The Old Runs Deep

When I think of old, like really, really old, like ancient old, I think of Athens and Rome and the pyramids in Egypt. I don't really think of Ireland, but we had a tour of ancient Irish monuments today that left me completely impressed and feeling a bit reverent towards our Stone Age ancestors. These people built something epically cool about 500 years before those folks down in Giza put up a pyramid.

We went to Brú na Bóinne (also known as Newgrange) and Knowth, two of the three huge Neolithic passage tombs here in County Meath, just northwest of Dublin. The tour started in the Newgrange Visitor Center, which has a good exhibit showing the construction of the tombs, replicas of artifacts found in and around the sites, and depictions of Stone Age life. We learned that the people living here only lived to about 25-30 years of age. They were farmers, as were many generations before them. Living in the Stone Age as they were, roughly five to six thousand years ago, they had only stone and wood and bone tools; no metal. But they lived near a river, today's River Boyne, and they were likely skilled sailors.

We were told that the river was about twice as wide back then as it is today, and it was also tidal. It came in handy for moving the large boulders and stones they would use to build the passages, chambers, and kerbstones of their sacred buildings.

The three huge passage tombs are among roughly 40 smaller tombs, most of which predate the large ones. Much of the evidence archaeologists have gathered point to this site being extremely special and important. First of all, they probably worked across generations to get these things built. Now, their generations were considerably shorter than ours, but it’s still hard to imagine that kind of social commitment to a building project today. Secondly, the solar alignments are incredibly precise: the passage into Newgrange aligns with the sunrise of the winter solstice and the tombs at Knowth likely align with the equinoxes. Finally, these farmers made these things fancy. The kerbstones were carved with intricate patterns. The ground in front of the passage entrances were covered in white quartz stones quarried from 60 km away to the south and interspersed with granite orbs from northern mountains a similar distance away.

The area near the mound at Knowth was inhabited by Stone Age people for quite awhile, then by no one for about two thousand years, then people started living on top of the mound in the Iron Age, roughly 3000 years after the tomb’s construction. In the early medieval period (8th-12th centuries), it was the capital of the Kingdom of North Brega.

During the Iron Age inhabitations, ditches were dug around the perimeter and soutterrains added for storage and security. The kids were invited to crawl through one of the soutterains, and Tori jumped at the chance.

I think I’d like to go back. The weather was cool and grey on our tour of Knowth, then cold and rainy at Newgrange. We learned of a lottery the park service has for people to come to Newgrange for the winter solstice. They let about 20 people into the chamber to witness the sunrise enter through the roof box and light the floor of the passage, reaching its shine to the basin at the head of the chamber, filling the entire chamber with light, then retreating back out the passage entrance as the sun continues it rise across the sky. Now, that’s something for a bucket list!

Rhythm Is Gonna Get You

My normal rhythms of daily life are, predictably, not present in this abnormal year of travel. Specific differences include:

1. A different sense of time. I no longer know right off the top of my head exactly what day it is. Are we having a Monday or a Wednesday? I’m not even sure of the date. Fortunately, I can look that stuff up whenever necessary. Although, I do feel unmoored, ever so slightly, when I realize I have no stinking clue about something so basic as the day and date. Prisoners and castaways and lost-at-sea types who scratch tally marks on their walls or boats or whatever? Makes a little more sense now.

2. Sleeping in and skipping lunch. We may be adopting a the European style late dinner. I’m not sure. Actually, we’ve been all over the place when it comes to bedtimes and thus we sleep later, eat breakfast but no lunch, and then have a later than normal-for-our-Maryland-life dinner.

3. Just sleep. Some beds are more conducive to sleep than others. Speaking personally, the beds I had in Athens, in Waterville, Co. Kerry, and here in Donore have been the best. Not like home, but not back-aching, either. We're also going to bed later, since the sun sets over an hour later here than at home. The kids are too old to be put to bed before dark now, so we're facing 10 p.m. or later bedtimes for them.

4. Bodily rhythms. Let me just share that everything is fine but noticeably different. Heat, dehydration, dietary and sleep changes all must play a part. Yes, we do have family poop talks. You can thank Theo’s exposure to Peace Corps volunteers for that.

