Newgrange

I have booked a tour to Newgrange in Ireland for March 16, 2013. I am very excited about this tour and it is fact one of the tours that I'm most looking forward to. Newgrange is the site of these old, pre-Celtic tombs, older than the pyramids!it's about 5,000 years old! the same age as China!  The pre-Celtic people who built it, built it so that every year on the winter solstice, December 21,at dawn, this ray of sunlight shines down into the tomb for 17 minutes, illuminating it. it does actually take place on a few mornings before and after the 21st , but I'm assuming the 21st is the exact day it was built to happen on, so it is probably the best.according to what I've read, it is supposed to be a beautiful and spectacular sight. unfortunately, it is not a sight that anyone can just go see. They have this lottery every year and that is how they choose who gets to go, there is such a demand for people wanting to go see this sight. so I'm not gonna see it on that fabulous day, but I love seeing stuff like this! like Stonehenge in England. I love seeing these amazing...tombs and...places that people from long ago built, without modern technology. Going to Stonehenge, I walked around and thought about how these massive rocks were not only hand carried to this sight, but put in place without modern technology! imaging just putting together Stonehenge, by hand! how did that make the rocks not collapse? and it's still standing thousands of years later! meanwhile today, we build a bridge with out modern technology, and it collapses or sways in the wind! slight exaggeration, but you get my meaning. it makes you wonder, could we build something like Stonehenge, that is standing thousands of years later? let alone do it by hand without any modern technology? The people who built Newgrange, they did not have construction tools, but they also did not have satellites, telescopes,cameras, camcorders, computers, etc. to calculate and build Newgrange. they calculated the exact day of the Winter Solstice, by hand, without any computers or satellites! just stop and think about that for a minute. isn't it amazing?I feel like just getting the change to see this place is an honor, let alone getting the chance to be chosen via the lottery to get to go see it on December 21(or any of the 5 other mornings it happens on). Below I pasted a link to the Newgrange website, and on it you can read more about it, see some images and videos of it. I'm super duper excited about this and I think it will be such a good experience. 

Newgrange

To Dublin, Literacy Pub Crawl Tour, and God's Approval

On the 15th of March, I will hop on a train from Belfast, Northern Ireland and travel to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. It only takes a few hours to go by train from Belfast to Dublin, and my goal is to be there by 10am, or even 9am. I want to get there, check into my hotel, and grab a quick lunch before noon. March 15 is the day that I am doing my Hop on, Hop Off tour in Dublin, and I believe it stops running around 4pm. It doesn't sound like a long tour, 90 minutes if you don't get off, so  I think that even if get there around 1pm, it should still be plenty of time.

   That night, at the Duke Pub at 7:15pm, will begin one of the tours that is, I think, pretty unique and one that I'm very much looking forward to: the Literacy Pub Crawl tour. This tour lasts a few hours, and like I mentioned it starts at the Duke Pub, and it takes you on a tour of several pubs, and at each one they talk about famous Irish writers and their works, even acting out some of the famous scenes. I am very excited! I haven't had a chance to read much Irish authors, unless you count Oscar Wilde, and since the tour does not require a knowledge of Irish Literacy to be enjoyed, it seemed to me a perfect way to "get my feet wet" in Irish Literacy. Plus, it's such a unique tour! a tour of pubs and a tour of literacy works? not very common, and perfect for me!pubs and writer and literacy works....if that does not say "Millie" all over it, then what does? I am very excited about this tour. like I keep saying, it's a pretty unique type of tour, and it is right up my alley, and it's an awesome way to get to experience and learn about Ireland: it's pub culture and its literacy culture. it's brilliant! 

   it is at night, and so I am slightly nervous about making my way back to my hostel after the tour is over, but the website says that the pub we finish at is close to a taxi grabbing place, so that is good. I just have to remember to bring cash for a souvenir T shirt and the cab back.Since this is pretty late at night, I will for sure take a cab there and back, but for the most part, I plan on walking everywhere during this vacation. Most hostels and hotels do have city maps for free, I know my hostel in Belfast does-for free, and I'll pick one up at the train station in Dublin. Also, I can always ask at my hostel and hotel for directions to where I'm going. I found my way around Xi'an and Beijing with only maps and where pretty much no one spoke English. the fact that most people in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland will speak English makes this 100x easier and more relaxing for me. :) :) 

