I am so sorry I haven't been able to blog in a while and that's because classes have started here at NUIM! I am so excited to be starting classes, there's only one problem... Boys. Coming from the small school of Saint Mary's, being in a lecture hall of over 300 students and most of them being boys, is going to be a big adjustment for me. So far my classes seem very interesting and I am going to like attending class! That's not something you hear from your average college student!
Anyways, the point behind this blog is our next trip with Roberta! This past Sunday we went to Carrowmere and Sligo which are on the western coast of Ireland. Since the country is the size of the state of Indiana, we got to the other side of the coast in about 3 hours. We started off at the ancient cemetery grounds at Carrowmere. There are about 30 megalithic tombs in the site. When you walk up to a tomb, you just see rocks piled on top of each other but there are so many architectural advances to how those tombs are made. Many of the tombs we saw were called 'passage tombs' which is a tomb made with a passage for the burial.
Here is an example of what a typical tomb would look like:
Once we were done with our tour of Carrowmere, we climbed a mountain. According to us Midwesterners, this "hill" was considered a mountain. The hill was called Knockneara. Atop Knokneara there was a unopened passage tomb which looked like a huge pile of rocks. It is called Meave's tomb. The hike took about an hour but the view was absolutely beautiful.
Here is what the hill looked from the Carrowmere grounds. The little spec at the top of the hill is one of the passage tombs we learned about at Carrowmere. (I noticed that if you want to make the picture bigger, you can just click on it!)
Thank goodness we had a beautiful day for a hike! The weather has been very unusual here in Ireland! It has been sunny and HOT?! Not what I was expecting at all! Here is the path we took to get up the hill. This is almost halfway up. You can start to see how beautiful the view actually is! I don't think the pictures do it justice!
The hike was not what we were expecting at all! The trail was very steep and rough but I kept on saying that "We are Saint Mary's girls and we can do anything!" :)
We finally made it to the top! Of course we had to have a photo shoot!
The final and spectacular view of Sligo!
Once we finished the hike down, we headed down to the beach where we had an amazing lunch at some hole in the wall restuaurant. The whole country was in a huge hustle because there was the GAA (gaelic) championship in Dublin during the day. Gaelic is a sport that is combined with rugby and soccer. The game has the same equivilent of the SuperBowl back in the States so it was very big game that everybody watched. After lunch, we headed to the beach! This was truly paradise and I think this was the moment it hit me that I am in Ireland. The beauty of this country is unbelievable and sometimes I cannot believe I am here!
This upcoming weekend, a few friends of mine are going to the Cliffs of Moher so be expecting a blog about that and then with Robert and the Saint Mary's girls we are headed to Wicklow and get a local tour of Kildare!
Sláinte!
-Libby
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