OK, Newgrange is a World Heritage Site, think of it as Ireland's Stonehenge. Its a huge artificial mound, with a chamber inside which is wonderfully lit up only for a few days around the solstice (for which there is a lottery to get in and see it.) It's a truly magical place, and with its bright limestone covered sides would have been visible from great distances originally.

There is a whole complex of similar and related sites in the area, which the Irish government haven't yet managed to drive a motorway through.

Luck seemed to be with me on this trip: all the signs were saying that the tours for today were fully booked, but when I got to the visitor centre, it turned out they had just one ticket left for the last tour, so I got in!

Anyway, here are the pictures...

The big picture;

Some of the famous stones which go around the outside of the base, and which I'm sure many people miss.

And the entrance: ignore the fat bloke, he's not a druid or anything. the white stones are where the original line would have been, the grey stones have been cut away to make access easier for modern visitors. It's still frustrating though, very crowded when you get in, and so little time to see it properly.

written by  martin_b on April 21, 2007 from Donore, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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I started off by doing the rest of the National Museum. There aren't enough superlatives, really. If only the British Museum was this good.

It also has this strange spikey thing, which is quite impressive.

Most of Dublin is covered in reminders of the fight for Independence. It's odd to remember that (apparently) at the time of the revolt that led to independence, most of the fighters were off fighting the Germans. The rebellion was started by some more dilettante types, and failed. It was only when the Brits killed the leader that public sentiment changed in favour of independence. It's funny how much of history rests on little things.

I happened to go past the Gate Theatre, and noticed Sweeney Todd was just starting. It seemed to be fate that there was just one ticket left for the preview performance that evening, so I took it.

Just past that, turning left, is the Hugh Lane Gallery, with a nice modern art collection. Every nation has a few little known but excellent artists: Louis de Brocquoy seems to be one of the Irish ones. I'm sure that is spelled incorrectly.

OK, at this point I made the mistake of thinking I should walk to the botanic gardens. It was a boring walk, and a long way, don't do it! The gardens are good once you get there though.

There was one bit where there was a series of empty beds, with labels on but grassed over. I popped up to see what I had missed: it turned out to be a fine display of lawn grasses! Well, I almost wet myself with excitement.

That evening, I made it to the theatre on time. I felt really scruffy next to all the dressed up people (but hey, there's only so many clothes you can fit on one rucksack!)
My seat...was interesting. I'd known I was on the front row: what I hadn't realised was that the stage had been extended forward in the middle, so it finished, oh, maybe 6 inches from my left ear. This made the play quite an immersive experience. I had coins just missing me, being thrown off the stage, flour flying about, a dead body next to my head, you name it.

It was great fun though, first time I've been to a musical I think, and very entertaining: Sweeny Todd himself was excellent. A bit close at times, but excellent.

written by  martin_b on April 20, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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Maynooth is a pleasant small town. It has a rather posh looking public school, Geraldine Castle, which was closed, and the odd shop. I thought I was in somewhere quite obscure, but even here in a 2 street town I could hear American voices. Anyway, I took a quick look round, while eating a rather nice summer fruits scone from a deli near the B & B.

The canal walk itself was fine...but I felt I could have done something very similar in England, so I wouldn't repeat it. The highlight was probably the sheer variety of birdsong, which was more than I'd expect in the UK.

The worst/most unusual bit of the day happened as I got closer to Dublin. There were 2 boys, leading 2 horses. They were trying to come off, away from the canal, but the metal gate was locked: there was a small gap for walkers. So they tried to do the extremely stupid thing of taking the horses through the small pedestrian gap.

Now, this got quite scary, because the first horse got stuck, and it started to get quite traumatic when the lad started to try to push and pull the horse through: it was getting upset, and it could have done itself a serious injury. I ended up holding the other horse (well a rope: you don't think I'm actually holding a strange horse do you?) while they tried to get it out.

In the end, it came through, with nothing broken, but it was stressed and bleeding. I decided to just get out of there quickly.

I did make it back to Dublin (it is hard to get lost on a canal!) and getting on a random bus seemed to work- eventually I found the centre again.

I did a Salsa lesson in the evening. It's phenomenally popular over here, there must have been 200+ people. I went in quite confident about my ability, but it turns out that some Salsa is different to others, and it was quite challenging to say the least. I did learn about outside turns though.

written by  martin_b on April 19, 2007 from Maynooth, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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I started off, but then decided on an Irish breakfast. This turned out to be ok, but a bit meat-heavy. I'm a bit dubious about white pudding: kind of like sausage meat, and not what I want for breakfast. Sightly disturbing to see people drinking Guinness for breakfast.

Anyway, the lower stretches of the Liffey are a bit loud and dirty, and I popped South to Dublin Castle. It's a bit of a mix, from the original Viking fortifications through Normans and medieval to victorian and modern bits. This bit is the chapel, based on one of the original Norman towers.

While I was up that end, I popped into Christ Church, one of Dublin's cathedrals. Fairly boring, except that at the front, there's a little iron heart shaped casket. Inside of it is the heart of Strongbow, the famous warrior that came over with the Normans and beat seven bells out of Ireland.

