…It’s a rock

Not just a rock. A lot of rocks. Literal tons of rocks. Wednesday we set out from Sword—yes, the town was called Sword—for Newgrange in county Meath. The structure of Newgrange itself was pretty cool, especially when they did a demonstration of the sun shining in at Winter Solstice. I took a lot of cool pictures, as per normal. I’m really a photography whore.

After that we went to Slane Monastery made of—shock—stone. I’m a fan of ruins, personally. You just don’t get them in America. We were actually looking for Slane Castle, which we eventually found after missing the exit three times. Technically we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, like in Malahide Castle Tuesday, but I snapped a few shots after the curator had moved onto the next room.

According to one of the men in the group with us—a lot of elderly people from somewhere across the island—Cian would’ve been great in “Braveheart”, Rudraigh would make a good warrior king, and I would be the perfect Celtic princess. News to nobody.

I keep staring out the window as we drive, trying to grasp the whole concept of being an entire ocean away from California, but it won’t sink in. So far Ireland’s a lot like home: weather’s the same, greenery’s the same, people are the same pretty much everywhere. Two main differences I’ve noticed are that people seem genuinely interested in where you’re from and there aren’t any German tourists back home. Yes, I thought about all the British comedy jokes about German tourists when I heard them.

One thing I’ve noticed that’s the same is the proximity of redheads. This is not, as many Americans believe, a country full of ginger people who can’t go out in the sun longer than five minutes before turning into a lobster. People still stare at me like I’m dancing around dressed like the Chiquita banana lady; only here they maintain eye contact when I stare back.

Either people around the world are this fascinated by redheads, or I’m one hot sucker. I’m banking on the former.

Next, more monasteries and castles. The lady at Mellifont Abbey was really cool; she was a redhead too. We also when to Trim Castle, but just wandered around the grounds since the tour wasn’t for another forty-five minutes. That’s alright; they probably wouldn’t have let me take pictures anyway.

But yes, lots of driving, constancy of getting lost and having to turn around on the tiny Irish dirt roads, and the dwindling apparently lack of my father’s depth perception. We lost both hubcaps on the left side yesterday and I refuse to sit over there now.