It's Okay to Climb Over Barbed Wire (If You're With Mom and Dad)
Tuesday, March 27 - Thursday, March 29, 2018
Dingle & Dublin-ish, IRL
I'm gonna be real with you. Today is not really worth blogging about. I didn't even vlog. Because somehow I managed to sleep through most of the day? Like, seriously, I think I napped on and off until 4:00pm. Now, before you get all, "Cristiana, you're in Ireland! Get out and do something", or "Cristiana, you shouldn't sleep that much it's not healthy", or even more accurately, "Cristiana, you don't even like to nap, you say that all the time!" Yes, yes, all of that is true. But in my defense, we were in a car most of the day driving from Dingle to Dublin, I've been a little under the weather, and I'm still suuuuuuuper jetlagged. I'm sure Grady has some pictures of me asleep, too. Great. There were, however, some notable parts of today.
1. I finally mastered all of "Rattlin' Bog" so get really to hear me sing that all across campus, college friends. Don't worry, I'll teach it to you so we can have a sing-along ;)
2. I discovered that Grady's violin case makes an excellent pillow (NOT! But it was there so...)
3. My Broadway show tunes playlist is exactly 11 hours, and the car full of people can only handle it for about 2 (I think anyway... At one point I just woke up and they requested a change. I think that was after about two hours? But I can't be sure. Maybe it was 20min? Maybe it was 4 hours?)
4. The gas stations here have a better food selection. Fresh eggs? Salad bar? Jerk Chicken? Yes, please!
5. If you have been asleep in a car for the better part of the morning, there is a good chance your mascara is smeared halfway down your face. (Which I wish I remembered before running into a cute boy working at the gas station. RIP my life. I looked like corpse bride.)
So those were today's driving discoveries. We also DID make it to the Dublin area. We're currently staying at the Powerscourt, about an hour out of the city, and wow, is it posh. 10/10. Grady and I took a swim in the hotel pool and relaxed in the sauna, and we all had dinner in the pub downstairs. Tomorrow, we're going to explore the grounds and gardens. The hotel is on the grounds of the Powerscourt Estate, and it home to what National Geographic considers the No. 3 garden in the world. We'll have to come back with you, Aunt Shelia!
Grady and Cristiana in the gardens in 2014
(@Grady, recreate this pic tomorrow?)
Yesterday was spent climbing through fields and paying random farmers 2€ a piece to see some more ancient sites. We started off at Rathanane Castle. We pulled up to a farmhouse and walked through a sheep pasture (dodging a lot of poop) and made it to this beautiful ruin of a building. It was like something out of a movie. You could kind of climb around too. Not to brag or anything but I scrambled up on a little narrow staircase.
Rathanane Castle
Rathanane Castle, close up
Cristiana on a staircase, Rathanane Castle
Next, we went to Dunbeg Fort, but it turns out it was a little too wet and mushy to go into it. (Or like, around it? It's also a ruin, so you're not really going in it but...) So we only saw it from a distance. It's a pretty prominent fort though, from that time. (I know that because this site actually has its own Wikipedia page! Which isn't a super high bar, but a lot of these places are obscure enough that I can't find any web presence at all!)
After, we drove a little further down the road, to the Fósra beehive huts. From what I can tell, this style of building is very common in the area, especially in monastic dwellings, although there is evidence that some of the dwellings were in fact, secular. But I don't think there is actually a whole lot of information about them, at least not online. They might look a little familiar to you if you've seen "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi". The island where Luke is hiding was originally filmed on nearby Skellig Micheal Island (which has its own set of beehive huts) and then some look-alike huts were built on the Dingle Penisula, and filming continued there. Cool stuff, amirite?
Beehive huts, ft. Selfie Lady
Then, Mom talked us into finding Kilfountain Church. This was another "Guide to Sacred Ireland" find. No joke, the directions to find this site went something like this, "Go 1.2 km from Dingle. Take a left a the first farm gate. Walk past the abandoned outbuilding until you see another farm gate, and take a right into the leftmost sheep pasture. Continue walking until you see the church." Needless to say, those directions were a little confusing. (They should've just listed GPS coordinates!) We had to climb over some barbed wire, but all in a day's work, ya know? This site was barely still a church, but it had an ogham stone. And there's something really special about finding a site that most people wouldn't even know was there. (Although I did find a pretty well document web source about this one, oddly enough.)
Kilfountain Church remains
Kilfountain Church Ogham Stone
We ended our evening in a music shop, Siopa Ceoli, in Dingle. LAST YEAR we decided to buy Dad a bodhrán (a traditional Irish drum) for his birthday but decided to let him pick it out. It has taken him over a year, but he finally got around to doing it. (In Ireland no less!) So we sat around and had a little jam session in this Irish music shop. We're getting it shipped.
Dad at Siopa Ceoli, playing a bodhrán
If you just want to see your favorite sites in Vlog 74 (and I would actually recommend because it's better to see these places -- my words don't do them justice!), here are the different time stamps. So you can pick and choose! (I couldn't pick and choose, so this vlog is 11 min, which is a little long... So you can choose instead.)
Rathanane Castle: 0:48
Dunbeg Fort: 3:23
Fósra beehive huts: 3:41
Kilfountain Church: 6:19
Sipa Ceoli (music shop): 10:33
V74. We Stepped in a lot of Sheep Poop
And as promised, the elusive Vlog 73, with some timestamps as well.
Inch Beach: 0:47
Gallarus Oratory: 3:03
Fothrach an tSainsiléara: 4:22
Kilmalkedar Church: 5:26
Riasc Monastic Settlement: 6:46
V73. Ruins and More Ruins
Much love,
Cristiana
