Day Ten- Newgrange, Waiting for Godot, Sleeping!

I woke up and did not want to get up and going this morning. All the funk music the night before...haha...but I dragged myself out of bed for breakfast and then loaded up on the bus with the rest of the class. We listened to hilarious Irish radio on the trip. The music was so random and the commentary from the announcer was so funny. So different than our radio. On the way out to Newgrange, our bus had to ford through flooded streets. The River Corrib was completely flooded! All the rain has made traveling interesting on the streets close to rivers...but we made it alright!

Our bus fording the flooded street

I went out to a place called Bru' na Boinne which is where 3 main tombs are located. These are ancient celtic tombs that were built before the pyramids of Egypt! Newgrange- the one we got to see...was built between 3300 and 2900 B.C! There is a very large central mound/tomb, but it is surrounded by 4 other smaller tombs. Between all three sites, Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, there are 50 tombs total. There are stones all around the tomb and the entrance stones are all very highly decorated with celtic symbols. It is really beautiful. I just get a very strange feeling when I walk around realizing that these tombs and passageways were built so long ago. It is a neat feeling to be around such history!

Newgrange Celtic Tomb

Design on Entrance Stone

We walked around the exhibit and watched a little video and demonstration about how they lined up the passageway to the tomb with the rising and setting sun. It was around 3 when we loaded up to head back to school. I slept on the bus ride back because I was starting to feel a bit sick. All this running around, rain, and lack of sleep has started to take its toll. I napped from about 5-7 and then had to get up and get ready for the play.

River Corrib

At 8pm we went to go see "Waiting for Godot" at the Samuel Beckett theater at Trinity College. It was really neat to go see Beckett's play in his theater- a theater that he has been in. And even more cool is that I woke up in building 38 (his building) before walking over to his theater to see his play...pretty awesome if I do say so myself! The play was really great! I loved seeing the words I read come alive and the actors really made it more meaningful. Beckett has humour entertwined with commentary on life and it was really made me think about life. Any play that can make you do that is a good one in my book. It left me wondering and thinking.

It is now about 11pm and I am not feeling well at all. I have a lovely fever, cough and sore throat, so I did not go out with people. I need to get some sleep...