 This trip is going to be sweet, and I think it has God's approval. last Saturday, I was working at my job at Wings Stop, and this Irish guy came in! The accent threw me while I was taking his order, and he problaly thought I was nuts or couldn't understand what he was saying, but I was trying to place the accent, it sounded a bit Scottish to me, but not really, if that makes sense. once he had walked away to get his drink, I asked the other cashier if he was Scottish, and she said he was Irish! pretty close, since Irish and Scottish accents are a bit alike. a bit, anyways. some of the other girls who weren't on cashier talked to him while he waited for his order, and I listened  in-between customers, and I learned he moved to Texas from Ireland when he was 5-6, still speaks Gaelic, though not as much as he used to when he was younger. the thing that I found the most impressive, was his Irish accent was full on. the guy sounded like he just stepped off the plane from Ireland for the first time! it is so amazing that he has not lost it, even though probably his parents still have it as well, you would expect that being so young it would have faded out a little you know? I did mention that to him, that he had moved here when was 5 and still had the accent so strong, and he said "got to keep it alive." his name was Riley BTW. it was so cool and I felt like it was a sign! In Boston, probably not uncommon since Boston does have a strong Irish community, but Texas?! how many Irish people move to TEXAS? from Ireland?! talk about culture shock!lol.  

  This trip is going to be fun,  and exciting, and sweet! and yes, I do plan on eating meals in pubs, less expensive, and I will most likely try some Irish drinks, with alcohol. :) :)

Irish Wool

My major souvenir for my trip to Ireland, I decided early on, will be either an Irish Shawl or sweater, made with 100% Irish Wool. I found a store listed on Lonely Planet, and it sounds like a good store to go to. It will be expensive, the sweater I saw listed is $136, not including the tax, but I think it will be worth it! It is my major souvenir, not including my usual key chains and maybe some other small stuff. I am so so excited! I hear that Irish wool is really good, and some of the pictures I have seen show beautiful knit patterns. again, very, very excited! lol.and since Brent loves knitting, what better bday gift than to just buy him some Irish Wool yarn while I'm there?100% of course. Below is the link to the store's website. the fact that they answered my email gives me confidence that if I go there they will be helpful. I'm thinking of going my first day. I should get to Belfast early enough in the day to be able to go to this store. This way I can do this on my first day, and have it done, and know that I don't have to use my other days to shop for this. I'm excited. It think it will be a good souvenir and B-day present for myself, and I'm sure Brent his love his 100% Irish wool.

The Wicker Man

Hop-on, Hop off and Giants Causeway

Even though my main reason for this trip to Ireland is to see Belfast, Titanic town, I do also wan to see as much of Belfast, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland as I can. I have scheduled one full day as my Titanic Day, but if I feel I want another full day of Titanic when I am there, you can count on me doing that. but my Itinerary as of now is one full day of Titanic, two days to explore Belfast, and then one day(my last day in Belfast)to do a tour outside of Belfast to the Giant's Causeway. 

        For my two days of Exploring Belfast, I have bought a ticket for a Hop on, Hop off tour. These tours are exactly what they sound like. It's a bus, usually double deckers, open top, and they drive around on a route around the city, and you can get off at the various spots, see them, go inside, etc, and then hop back off. a bus comes by every 15-30 minutes, so once you have seen the place, you can get back on another bus and continue on the tour. pretty neat, I think. the ticket is valid for 48 hours, so it's perfect because I can take two days to explore Belfast via this tour, and don't have to buy a second ticket. good deal.

       Another nice thing about this, is that I bought a combo Belfast/Dublin, which means this ticket is valid for a hop on, hop off tour in Belfast and Dublin, valid for 48 hours in EACH city! nice deal huh? I'm getting good at making traveling not as expensive huh? lol. I am way way excited! and again, it is a good deal. The one in Dublin I'm doing the day I arrive in Dublin. I plan on taking an early train from Belfast, get there sometime mid-morning, which would allow me time to check into the hotel and then do this tour. shouldn't take too long, it's 90 minutes if you don't hop off, so I think this plan sounds doable. I plan on walking around some along the route, with my camcorder of course, and checking out the city some. It'll be a good day. 

    The Giants Causeway is this awesome and beautiful sight! it's all of these hexagonal shaped stones caused thousands of years ago due to a volcano, or something along those lines, and it is supposed to be very impressive!I am excited to be going there! Just seeing pictures of the place is stunning, let alone when I am actually there! It's also a chance for me to see Northern Ireland, or a bit of it, instead of just Belfast. We will be going to a Distillery as well, and I do plan on tasting some which I did not do in Scotland. but now I'm older and I will for sure be tasting some! I am also looking forward to the drive, driving by small towns and fields and lots of places. I love doing tours, especially all day tours, not only because they are more convenient, they make it easier to go to places where going by your own means would be a challenge, but also because I get to drive by towns, villages, countryside, etc. To me, that is almost as great as the actual places the tour takes you to. I think that doing this tour on my last day in Belfast  and Northern Ireland will be a good way to close out my time in Northern Ireland. I cannot wait to go and just be stunned by the beauty! and since I just my camcorder, I can record with video a lot of the drive and the places, which will good in terms of remembering my trip. I am debating whether or not to still take my SLR, since my camcorder does take pictures as well, but I think that recording will be the best way in terms of remembering and being able to share.

