The Dublin/ New Grange Trip

On the 8^th of November I went on a trip to Dublin and New Grange from my organisation. We met at 7:30 am on Sunday morning in Cork. I was the only exchange student and the others were all Aupairs. By a Mini bus we drove up to New Grange. New Grange is the oldest built by humans and still standing monument of the world. It is an over 5000 years old ancient temple (uralt, altertümlich ehemalig) which is located in the Boyne Valley, County Meath. It is a big circular mound (Hügel) with a stone passageway and three small chambers (Kammern).When we arrived it was raining. We walked through the narrow (eng, schmal) passageway into the middle of the temple. It was really small so we had to stand close together. In the middle was a big room with 3 chambers on the sides. The people who built New Grange used the chambers to burry their dead people. On the walls were the typically engravings (Gravur) of the celtic people, for example the spiral. The construction of the roof was so good that in over 5000 years no rain could come trough it, so we were perfectly dry inside=). Our tour guide told us that on the shortest day of the year, the 21^st of December the sun rises over the valley and shines through the passageway and straight through the middle of the room to a wall inside one of the chambers. We had a short demonstration with electric light how it would look like (magical...). There are thousands of people every year who want to see this event, but just a small group of around six people can stay inside New Grange when at 9 am the sun rises and shines inside the temple. The group for 2015 was already drawn (ausgelost) but we could apply for 2016 ( what I did =)). I know I won´t be there next year but it´s so unlikely that I get chosen so I just did it for fun. There are still lots of unanswered questions about New Grange. For example none knows where the people who built it went- they simply disappeared. It was a pity but we weren´t allow to take pictures inside.

After the visit our bus driver drove us to DUBLIN! When we arrived there was a mist (Nieselregen) so we first didn´t go on the top of the double decker hop on hop off bus. We got out at Grafton street, the most expensive shopping street in Dublin and had to go on the bus again after just 30 minutes. Then we continued our sightseeing tour through Dublin (on top of the bus). It was the bus was open on top but luckly there was a roof over the first couple of seats. We didn´t have enough time to hop off at another place, but we could see a bit of the capital city of the Repuplic of Ireland from the bus. At the end I bought a Dublin jumper then our bus picked us up again and drove us back to Cork. I was really tired afterwards but it was a great trip!

New Grange

Group picture at New Grange

Grafton street in Dublin

"The needle"- a famous sight in Dublin