a little bit of exploring.
a little bit of relaxing.
a little bit of family.
after a familiar breakfast of cereal, toast and hot chocolate,
brian took me to newgrange.
newgrange is one of the three larger grave passages in ireland.
it was built over 5,000 years ago.
it is a mound-shaped tomb made up of stones.
historians don’t know exactly what it was intended for,
but their guess is that newgrange was a place for rituals and ceremonies or a place where they buried the dead.
the coolest part about it though is that there is a tiny passage way to the center of the tomb,
and every year, the winter solstice illuminates the entire chamber, through the passage way, for about 17 minutes. other than that, the tomb is completely dark.
after newgrange, brian took me back to the family’s house for supper.
yvonne, brian’s wife, was wonderful.
she had made sure to prepare various vegetarian options for me.
this of course was after they were going to prepare some lamb for me. haha.
they thought maybe i would like it as much as my dad.
supper time was wonderful.
brian and yvonne have 5 kids, from ages 24 to 6.
maybe it’s because i don’t come from one, but i love big families so much.
and the best part about my stay was that i got to share a room with aoife, their 6-year-old daughter.
she’s brilliant. i really enjoyed her.
after dinner, brian, louise (the oldest), and I went up to killiney hill,
which looks over the city of dublin.
it was beautiful.
we walked around for a while and let the dog run around.
once we got home, i wasn't feeling well,
so i layed down and feel asleep.
it was around 7 pm and i didn't wake up until 8 am the next morning.
i guess all of that traveling had finally caught up with me.
here's what my dream backyard looks like:
