Loughcrew. It was a really amazing experience, even if it did involve getting up Very Early Indeed and then climbing up a hill in the freezing cold before dawn. Also very, well, unmediated, because it's not a "big draw" like Newgrange on the Solstice - there was just a bunch of people there with flasks of tea and one person from the OPW who opened the gate they've put over the entrance and answered any questions people had about the tomb. It was a cloudy morning, but luckily the clouds parted just when we were in the chamber, and we could suddenly see a really vivid red light on the back wall and, indeed, my ear (BOW DOWN BEFORE THE CHOSEN EAR OF THE SUN GOD). Very nice communal spirit afterwards, too, as we all trooped off to a local cafe for a big fry for before I had to (sob) head back to Dublin to go to work.
And no, 4 and 7 were not the same bus, mercifully! The latter incident happened at my friends' wedding in California last year - the reception was in a state park in Berkeley, and there was a bus laid on to bring us all down the hill through the woods to the hotel where most of us were staying afterwards. We realized we were in for something special when the driver announced that he "didn't like driving in the dark". Said genius driver took a wrong turn, ended up at a dead end, and tried to back the coach down the road. A strange crashing noise announced that he had, in fact, backed us off the road and nearly over a cliff. Eek. We than all had to wait amidst the misty darkened trees until the hotel and coach company sent some taxis up to rescue us. Fortunately, we had liberated the remaining booze from the reception, so it was rather convivial, if cold. I had wonderful visions of us appearing on NBC news a few days later, emerging from the woods having survived for two days solely on champagne and cocktail nibbles.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-02-22 02:21 pm (UTC)Loughcrew. It was a really amazing experience, even if it did involve getting up Very Early Indeed and then climbing up a hill in the freezing cold before dawn. Also very, well, unmediated, because it's not a "big draw" like Newgrange on the Solstice - there was just a bunch of people there with flasks of tea and one person from the OPW who opened the gate they've put over the entrance and answered any questions people had about the tomb. It was a cloudy morning, but luckily the clouds parted just when we were in the chamber, and we could suddenly see a really vivid red light on the back wall and, indeed, my ear (BOW DOWN BEFORE THE CHOSEN EAR OF THE SUN GOD). Very nice communal spirit afterwards, too, as we all trooped off to a local cafe for a big fry for before I had to (sob) head back to Dublin to go to work.
And no, 4 and 7 were not the same bus, mercifully! The latter incident happened at my friends' wedding in California last year - the reception was in a state park in Berkeley, and there was a bus laid on to bring us all down the hill through the woods to the hotel where most of us were staying afterwards. We realized we were in for something special when the driver announced that he "didn't like driving in the dark". Said genius driver took a wrong turn, ended up at a dead end, and tried to back the coach down the road. A strange crashing noise announced that he had, in fact, backed us off the road and nearly over a cliff. Eek. We than all had to wait amidst the misty darkened trees until the hotel and coach company sent some taxis up to rescue us. Fortunately, we had liberated the remaining booze from the reception, so it was rather convivial, if cold. I had wonderful visions of us appearing on NBC news a few days later, emerging from the woods having survived for two days solely on champagne and cocktail nibbles.