river was no exception.
After a bus ride back, I met up with Jenny and we waited for Zach, who was in class at Trinity. His creative writing lecture was held in the birthplace of Oscar Wilde, which is pretty much the most brilliant thing ever. We headed back to Sandycove and went to a pub that paid tribute to James Joyce. Many of the decorations dealt with his work, Ulysses.
I was schooled in the importance of craft beer, and I gained knowledge in a field that I never thought I would. There was actually an art to it, and to drink any generic, base level drink would seem almost a crime when there are other drinks that are actually made for their taste.
We played a game called Pig, which was, admittedly, a bit odd, but turned out to be very fun (especially since I won). Think of it as playing dice. Except, instead of dice, you have two small figures of pigs that you must roll. You get a certain amount of points depending on how they land. If it is on one of their sides, one point. If it is on their back or legs, five. If they land on their snout, it is ten points, and if it is on their snout, but leaning to the side on their ear as well, it is fifteen. If you roll and both pigs are doing the same, you double your score. If you roll and one pig is on one side (they are marked by dots) and the other is on the opposite, then your turn is over.
After I completely creamed Zach and Jenny at their own game, we headed back to their house, where they made wonderful burritos, enough to remind me of home, but not miss it too much. Then, we shared a cup of tea and it was time for bed.
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