5. Activity. Some days, I take eleventy-thousand steps. Not quite, but I take a lot. Other days, not so much. In Istanbul, we were highly engaged and motivated to complete our daily air squats, sit-ups and push-ups. In Paros, we were slightly engaged. I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but in Athens, I haven’t done squat(s, or pushups or sit-ups). In Kerry, our hiking was more strenuous than our city walks, but we've certainly not resumed our exercises.

6. Movie quotes and song lyrics. “If you can’t handle me blurting out movie quotes related to something you just said, I don’t know how we can be friends.” You’ve seen that someecard, right? That, um, quality of mine has been on overdrive since we began this trip. I can’t seem to walk into an ice cream shop without hearing Forrest Gump offer Lt. Dan a scoop. And it’s not just movie quotes; it’s song lyrics, too (see above post title). It seems like so many comments and questions and sights and so forth are jogging my memory for these things. I must say, I’m enjoying it!

7. Togetherness. At home, I say goodbye to Theo between 8 and 9 a.m., say goodbye to my children by 9:15 a.m., and have the house and day to myself until 3:30 p.m., at which time Zoe returns home and her sisters follow an hour later. Theo is home by 6:30 or 7 p.m. As for Michelle, we only see each other when we're handing off the kids to her for babysitting and when she's handing them back. So, we've had three weeks of increased togetherness, and that is a whole new rhythm. Sometimes it sounds and feels fun and pleasant like a nice jazz swing; other times feel more chaotic and heavy on the cymbal crash.

8. On the move. We started with a 7-night stint, then two 4-nighters, then 3 one-nighters, a two-nighter, and now a 6-night stay. Getting to Istanbul from D.C. took about 14 hours; getting to Naoussa from Istanbul took longer. It took four modes of transportation across two solid days of travel to go from Athens to our first Kerry Way accommodations, and it took about 5 hours of driving to get to Meath from Kerry. As I made that drive from the west coast of Ireland to the east, I had a very vivid daydream of my house. In my reverie I was sitting in my living room, in my favorite spot on the couch, in the corner next to the window, where I can put my feet up and do some writing while noticing the cars and people passing by and soaking up the sun. It was the first thought of home like that I'd had since moving out a month ago. Today, I found myself here and wondered if that vision was more premonition than flashback:

The Kerry Way is an Irish Blessing

After two long, hard days of travel (Athens-->London-->Cardiff, Wales-->Rosslare, Ireland-->Caherdaniel, Ireland) we were up not quite bright and not quite early for a full Irish breakfast at the Scarriff Inn. We were served white and black pudding with it, naturally, and Theo wouldn’t tell us exactly what it was until we tried it. I liked them both, but the black pudding was a little too salty for me. It was an overall delicious meal. (The white pudding tastes a lot like goetta, which our Cincinnati friends turned us on to several years ago.)

After breakfast we drove into Caherdaniel, parked the van, and set out to meet the Kerry Way trail. We were going to hike from there to Waterville to stay at The Smuggler’s Inn. The weather was cold and rainy, and everyone we would talk to would apologize for it.

Still, I loved the hike. We saw so many different wildflowers, and I turned our attentions to noticing them all. The girls were given a task - make mental notes and observations that we would then include in our homeschooling work.

When the trail took us toward the beach in Derrynane National Park, we began to see snails. They were all different colors and sizes. Some were paired up - procreating, maybe?

With about thirty minutes to go before the halfway mark, four pairs of legs were quite done. We made it to The Scarriff Inn for lunch. Theo and Zoe wanted to carry on the hike to Waterville; the rest of us did not. They left and we caught a taxi to our van.

I drove the van to our next stop - on the left, on bendy roads, in the mist! The van stalled three times in the first two minutes; I am not used to driving a stick-shift on hilly roads.

The Smuggler’s Inn was very nice. Theo and I had our own room, and Michelle and the girls had the other room. Dinner was one of the top three meals I’ve had on this trip. The presentation was gorgeous, the food absolutely delicious. Theo and I shared a bottle of white wine, and I even developed a liking for Guinness and Murphy’s. It was one of my favorite days of the trip so far, and as I sit here feeling grateful for it all I am reminded of an old Irish blessing, one I sang with my high school choir at our graduation:

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be ever at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

May the rains fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of his hand