Bus rides galore

Today and yesterday I think we rode our little tour bus back and forth from here to there about 25 times. Yipes.

Yesterday morning we all met at the Dublin airport's new terminal. Much more spiffy than the old one that my flight flew into. At the entrance there were even some lovely ladies in their flight attendant outfits handing out travel sized, men's Dove products. I took two, of course. Never refuse things that are free. They might come in handy. Like for instance, today when one of my male classmates said he forgot to buy bodywash at the store we went to, I was like, "Well, my friend, it just so happens...." True story.

So we took a bus from Dublin to New Grange Lodge, which is wonderful! It feels like a little home away from home here. There are several lounge areas with couches; one has a flat screen tv, another has a radio. There's a nice little dining room and an outdoor eating area in the center courtyard. (although it's too chilly to eat outside in the mornings) Only bummer is the internet connection gets really bad when everyone is trying to use it at once. I haven't been able to get online till now. And that's because all but 2 of my classmates have just gone out to the local bar. Ha.

After getting our things settled in at the lodge that morning we walked a few blocks down to the New Grange sight. Pretty awesome. There they have some really cool restored ancient underground structures that are quite neat. It looks like a big grassy hill from the outside and inside it's like a tunnel system with little rooms inside and it's all constructed with stone. Movement inside of these underground areas was very restricted so you could only go straight in and straight out pretty much, but the cool part about it was knowing that they were engineered very intelligently several millenia ago such that the entrances were angled just right as to let in the rising or the setting sun at different times of the year.

After returning to the lodge that evening we had a meal prepared for us by the staff at the lodge, which included the best homemade apple crisp with fresh apples and real whipped cream EVER! Mmmm...  Then we did a little team-building, get to know each other, exercise. The point was to find out one thing that we have in common with each person. It was fun, but by this time though, everyone was really exhausted from the long flights and the time change and everything. We listened to a couple "site reports" (where class members give a brief on a site that we will be seeing soon)  and then we went to bed.

Next day, today, it was lots and lots of bus rides on our mini coach bus with our Irish tour guide Mickey. We went to the site of the Battle of the Boyne,  (http://www.battleoftheboyne.ie/)   and then moved on to see the preserved decapitated head of St. Oliver Something-or-Other, at St. Peters Church in Drogheda. I guess he was Catholic in a time when it was not so popular to be Catholic. Poor bloke.

Then, we saw the ruins of the Melifont Abbey, a monestary. Really cool. Too bad it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell some centuries ago. Part of his Parlimentarian movement that basically destroyed ALL churches in Ireland (and I feel like maybe England too?) 

We took a break for lunch next at a little Argentinian dining establishment where we had soup and sandwiches and then we stopped by the Hill of Slane, which we just viewed from the bus. We didn't learn much about it except that tradition says that something significant happened there with Saint Patrick where he lit a fire when he was supposed to have waited for the King at the time to light his first. It was something that kind of marked a change in an era where paganism was giving way to Christianity, which was becoming a more mainstream thing.

Anyway, next was Trim Castle, which was my favorite place so far. It was still standing well enough that you could tour all around inside of it. My favorite part of the castle was the little narrow and steep spiraling stairs that go up and down on either corner of the castle. I think it was 4 stories. It also happens to be the castle where the movie Braveheart was filmed. That made it way cooler. I was trying to picture scenes from the movie as we walked around. Fun.

Then lastly, was the Hill of Tara, which our classmate Tara found especially amusing and took the opportunity to take her picture with anything and everything that said Tara on it. So Silly =) . The hill of Tara was the hill where all the high kings of Ireland used to reside. There were no dwellings actually existing on the sight. Just lots of hills. Oh yeah, and the "fertility stone". A rather phallic looking stone standing straight up from the ground. Some of my classmates hoisted themselves up to get pictures taken sitting on top of it. Hehe. Quite amusing. Though the Hill of Tara was not my favorite place, there was a cute puppy there. Must've been a local dog from the area because he was never with an owner. But he was so cute and playful. I played fetch with him a bit with a stick and the funniest part was when he had his teeth gripped on that stick so tight that when I slowly lifted it up in the air with both hands on either side of his mouth, he just kept hangin on and floated right up in the air clenched on to that stick, even as I began rotating him around in a 360. LOL. Seeing a little doggie fly around in a circle hanging from a stick is funny as heck.

So, then we just stopped by a grocery store and came back to the lodge and cooked dinner. And that's pretty much it so far.

I hope tomorrow is fun. I think we go to Galway tomorrow. I know we have a few days in Galway and a lot of free time there, so I'm looking forward to doing some more exploring and having some fun there. I think I like the free exploring time better than the scheduled touring time. I'm such a lollygagger. =) Talk to you later everyone!

~Julianne