     I am very excited about these tours. They will make it easier for me to explore Belfast, to explore Dublin, and Northern Ireland. I love also that as I'm writing this, I'm checking out some of my study abroad pictures, and I'm thinking of things I can do in terms of organization of my pictures which will make them easier to share and allow me to remember the things I saw much better. like my china pictures, which are all organized very nicely, I plan on doing the same things with my Ireland pictures. I will take my laptop, and each day download the days videos and pics unto the laptop, store them, maybe even publish some on this blog and on Facebook. I want to do a video titled "My week in Ireland"(I just decided right now I want to do this and the title) and it'll be set with videos and pics, day by day of my week in Ireland, along with where I ate, the journey there, where I stayed, etc. I'll probably  have to do each one in a separate DVD, but no problem. I'm excited about this idea! :)

 as you can tell, I am very much excited, and ready, to go on this trip to Ireland. yet as always, half the fun is in the planning, the time before you leave.

How It's Becoming Real and My Titanic Tour

     I have about another month to go until I leave for Ireland, and it is becoming more real with every booking I do that I am really going to Ireland! I am stressed because I have to start saving up for money for food and stuff for while I am there but I am sure that it will be okay. A few weeks ago I booked all the tours and things that I am going to do while I am there and it was such an awesome feeling! I mean, up until now, it has been a plan. I have the plane tickets booked, and the hotels reserved but booking the tours gave me an Itinerary, a plan, a schedule, for while I am there. 

     I feel that with traveling, at least my own personal way of doing it, is that it is important to think ahead, to have a plan but that once you are there, be willing to change your plan, to take opportunities which are presented to you. Be willing to go with the flow but have a plan in motion before you leave. Some people do it differently most likely. perhaps some have no plans, some have plans set in stone. I suppose I am saying that I think that the best way is to be somewhere in the middle. the fact is, I am a single girl traveling to a foreign country all by herself, so I want to have some sort of idea as to what to do and how to do it when I get there. 

      Talking about being a single girl, I find that most people think I'm brave when I tell that I am traveling to Ireland all by myself. which is funny, because I don't think of myself as being brave for going traveling by myself. I love traveling, and I have wanted to go to Belfast since I did study abroad when no one else wanted to go to Northern Ireland and so I couldn't go. To me, it's fun not brave. 

        What is funny is that after traveling in China, going to Beijing, To Xi'an, by myself, traveling to Ireland is easy...they speak English there! lol. sure they also speak Irish, but they will also speak English as well so it's such a...relief to me to know that if I get lost, I can find someone and ask for directions. as opposed to in China where I was on my own since hardly anyone would speak English outside of organized tours you know? it makes it SO much easier! lol. 

           My main reason for going to Ireland is to see Belfast, to see all the Titanic spots there. which I set aside an entire day for and if I feel that I need another day, I am willing to do that. The first tour that I am doing on my first full day in Belfast is Titanic Tours by Susie Millar, and she is the Great-Great Granddaughter of one of the engineers on the Titanic who perished with the ship. Most of the Titanic spots, like the Dockyard, the memorial, etc. are for free, but I want to see the Harland and Wolff offices  where they drew up the plans and according to Lonely Planet you can only see the offices by doing a tour. Besides, i think hearing the stories by someone like Susie Millar, who is not just a tour guide but has a family connection to the Titanic, will make it so much more meaningful you know? I booked the tour through her actually. I emailed the website since the paypal email address was not working and she emailed me back herself, told me which address to use to pay through paypal and booked me herself! being the Titanic geek that I am, I was thrilled to get an email from someone who is related to someone who was on the Titanic. So I am booked to do my Titanic Tour on March 11 @10am, and she will pick me up at my hostel! yay! I also am scheduling to go see the Titanic Experience, which is a Titanic museum, that same day. I am way excited. this first day in Belfast is THE reason why I am going to Ireland in the first place. everything else is extra, a bonus. 

      I cannot believe that I will get to stand in the dockyard where Titanic was fitted for a year before she sailed. Most people think Titanic, and they think Southampton, which is a spot that I would love to see since the actual dock where she sailed from is still there, but that is not where her story starts. Her story starts in Belfast, Ireland and that is where I am going next month! I get so excited and tingly where I think about standing in that dock where she was, where she was fitted and worked on....it's one of the closest thing to seeing the Titanic that I can think of. 

   I do also love that while my main reason for this trip is to see the Titanic Spots there, it's not the only thing that I am going to see while I am there. it's only one day of my week, I still making sure I see as much of Ireland and Northern Ireland as I can. next blog I will talk about Causeway tour and hop on, hop off tour.