The Liffey does seem a bit dead round here: no birds, although there was a fire brigade boat.

After that, I had to move my stuff to the B&B I was moving to, which was way in the South of Dublin. It says something about Ireland that the main bit of info offered was not bus times, or local restaurants, but a list of local church services. The B&B seemd to be run by Germans. But then most of Dublin isn't run by the Irish: asking for directions can be difficult!

In the evening, I discovered Camden Street. At last, a proper area where you can eat without getting ripped off. This is a really vibrant, young area, with lots going on. After that I went to the Camden Palace Ballroom, and did an East Coast Smooth lesson, which was good fun. I'd never done it before though, so as there were only 2 or 3 steps taught, I wasn't up to much really in terms of leading anyone. Only a small class with maybe 30 people, half of them actually Irish: I resolved to come next week if I could.

written by  martin_b on April 18, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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Anyway, I found out today that my roommate was a French girl called Stephanie. She was meant to have come with her boyfriend, but he had discovered at the last minute his passport was out of date. A lesson for us all there...

I headed South across the river, and poppoed in briefly to Trinity College, which looks a bit like this:

Lots of tourists, and not very exciting in my view, so I went on the the National Museum, to see the archaeology. I'd wanted to come here ever since my Celtic Studies course. Thankfully, although I had a headache and felt a bit grotty, I found this to be an awesome collection. Pictures are sadly not allowed, but it's one of those rare places where everything is world class, and my jaw was dropping for most of the day. There's stuff from Newgrange and Knowth, an Egyptian collection, lots of Bronze age and Iron age bits, an exhibition of gold artifacts from the bronze age on, which is quite incredible and unique, and some medieval stuff. I spent pretty much all day looking, and didn't get through it all, even though the Viking bit was closed (the roof collapsed unexpectedly.)

One of the best bits of all was the special exhibition on bog bodies. There were 5 or 6 on show, which is about 5 more than I've ever seen before, so rare they are. I hadn't realised before that when these brown, wrinkled, dessicated looking things come out of the ground, they are actually soft and fleshy. There was a video of an autopsy on one which brought this out. I stayed in that exhibit for an hour and a half, so good it was.

What else today? Well, I kept nipping out, because my attention span was suffering with the bug. There's several more nice parks on that side, worth a visit. NOT worth visiting is the Natural History Museum. Ye gods, it can't have changed in 100 years, and in a bad way. The National Portrait Gallery next door is a lot better though (but the cake is overpriced!)

In the evening, I went to see a play, "A Pleasing Terror", at Andrew's Lane Theatre, which was a one man show, telling 2 of the ghost stories of M.R.James. It was extremely well done, with the actor just playing James himself telling the stories, in a small candlelit room. He began hunched over the candles, half-lit, and blew them out as the play went on. Definitely worth seeing if it comes to the UK, it really brought out some of the comedic side to the stories, as well as the horror.

written by  martin_b on April 17, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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Anyway, I got myself to the railway station.
"A sailrail ticket to Dun Laorigh please"
"a what?"
...I repeat...
...we debate place name pronunciation...
...he taps some buttons on his big ticket machine...says he's never done one before...
...he taps some more buttons...
...he phones someone else...
"apparently the machine won't do them, you'll have to buy it at Manchester"

Luckily I'd allowed lots of time...
Manchester was pretty similar, with the added joys of explaining to the man on the barrier why I didn't have a ticket, but eventually I did get a ticket (after the guy had used up his Phone a Friend and got it wrong a couple of times), and did, eventually, get to Holyhead (via a stop at Llandudno Junction because none of the train toilets were working.)

I'd forgotten how scenic Anglesey was, I'll have to get back there.

written by  martin_b on April 16, 2007 from Oldham, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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We also had a very nice boat to take us across. Quick, cheap, nice chairs, typical dodgy food. Sadly as it's one of the superfast hydrofiol jobbies, it doesn't have an observation deck, but there are excellent views from inside. there is a tiny little outside platform right above where the water comes out of the hydrofoil: the sheer power of it is amazing.

Coming towards Ireland, there's a good view of the Wicklow mountains, where I was going to be walking, but not much to see of Dublin itself, which is a pretty flat city really.

written by  martin_b on April 16, 2007 from Holyhead, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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The centre of Dublin, near to the main rail station, is ugly, noisy and dirty. Not a great first impression, and as I got lost trying to find the hostel, it seemed to get worse.

Eventually, I did reach it. It was a bit on the spartan side, but then it is a hostel. Had to complain to get some lights, but got there in the end. Never did get a working shower though (there were more outside of the room!) I seemed to be the only person in the 4 bed dorm, so nice and quiet.

Before it went dark, I took a walk across the river, around Temple Bar and to the South. Again, very noisy, but I did fine a great park full of statues/scultures, which was a very pleasant and restfully quiet way to spend some time.

Oh, and I finally got a roommate at around midnight...she came in in the dark, and tried really really hard to be quiet, but failed completely..I had to laugh...

written by  martin_b on April 16, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland
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