6/1/2004 Hill of Tara, and on to Cork

**For my pictures, go to http://photos.yahoo.com/gd1303.**
A new month begins today. I passed up the wheat bix this morning, because frankly, the stuff is about as tasty as sawdust. Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything except sandwiches and potatoes since I’ve been here. I made my way to the bus station (the Busárus, which sounds like a breed of dinosaur) to catch the commuter bus to the Hill of Tara. The Hill is the historic seat of the ancient Celtic kings, 55 minutes away. Actually, the bus stop is one mile away at the base of a long but gently ascending road. I started noticing how quiet the countryside is. Ever since I left NYC its been constant noise, and Dublin was noisy (and noisome) in its own way. (too “aggro” as a resident of Cork later described it) The quiet on the Hill of Tara however was punctuated by bird calls and cow moos. The site itself was subtle; there was but one exposed stone monument, the ‘Stone of Destiny’ which did not roar when I laid my hands on it (but reportedly did when the legitimate Irish king did the same). The rest of the historic remains are underground, beneath the grassy concentric circles, gentle swells, and narrow ditches. Some have been excavated apparently, and show that the Hill of Tara was used for a long time, starting in the neolithic period. Unfortunately, my photos don’t capture the experience of wandering over those grassy hills; the view over the surrounding pasture land was glorious, and clouds cast creeping shadows over the neatly divided fields.
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Ireland is having an important election soon, and campaign posters are everywhere. There’s even supposed to be a referendum on the constitution. I still have no idea what the issues are, but they seem to be related to citizenship. One campaign poster caught my eye. I forget the candidates name, or which party he represents, but his platform was written across the poster in bold letters: “Stop the Paedophiles”
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11:15AM Brunching on vegetable soup and a scone at the hilltop café/souvenir shop. It was very peaceful, but I felt a cold coming on. the walk back down the hill was thus much less pleasant. However, I did get one good photo pf some sleeping cows. Who says cows sleep standing up? You won’t get very far trying to tip these cattle. Moments later a minivan buzzed past at a dangerous speed and woke the bovine sleepers up.
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4:00PM Four and a half hours on the bus from Dublin to Cork; stopped halfway there at a petrol station. There, I had my first ‘Wimpy burger’ (a Wimpy Quarterpounder with Cheese, to be exact). Tasteless. I’m not lovin’ it.
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10:00PM Went to work at this enormous internet café, ‘Web Workhouse’ where they have a roomful of machines sporting dual P4@3.0Ghz. Ridiculous. Pretty much overkill for the emailing and websurfing that most customers where doing. One bloke was playing counterstrike, but hey, that ran perfectly fine on 400Mhz PII’s. I was flabbergasted at the completely misplaced priorities of that place. Do they rent the place for LAN parties or something, or is it all about being 1337?