Anyways now that you all know how competent and organized I am, let's continue on to what you all come here to read (I assume you come here for more than just hearing me complain about myself and others. Unless of course you're into that sort of thing wherein that case, you're welcome). This weekend we were treated to the lovely antics of Professor Seamus. And no, I'm not making that up. About as lively and Irish as the day is long and he still sprints about at age 60 like Chris Freeby straight out of his Lego costume. I've never met anyone more enthusiastic about everything. Normally this would have driven me nuts but Seamus was an absolute gem. We started out by heading over to the Wolfe Tone memorial which was mostly just a glorified grave in a cemetery pictured below. Seamus is on the right. On the left you can see my shadow with one of my friends who were elected by Seamus as "Government Leaders for the Day." I had never been so insulted in my life. But we did have the perk of standing on a cement block so that was nice.
Seamus told us how Wolfe Tone was one of the 3 most important people in Irish history because he played a crucial part in uniting Ireland. I don't know the details off hand, but I do know that this guy was at one point kicked out of his own country, became a general in the french military (he was the only one who knew how to fire a weapon so as Frenchmen they were quite intrigued) and lead an attack on the tyrannical English leadership that was currently controlling Ireland. He was then taken prisoner but committed suicide before they could execute him. Lesson: if you're country exiles you and you want to hit them back, don't make the mistake of thinking the French can help you overpower anybody.
Following the Wolfe Tone memorial we made our way to the Curragh. To this day the Curragh is an active military base and is also home to the Dublin Derby. However its origins are from occupied Irish times when the British controlled it. The Curragh is the only unenclosed plane in Ireland making it a prime location to field an army or race horses. It also had its own natural amphitheater that served as a home for the fights of old. When bare knuckle boxers fought practically to the death against each other. The famous Donnelly vs Cooper match pitted a British champion before and Irish one and after an amazing heavy weight battle, Donnelly emerged victorious with cooper on his shoulders as he walked away. So heavy were the two men together and with so many people who followed in the exact footsteps Donnelly took up til this day, the prints are still in the ground for people to walk through when they visit.
But good ol Seamus was not done yet, we then proceeded on to St. Brigid's well. This was a holy site or something but I just didn't get it. I mean sure there was a cool statue of St. Brigid and they had converted it from a pagan site so it was really old (like 400ad or something). But there's loads of old stuff anywhere you go. Look at England with their Stonehenge. We shouldn't be asking ourselves how they managed to get those huge boulders up, we should be asking what had them so bored that they decided they wanted to stack rocks literally just for the sake of stacking rocks. Anyways I was freezing to death as I paid my stupid tax all day for wearing nothing but a hoodie and jeans. These pictures all look sunny but it was still cold. We went to a cold place that had cold water and stood out in the cold air to look at how cold it all was. Then people started to try and drink the water from the well. Why? What possible reason could you have for wanting to get your hands wet when its windy and cold? The only saving grace in moments like that is if you're dry but these people were even blowing that right out the window. So here's some pictures of some old stuff that people go really out of their way to see for some reason I'll never quite understand.
Onward and upward we went. We saw a cathedral that refused to heat itself which really had me down because I was looking forward to thawing out inside. But then we went to the woods of Donadea where we saw the remains of an old castle that had mostly fallen apart. The house though had been lived in through 1938 so I thought it was very strange how over-run it had become. Apparently though the roof had collapsed soon after the last tenant died so once everything was exposed to the elements it was up for grabs. The house never had electricity, but instead 20 servants to stoke the bazillion fireplaces all day. My guess is she just liked the company seeing as you're in a castle all by yourself. Might as well have someone to talk to and do all the stuff you don't want to!
Lastly we were taken to the Irish memorial for the September 11th attacks. This was also in the woods of Donadea and it amazed me that other nations would have these. For a while it was the largest 9/11 memorial outside of the US and to this day they offer a mass up on an outdoor altar amidst rows of US native trees that were planted for each of the NYPD and NYFD servicemen and women who gave their lives that day.
The next day was short and sweet, just they way I like them. We went out to Trim Castle on Sunday and much to my joy they still had an entire building of it preserved and open to the public! Our tour guide showed us around the various rooms telling us their purpose and even showed us the window that was featured for a pediatric defenestration in Braveheart! Out of everything though, my favorite feature of the building was the toilets. And I'm not just saying that to be an immature 5 year old that you sent abroad. These were really awesome. The constable had his bedroom with en suite on the top floor of the keep. His toilet was a hole in the window well that went straight down. (Same window as Braveheart reference)
Now stop for a second and imagine with me. You've had a long hard day dealing with your incompetent underlings and trying to fend off attackers from your castle so the castle's actual owner doesn't kill you for losing the place while he's gone. You've just come up an infinite and narrow spiral staircase that was designed to trip up attackers as a last line of defense if they were to enter the keep. Your bedroom is at the top and you're exhausted. So before you go to bed you decide you'd like to make a healthy movement so you didn't have to get up in the middle of the night. You go and have a seat with you feet up on the window-sill. You look out and you see beautiful rolling hills and the famous Hill of Tara in the distance. You see the last bit of castle business being done down on the ground floor as your stablemen lock up the animals for the night. You let your mind wander and all your stresses float right out the window that you don't have to worry about anybody looking in because it's on the highest floor of the castle. You feel completely at peace and your unpleasantries drop nearly 100 feet to the base where it will be later recycled into fertilizer. What an absolute pity we let go of that idea. Now we have bidets that only creep people out when they aren't ready to have their butt sprayed. But yeah, Trim was gorgeous. Here's a panoramic shot from on top of the keep.
I'll try to keep the pictures coming to my Google account as I take them, but I generally only upload about once a week and most of my pictures don't have me in them. I'll see about maybe stealing a few from others who actually take pictures of people so you can all be confident that I actually go to these places. Well I'm going to get a nap in so I can watch the #1 Hawks (WHATS GOOOOD!!) take on the #2 Sharks at 3:30 am Dublin time tonight. I'm still on a quest to find a legitimate hockey pub that regularly shows the games somewhere in the area, but I'm losing confidence that this oasis a midst soccer and rugby exists. Until next time, LET'S GO HAWKS!
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