Confusion is nothing new...: Ireland Trip Part II

Day II - Drogheda - Newgrange - Knowth - Belfast - Giant's Causeway

The alarm goes off at 8.15am on our second day in Ireland... "Oh bugger!" My fingers wonder around the fridge top for my phone and then switched the alarm off, and continue to sleep... or at least tries to sleep...

Both of us tried to be hero last night and thought that we'll be fine without pillow, but looks like pillows are crucial for a good night sleep... oh well... we learned our lesson...

doing my facial routine in the van...hehe

Our first breakfast is instant noodle! hahaha... what??! sedap dan cepat mar... ok.. we'll skip the boring part of eating & cleaning up and move on to our next journey which is to Newgrange & Knowth.

Newgrange & Knowth is actually tombsite.... before you call us 'siau' to fly over to Ireland to visit someone's tombsite.... Look at the pics below and tell me if it looks like your ordinary tombsite at any part of Malaysia that you can find...

visitor visiting the visitor centre

The tombsite we visit is special one ok.... It's round in shape and made by the stone age people thousand years ago....erm... quite a bad way to describe it ya...hehe.. Well, both Newgrange & Knowth is known as Megalithic Passage Tomb and are all surrounded by kerbstones... stones soo big, it's quite hard to imagine how normal human can carry it from other place to the top of the hill to built the tombs. Looking at the stones, I can't help but to imagine that all these stone age construction might be done by giants...who knows right? I mean, in the Bible, it talks about giants... so I'm sure giants do exist at that time...

the round round thing that looks like a mould is the tombs lor.. And the lady is our tour guide.

see... i told you the stone is huge! And it's all around the mould

more tombs

Dom & ju-on

Newgrange Passage tomb

people queing to see the passage and the chamber inside

Newgrange from afar

The passage tomb in Newgrange is built in such a way that the passage and the chamber are lighted up by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn on the Winter Solstice and for a few mornings either side of the Winter Solstice. cool right? The tour guide illustrate it by using a torchlight and it already looks magical... Surely the real things looks much much better!

the passage way to the chamber

Anyway, after spending few hours at the tombsite, facing strong hurricane-like wind, we drove to Belfast to get our much deserved pillows! =D Belfast is quite similiar to Dublin... If you want me to describe Ireland... I'll stay it's a combination of UK & Malaysia... some houses look like Malaysia house with UK sceneries. The road is like Penang or Kuching's road (lots of potholes & unevan!!! hehe), drivers are like KL drivers... rude & impatient! haha... but maybe that's just how city people drive... :p But Dom says he feels at home driving in KL style again.. haha..

the eye of Belfast?

Belfast

That night, we found an abondon harbour, called Ballingtoy Harbour, just slight off the Giant's causeway. The wind is hauling so strong and we can feel the van being blown by the wind... Again.. I didn't sleep well that night because I was so worried that the wind is going to blow the van into the Atlantic sea... I mean... seriously... the last thing that we need is to wake up the next morning in the middle of the sea! :s And with the wind draft, it makes the van feels like a freezer! I sleep with a long john, my jeans & sarong on.. with sleeping bag as blanket and yet... it's not enough to keep warm....

So.. that's the end of our 2nd day in Ireland... be patient as there's more... hopefully will have the time & a good internet connection to post those pics up for you guys.. :)