"Alright lads, there's booty to be had in America."

Complete rainbow #2 in Slane!

This, according to my professor, is what the early medieval Irish and Vikings were thinking back in the day, and, let me tell you, they're still thinking now! What a crazy week it's been, full of tours, bus naps, and complete rainbows. I have never seen a complete rainbow in my entire life only to see two in one day while up in the most northern part of the Republic of Ireland.

Monday and Tuesday went by without much excitement. Surprisingly, the dreaded archeology test went by pretty smoothly after hours of online flashcards so I celebrated with a trip to the English Market and some avocados for guacamole. On Tuesday I stepped it out at the university gym in my frumpiest t-shirt only to discover that when Irish girls go to the gym they are dressed up, seriously. Forget sports bras and baggie shorts, it's all about push up bras and leggings in Ireland. Don't get me wrong, I am very pro-leggings but not when working on my fitness!

Hey look, another Irish Church!

Campus is slowly starting to pick up with regular classes starting in a week. I didn't realize how the only Irish person who knew my name was my professor, but seeing the Irish students made me realize how surrounded by Americans I had been so far. It's a refreshing change and hopefully means soon I will feel less like I'm on vacation.

Other than the giant test, the paper I have due on Tuesday, and the fact we'll have covered 10,000 years of information, my archeology course has really felt almost like a vacation. On Wednesday I woke up obscenely early (6:45!), walked to school, and boarded the bus with my classmates to Dublin. First stop? The National Museum of Ireland for a speed tour of all the artifacts we'd seen slides of earlier in the course. Although Mr. O zoomed through the information, it was actually quite exciting to see all of the stuff in real life and I'm sure I appreciated the stone axes having known a little about them.

From the museum all 40 of us navigated our way through the busiest part of Dublin up to Christ Church Cathedral and where "Viking Dublin" was excavated. The Church holds the tomb of Strongbow, the man who initiated the Anglo-Norman colonization of Ireland, the remains of a mummified cat and rat found in an organ pipe, and is, for all you architecture gurus, a great example of Romanesque and Gothic style architecture!

After using the bathroom (located in the crypt) we walked 100 feet to the Dublin City Council offices that were built in 1979 over the site of a semi-excavated viking trading port despite protest from archeologists and citizens alike. Pretty lame, Dublin.

"Irish traffic jam" on the way to Newgrange

From viking Dublin we bussed up to observe the "best examples of Irish high crosses" in Monasterboice. The crosses were really neat, but it made me feel uncomfortable to stomp around and snap shots in a graveyard full of people's family members. While our professor pointed out key features of the old monastery I watched an old man meticulously clean his wife's tomb stone and it just didn't feel right that we were there. 

The most amazing thing about Ireland is that it can rain when there is not a cloud in the sky, thus all the beautiful rainbows! I saw my first rainbow from the bus on the way to the hostel, which was probably the single cutest hostel on the face of the planet. Built out of an old farmhouse, it is a series of rooms filled with cozy bunk beds with a view of cows and fields out the window. Famished from the tiring day we then drove back into Slane for dinner, which was the best meal we've eaten so far consisting of mashed potatoes, chicken, and steamed vegetables with apple pie for dessert! After dinner we walked around Slane and I saw my second complete rainbow as we got back on the bus for our hostel. We recovered for a bit back at the hostel only to head out minutes later for a night at the pub! Apparently, it's totally normal to go to a pub for a pint with your professor in Ireland!

Newgrange Passage Tomb

Waking up the next morning was rough and class morale was low. Luckily for us we were headed to the most anticipated spot first thing in the morning-Newgrange. Newgrange is the most famous Neolithic passage tomb in the Bend of the Boyne cemetery complete with a roof box that on the sunrise of the winter solstice illuminates the inner chamber for 17 minutes. May not sound that impressive, but it's really cool. We are really lucky to get to enter inside the chamber that is at the end of a 40 m passage and consists of a dome weighing 25,000 tons without mortar that is still standing 4,000 years after it was built. Once you walk through the passage the tour guide dims the lights and you get to see what it looks like to be in the chamber on the winter solstice. Imagine what it'd be like to be the farmer who discovered the tomb one day while plowing his fields!

"You can take our land, but you'll never take our freedom!" -BH

After Newgrange we went to Trim Castle where some scene from Braveheart were filmed! I hadn't seen it, so lots of the references the tour guide made were over my head, but I'm sure if I ever see it I'll recognize something! Our tour guide at Trim was by far the best guide we've had. He is a Trim native and used to climb on the ruins as a schoolboy and he knows absolutely everything one human could know about Trim Castle. Braveheart or not, Trim Castle impressed me despite a lack of sleep, which is a very impressive feat. Luckily for me I would have plenty of time to nap during the 4 hour bus ride from Trim to Cork!

All tuckered out from our adventures the rest of the evening was spent laundering clothes, planning my schedule, making chili, and eating chocolate. All-in-all a great evening! Once "recovered" from our trip, I woke up and went off to class followed by a hot date with the library. I definitely am ready for the weekend!