Julie's Great Escape

Didn't have such a good sleep on ye ole backpacker bed but considering have slept pretty well for the past week I can't complain. Headed out after the free breakfast (OJ, toast and cheese. Strange.) to the Carmelite chruch next door to the hostel. Bits of St Valentine are housed here cos some priest many years ago lobbed at Rome and they rewarded him for excelente sermons but giving him some relics to bring home to Dublin. It was in a casket though so you couldn't see anything except people's written prayers about lovey-dovey stuff.

After that I walked through the morning snow (yay) to St Patricks Catherdral which was interesting but nothing to rave about. Maybe I'm spoiled after the Vatican...

Then went to Christchurch Cathedral, cos you're meant to... but they also charged 5 euros to get in snd was a but churched out.

Across the road they have transformed yet another church into Dublinia, being the Viking history of Dublin. Obviously more oriented towards kids but it was quite well done if a little dusty. I liked putting on the chain mail and knights helmet.

It was peeing down when I emerged and slunk into a nice cafe in the Dublin Castle complex. Actually it was in the something-something library and had a big meal to keep me warm. Upstairs was a grest exhibition by Japanese woodblock artist, I forget his name, having collected brochures and not retained the info. The exhibition was entitled One Hundred Moons or similar. Obviously the theme was the moon and different aspects of same. It was quite fablous - they were all done around 1885 give or take a few years.

Since the sun had come out by now I walked to the National Museum to check out the archaeology section. I mostly only checked out the prehistoric stuff - lots of stone tools and bronze weapons and later decorative dress items of beaten gold. The exhibition is quite patriotic - many times it explained that the Irish craftsmen were the best in Europe at that time for example with working gold wire for filagree etc. The objects are beautiful though so it's probably a justifed statement. I saw a style I hadn't seen before - where the gold is beaten flat into a thin long piece then twisted like pasta to form bracelets, necklaces and other things. Some were huge and must have sat above clothes cos I think the gold edges would've been sharp.

Since it was Friday night I should've ventured out but decided to go see Ang Lee's new film, 'Lust, Caution'. Fabulous and in some parts like a 'how to..'. You'll have to see it. Was quuite tense in parts too. We love Ang Lee!

Next day decided to get out of town and hopped on a tour bus. Whilst initially there was a risk of it being cancelled due to lack of numbers, in the end 10 people turned up and we headed off to counties Knowth and Meath to view mainly Newgrange, where the world's oldest tomb is situated (5000 years old making it older than the pyramids). You may have heard about it - on midsummer solstice there is a few days where the light shines through a small hole on the rock and into the chamber. There is a lottery for people to get to see it and only 100 people saw it last year. It's so old that no one knows who made it or what significance the inhabitants had - there are cremated remains of about five people in there (although removed now) and they were laid on large flattended rocks. However over the years the tombs have probably been robbed, since Viking times, so there is no way of knowing what if any other items were laid with these remains. In other similar tombs around the area (some withing a few miles) there are remains covered with large urns - well they look like urn turned upside down.

Amazingly the site was pretty much as it is now, quite in good condition, although the white quartz surround was rebuilt within the past few decades. The large rocks around the bottom of the site are about one tonne each and since the site is uphill, there is much speculation how they got there. The quartz could only have come from a site at least 50 miles away too. They think the whoel thing would've taken about 35 years to build and since the lifespan was the same it's interesting to ponder who wanted it and for what purpose. Similar I guess to the pyramids, the chamber is in the middle of the site, upwards from ground level ie up about two metres and the lump of earth is probably about 5 metres high. Here is, finally, some pics...

Keeping wood dry - a great idea:

Before getting there we travelled through some pretty country and passed through Drogheda on the River Boyne which is steeped in history, primarily because this was the first Irish town that Oliver Cromwell massacred everyone. About 8000 people died and the town was laid waste - one person did survive however - he jumped out of a tower to avoid being slaughtered but landed with broken bones. Cromwell apparently was impressed (for some weird reason) and decided not to kill said person but did send him off the the Carribean as a slave anyway which was the choice the townspeople had, apart from being slaughtered. Consequently, it's not advisable to mention Cromwell in town. And you thought the Melbourne / Sydney rivalry was bad.

Here was St Mary's where a priest Oliver Plunkett, after the time of Cromwell, once the latter had died, returned to Drogheda to preach even though the law still said Ireland could have no catholic priests. After another 20 years or so, finally someone got shirty and they executed him in France I think it was. Someone retrived Plunkett's head and eventually it got sent back to Drogheda where it sits in the church:

Yes there is the blackened head inside but it was difficult to get a picture. Since there was a mass on it was also difficult to get a good look at the seven axe wounds on his neck - the number it took to remove Fr Plunketts head.

Also around this area we stopped at a place called Monasterboice which you can also look at here: http://www.socc.ie/monaster.htm

There was a tower here where monks hid from Viking attacks and also some excellent celtic crosses. There was some snow in this area from a few days before and being in a valley was a wee bit chilly.

After visiting Newgrange we stopped off at the Hill of Tara, a place where the ancient Irish kings would be situated. There is a small tomb here as well and castles of wood would've been built here. It's main advantage was being high above the minions - you can almost see 360 degress for quite a long way so an important place to be. Most importantly though, there is also the Lia Fail which is apparently an ancient stone that would roar when the rightful king of Ireland would touch it. It looks quite phallic and I was surprised it was so small....but anyway here it is with me trying to hear it roar. Who doesn't want to touch a stone and be the Queen of Ireland!? But lo! I hear roaring!!! Well it was blinkin' windy up there so no wonder there was roaring. I am guessing the smartest 20-something would-be king of the day would wait for the windiest day to make his attempt on the Lia Fail.

Views and sunsets from Hill of Tara:

This was a long, cold, muddy but fabulous day so had an early night. Next day flew back to Liverpool and was amazed to see an offshore wind farm. How sensible! We love windfarms!