after our fantastic day at barley cove beach last weekend, i was so blissed out by the warmth and vitamin D that i didn’t think to bring sunscreen with me to Dublin. after all, this is Dublin. i didn’t forget my raincoat or umbrella.

it turned out that marcie and i have incredible luck when it comes to the irish weather, and we got the most perfect, cloudless day for the mini marathon. 20 degrees celcius and not a cloud in the sky. which made for a lovely run, but now i’ve got lobster shouders! i obviously have not learned my lesson about fair skin, and make this mistake nearly every summer. by the time the sun makes his appearance i am dying for a bit of exposure and always get burned the first couple of times i’m in the sun.

not that i’m complaining though. really!

today we took a shuttlebus to newgrange, a neolithic passage tomb that dates back to 3000 BC. very impressive – i’m amazed that i had never been there despite living in the country for three years now. the stones that were used to create the passage and the foundation of the mound itself weighed anything from one to fifteen tonnes, and they were all such regular shapes and sizes. when you keep in mind that this was created by stone age people, who didn’t have the wheel, metal tools or horses, the only reasonable conclusion is that modern people from the future created a time machine and went back to teach them how to quarry rock and create vaulted ceilings that have kept the main chamber free of damp for five thousand years in one of the rainiest countries in the world. not to mention teaching them how to calculate the exact elevation required to send a beam of light on the morning of the winter solstice through an opening above the doorway of the passage into the main chamber, illuminating the room on only five days each year.

incredible. and very humbling.

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