Ireland 2003 Log 4

I stayed up late last night and worked on homework quite a bit. One of Erik’s friends decided to call his cell phone at 1:30am. I kindly reminded him that we were in Ireland and said Erik would call him when he got back home. 5:30am (9:30pm at home) rolls around and Daniel and I are finally tired enough to go to sleep. Just an hour and a half later, we received our wake up call. We packed up and headed north towards Belfast in Northern Ireland. The weather here has been dry but very cold. Frost covered much of the ground and roads until just before noon. The weather allows for some different photo opportunities than if we were to visit in summer. Our first stop of the day was a service station where we grabbed breakfast. I was ecstatic to find Dr. Pepper there only to discover that it was a “sparkling fruit flavoured beverage.” Identical packaging and everything, but it tastes like black cherry soda and flat Dr. Pepper mixed together—YUCK! Back on our way, we headed towards the Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb. We arrived about 10:00am at the visitor’s center and took a short walk and a bus out to the main site. The monument at this place dates back 5000 years and was constructed as a burial mound. The stone-faced monument deteriorated over the years and its dirt mound structure eroded and faded into the landscape. In the 1700s, a farmer searching for large rocks rediscovered the monument. It was further unearthed and rebuilt to what is presumed to be very close to the original state on the outside. The inside passageway, however, was perfectly preserved including three small chambers with large rock basins. The chamber was also constructed so that the only light that ever reached inside naturally was during the winter solstice, about December 19th through 23rd. Also adorning the interior of the structure and around the exterior as well were megalithic carvings (carvings in large stones)(Go to www.knowth.com for pictures and more info). We returned to the visitor’s center for lunch and were off again. On our way, we saw several other small burial mounds, mostly in the middle of fields. Speckled across the countryside are numerous ruins of old castles and churches. We stopped at several of them for photo opps. Many of the ruined churches and abbeys were interspersed with beautiful headstones, sometimes 2 to 3 times taller than me. When we got on our way again, I fell asleep finally and slept for an hour or two. When I awoke, we were in Northern Ireland, pulling up to our hotel in Belfast. We arrived around 5:00pm and it was already pitch black. After getting settled into our rooms, we walked to find someplace to eat. On the way, Dad hit an ATM for cash, as Northern Ireland currency is Pounds and not Euros like Ireland. We found a decent place called “Apache Pizza” for dinner. The restaurant was adorned with photos of Native Americans and a few out of place artifacts. The menu also said “Little Sioux thanks you for dining at Apache Pizza.” Anyone else see anything wrong with that statement? Apparently the Irish have a thing or two to learn about Native Americans. Back to the hotel after dinner and everyone else who didn’t sleep during the day went to bed. So, once again, I am awake and on the computer. It is now 8:00pm and I still have time to get some work done tonight and maybe I will get adjusted to the time soon.