Field Trip #2

Our first overnight field trip was this week, and it was a lot of fun. We went to Dublin, Meath, and Louth and saw various sites.  We left at 7am on Wednesday from Cork, and it was about a 4 hour bus ride to Dublin.  We headed straight to the National Museum of Ireland to see various artifacts from different time periods in Ireland. Overall, I was pretty bored at this museum, but we were only there for about an hour and some of the exhibits were interesting to see. We had lunch afterwards at Buswell’s Hotel (potato and leek soup and a variety of sandwiches and baguettes).  After lunch we went to Christ Church Cathedral which was beautiful inside. I’ve noticed that looking back at my pictures, they don’t do anything I see here justice. Much cooler and prettier to see it in person.  Wednesday was a particularly rainy day and being that most of you know how clumsy of a person I am, I fell off the bus because the stairs were so wet! And you would think I would take it easy the next few times I got off the bus but of course, it happened again! So my back is pretty bruised and sore, but I’ll be ok.

 After the cathedral we headed to Monasterboice to see the High Crosses. It was really raining at this point, so we didn’t stay too long since it was outside. That night we stayed in a hostel in the village of Slane. After spending 17 nights in a hostel, I think I really got the low end of the deal of where I’m staying. This hostel in Slane was on a really cute farm which felt like in the middle of nowhere. So after complaining about hostels these last 2 weeks, I guess I can’t rule them out completely because this one was definitely worth staying at. We dropped off our backpacks and headed back into the village for dinner.  I’m not sure what the restaurant was called, but dinner was amazing! We each had the choice of either cream of carrot soup or Caesar salad. Choice of salmon or lasagna. And choice of either apple crumble or chocolate brownie. And endless amounts of delicious bread!

Some students headed to the local pub afterwards, but I went back with some girls to the hostel to hang out. I shared a room with 11 other girls that night, and I did not sleep at all-maybe total of 2 hours but that’s it. I was freezing and didn’t have a fan to drown out 11 other people breathing, making noises, etc. Oh, and my back hurt too bad to ever find a comfortable position. So I definitely had to drink a TON of caffeine the next day.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel and then headed to Newgrange Passage Tomb. So far, this is the best thing I have seen since I've been here! It was absolutely amazing!  We had lunch after Newgrange- Cajun chicken Panini or ham Panini and choice of chocolate fudge cake or sticky toffee pudding. Our last stop was Trim Castle. This is actually the site for many scenes in the movie Braveheart. I’ve never seen the movie, but everyone else thought it was pretty cool.  It was about another 4 hours back to Cork, and we got back around 7 last night. The trip was a lot of fun but very exhausting. It was great though to get to know people better in my class and make more friends.  

Christ Church Cathedral

This was my favorite part of Dublin-all the different colors of doors...still trying to find out what the signifance of that is...anyone know?

High Cross at Monasterboice-early medieval monastery 

still lecturing in the pouring rain 

lovely presentation of our dessert 

stone house where the owner of the hostel lived

view across from the hostel

cute hostel

Newgrange Passage Tomb- this is the most famous of the 3 Neolithic Passage Tombs of the Bend of the Boyne Cemetary. This tomb is older than 5000 years-older than the pyramids in Egypt. When we were inside the tomb, our tour guide told us we were standing under 200 tons of rock and that there has never been any evidence of water inside the tomb...so in 5000 years the roof has never leaked! 

some girls from my class waiting for the bus (Alanna, Kathleen, Kacie, and Vicky)

view from Newgrange

Entrance into the passage tomb- The tomb was built with a roof-box (opening above the rock) that allows the sun to enter the passage when it rises over the horizon on the Winter Solstice. We got to go inside of the tomb and they recreated what the tomb would look like if you were to be there on the Winter Solstice (dec 21). Apparently you can see the tomb lit up 2 days before and after Dec 21st as well, so there is a lottery you can put your name into where only 50 people get drawn for each of those days to be there the morning of the sunrise. I would love to be able to see it because even the reenactment of the sunrise was amazing. 

Kacie, Danielle, and I

My roommate Lauren and I

Trim Castle- Largest Anglo-Norman Castle in Ireland 

Apparently this was used in the movie Braveheart