Just a Little About My Life: Beginning of Ireland

Dublin, a great place to walk around and experience history. Robby and I decided to take a three hour walking tour that went through the whole Viking history of Dublin and Ireland - the Vikings came here to take over, but liked the people and started families, with a few wars thrown in against England. We walked through the Temple Bar area, the most touristy and night clubish part of the city, but it has its own uniqueness and seems like an Irish New Orleans; we saw an old cathedral that has catacombs under it; and basically wandered O'Connell street - a mile long row of shops and hotels.

Since Robby and my birthday was coming up, I purchased tickets to Mumford and Sons weeks before and handed them over to Robby, after making her leave the walking tour early. The concert just happened to be that evening and it was awesome. Well, aside from the public transit dropping us (and everyone else) off in front of Phoenix Park and no one having any idea of where to go, but to just follow the stream of other concert goers for miles down the main drag. We past the zoo, the cricket field, the botanical gardens, and still no convert venue in sight. It just happened to be at the other end of Europe's largest park. Maybe bigger (or similar sized) than New York's Central Park.

The concert started at three and went to about 11pm. We started out sitting in a grass field, relaxing in the sunshine, but as the evening wore on, more and more people showed up and our comfy little area became overcrowded with drunk Irish teenagers and a cesspool of trash from all the food vendors at the event. We were entertained by the Irish equvelant of "hicks", that wore overalls with one strap hooked, all trying to jump on each others shoulders to see the stage, but falling into the crowd of giggling girls. They would then go around picking up any girl in front of them and hefting them onto their shoulders. Fun so long as they didn't pick us up.

The next morning we headed to Dublinia - a exhibit on the Viking history of Dublin (more history), complete with outfits you could try on and lots of things you could touch. My faborite part was an example of an old fashion toilet, complete with a plastic guy sitting on it and sound effects. I couldn't stop laughing.

Afterwards we walked to the Kilmainham Gaol - the old Jail. Built in the 1700's and disused in the 1930's. It housed political prisoners as well as common criminals. The jail was unquie in that it was the first of its kind to offer sunshine to the prisoner- someone decided that they should try and rehabilitate the prisoners by giving them light, makes people happier, rather than throwing them in a dark dungeon and letting their fury turn them into meaner convicts. The prison also housed beggars- when it was illegal to be homeless or ask for food during the Great Potato Famine, a five-year-old boy that stole a piece of metal, a six-year-old girl that was found on a train without a ticket and since she was too young to have money, she couldn't pay the fine, so she ended up in prison, and a bunch people that they exicuted for treason. The prison has since been restored, by a few former prisoners, and used in numerous film and tv shows as well as for daily tourist visits.

Done with the jail and completely tried from walking about 6 miles, we ate fish and chips, so good here, and headed off the bed. I also just want to mention, for all my drinking friends, we passed by the Guinness brewery, but kept walking. Huge factory, but since neither Robby nor myself care too much about gross, hoppy beer, we decided paying $30 was a waste of money to take a tour. I took a couple pictures of the outside though, just to say I've been there.

The next morning we got up early and headed up the eastern coast to Bru an Boinne, an area of neolitethic tombs built around 5000-7000 years ago. That's 500 years before the pyramids and 700 years before Stonehenge. They are large mounds with passageways dig int them that leads to a tomb in the center. They were lived on top of, but the dead were buried inside. Some of the little ones housed families. They look like grassy verisons of the turtle from The Never Ending Story. Very cool and we didn't get sneezed on.

Onwards to Trim Castle, home of Hugh de Lacy, an Irish noble that preceeded over Meath County, the most extensive liberty in Ireland at the time. It was a large fortress that had a Keep - what I originally thought was a castle, in the middle. Castles apparently are a fortified area, so a walled area with numerous buildings inside. The tall building in the middle with the turrets along the top is called a Keep and it houses the King and only the people that he trusts, inside - about 20 or so people. Everyone else sleeps outside in the courtyard or in little tents. So much for trusting the help.

The following morning we visited Boyle Abbey, an old abbey that was used well into the 1700's but was eventually shut down by the English because it didn't share the same religious beliefs. The abbots that lived there didn't talk and prayed seven times a day. What a boring life, but at least their home was beautiful. Tall stone walls, with large glass windows, letting in the light and a wide inner courtyard to walk and meditate in.

Next stop on our never ending historical sites road trips, another castle, Parke's Castle. It was originally owned by an Irishman, Brian, that built it and made it his own, but he had hide a spanish general in his house for three months and when Queen Elizabeth found out about it -see England didn't much care for Spain in those days, she had the O'Rouke arrested and brought before her to apologize for housing an enemy of the country. The O'Rouke refused and was thus beheaded in 1591 and the house was handed over to Roger Parke, a Bristish general. Parke evicted O'Rouke's family, tore down O'Rouke's Keep, and built a new one house foor his family with the stone.

Final stop of the day...tombs. This time, megalithic and older than the ones we had just seen. We visited Carrowmore, a giant cemetery with over 70 passage tombs discovered in it. A passage tomb is a shallow grave with giant rocks places around the edges and a large stone, a Dolmen, placed on top of the other stones. Looks like a mini archway as there is a small entrance on one side, hence a "passage". All of the tombs align with a massive Cairn tomb (large piles of rocks in a dome shape) in the center of the cemetery. There are various other Dolmens and cairns on the outskirting mountains around the county that can be seen from the middle cairn grave and anthropologist think this was done on purpose, all the dead face a central location - maybe because of something spiritual. But the funny thing is that the large cairn in the center of the cemetery was built last, about 200 years after the cemetery was created. I don't think we will ever understand ancient societies.

There is more, but that will just have to be on another blog as your eyes are most likely glassed over. Thanks for reading if you made it to the end. And your reward...more photos (I know some of you cheated and just scrolled down until you got to the pretty pictures).