Passage Graves and Guinness

The rain held off amazingly well for my first week in Ireland. But it was inevitable that the weather and my luck would break. I took a tour out to Newgrange, a Neolithic passage grave that is about 5,000 years old - older than Stonehenge and the pyramids in Egypt.

Their knowledge of the sun and the earth was very interesting to hear about; they built the structure to perfectly align with the sun on the winter equinox and used the ground's constant cool temperature to serve as a refrigerator. Similarly their understanding of architecture and engineering was evident in the surprisingly large space inside the grave and the fact that it has stood the test of time. We were able to walk inside, and while inside the lights were turned off, sending us into complete darkness until the winter sun was simulated to show what it would look like on the shortest day of the year. So cool! After walking around we caught another shuttle to Knowth, a group of about 27 passage graves that had taken probably close to a century to build. It was a great day of ancient history.

After returning to Dublin I met up with some (new) friends to go out for a Guinness. Because I promised so many of you that I would drink a Guinness while in Dublin I ordered a half pint. Don't be too mad, but I knew there was no way I would have been able to get a full pint down. The half was painful enough for someone who doesn't like beer! I will say that it did taste marginally better than the few sips of the bottled Guinness I tasted in NJ before I left!


I also figured that my one beer needed to be consumed in Dublin's most famous pub, Temple Bar. I'm not sure why it's so famous, but it was painted red, loud with live music, overpriced, and very busy! So I drank my beer and managed a smile after it was done! I hope you all are satisfied now that you have proof of my beer drinking story!

Coming soon in my next installment - hiking, a world record holder, and rugby.