Sunday, June 2nd (Belfast, Northern Ireland --> Monasterboice --> Waterford)

Today we were leaving Belfast to travel to Waterford, heading from Northern Ireland back into the Republic.  Also time to put away the Pounds and pull out the Euros. Belfast was going to be hard to beat, but some of my most anticipated places were still coming up and I couldn't wait to see more.  "Then I gathered my luggage, took a picture down the hall and a couple minutes to 10 AM we came to the lobby."

"Then she talked about the monasteries being built and great areas of learning.  One was Monasterboice. Then came the Vikings, who established Waterford." I didn't know a lot about Monasterboice but was excited to check it out.

Monasterboice is near some farm land where they happened to be growing rapeseed, and the yellow color was just beautiful to catch between the trees, hills, and plants.  "Anyway, we got to see the tower, 2 small "churches" and 3 High Crosses as a part of the cemetery.  These monasteries were pretty wealthy and the priests would escape the Vikings by taking their possessions into the tower and pulling up the ladders."

The high crosses are pretty amazing and Monasterboice is known for having the most ornamental High Cross in all of Ireland.  The carvings are beautiful and they were used for teaching purposes.  There is some debate about the crosses, as weather has certainly begun wearing down the carvings, and how best to preserve them.

The cemetery is still used and there are some fairly recent dates on some of the stones.  It was a beautiful place to visit and I'm glad we were able to go.  Seeing the different carvings and hearing about the history of the place was something I'm glad I could experience.

One of the strange things about Monasterboice is it seems to draw cats.  There are even cat carvings on some of the crosses and no one knows for sure why.  We even saw some cats on the way out and Katie told us there are always some around.  I really wanted to get some pictures of the rapeseed close up, but had to settle for some of the very pretty flowers before we left and went to Waterford.

Once we arrived in Waterford and got settled my roommate, Sara, and I walked around the town a bit.  Our room was interesting, clearly a room meant for someone with a handicap or perhaps wheelchair access.  Everything in the bathroom was very low, 1 small counter, not even a tub for the shower.  It was just a drain in the floor with a curtain.  It was a bit strange, but for 3 nights it was more than manageable.  "Then we met some people to go out with...We headed to T & H Doolans, that has live music." That pub is where we all signed a US dollar and they tacked it to the wall, with many others.