I MADE IT!

Hi everyone! This is just a quick update to let you know that I have finally completed the Race to Amsterdam, and I survived.

56 hours, countless car journeys, two police cars, a bus and crossing country borders on foot later, I am alive with no significant harm and finally out of dangerous situations.

The story of the hitch (which is the story of a lifetime by the way) will be up soon, but right now let me just say I am so glad to be safe and sound. :)

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Norwegian Wood

Note: This is a scheduled post - this is published, I'll probably be somewhere in France or Belgium, slowly making my way up to Amsterdam! WISH ME LUCK! Also, please remember to donate ;)

Norway is beautiful. It's the land of aurora, fjords, and Santa Claus (although any country in the arctic circle will dispute that last point). Unlike most of Europe, Norway does not belong to the European Union - it has consistently voted against joining the EU.

One of the Beatles' most famous songs is Norwegian Wood, which has now lent its name to a famous Japanese book by Haruki Murakami and film of the same name. I couldn't help but think of Norwegian Wood while walking through these Norwegian forests - song, book, and movie.



Flying overhead and nearing Sandefjord airport, the first thing I noticed about Norway was how beautiful the colours in the leaves were. In the thick of autumn, the leaves were every colour of fire imaginable - blazing reds, burning golds, in all stages - crisp, fresh-fallen, stamped to a pulp by shoes treading on them on the pavement.





One thing which I absolutely loved about Norway was how beautifully the sunlight lit up the place. Since we're now moving into winter, the sun never rises high in the sky any more - the whole place is swathed in a perpetual glow of golden morning or late afternoon sun.

Plus, there actually was sun, something which we certainly aren't getting too much of in the UK!

Beautiful scenery at Vigeland Sculpture Park.

Some of Oslo's first snow of the season, still collected on the woodland grass.

And yes - it snows in October in Norway. Freezing cold country!

Frozen puddles at Frognerseteren.

Most of the trees here are coniferous, growing straight up with perfect trunks and a conical silhouette. To me they just look like forests full of Christmas pine and fir!


Have you been to Norway? What do you love most about it?

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You guys are amazing!

WE ARE PAST THE £200 MARK!!!!!!

I can't believe this! The hitchhike to Amsterdam is tomorrow (where on earth did all the time go?!) and already we've managed to raise £202 for the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Breakthrough Breast Cancer!

Words cannot express how grateful I am to all of you for helping Jasmine and I get to this point. There's still some time to go before the hitchhike tomorrow, so please please donate!! (Clicky here!) To be honest we were both unsure whether or not we'd be able to raise anything at all for these charities, but thanks to you guys we're more than halfway there, meeting our target goal of £350.

The link to donating will stay open for six months after the event date, so if you would like to, you've got until April 2013 to donate - and donate again, if you would so like!

Yesterday my team met up to discuss potential routes and strategies both for raising funds and for getting to Amsterdam. We're a little freaked out now - now that we know that this is really happening, we're just in a mild state of shock. Hitchhiking from Edinburgh to Amsterdam is probably the last thing we expected to have happen to us while we were here on exchange!

This goes without saying, but also of course don't forget to stay tuned and watch this space, because I will be blogging about it after the race is over. If you want to, also keep an eye out for my Twitter, because (3G and phone battery life permitting) I will be live tweeting my race and hitchhike! The race kicks off 9AM at Bristo Square on 9 November, this Friday.

Thank you everyone for giving so generously to help the cheetahs and to fight breast cancer. It's all thanks to you that we've come this far already, and we have so much more of a way to go before we hit our target of £350! It doesn't matter if you give £2, or £5, or £10 or £30 (Keren my dear thank you so much for being our top sponsor!!!) anything that you give comes from the heart and will go a long way towards helping these causes.

So once again, don't forget to donate - and remember to spread the word about the hitchhike to all your friends. See you in Amsterdam!

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Samhain Festival

Just a reminder: in two days I will be hitchhiking to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Edinburgh Student Charity Appeal and associated charities! If you haven't already, you can donate to me via Virgin Money-giving here. I am so eternally grateful to you for helping me help these charities!

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Most people know that October 31 is Halloween, but it's less commonly known that October 31 is also the Mexican Day of the Dead, the neo-Pagan Samhain, the Catholic All Hallow's Eve, and lots of other festivals. There's a common theme running through these festivals: they've got lots to do with dead people.

It's a traditional belief in many places that the time around October 31 is the time when the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest. During these times communication with the dead is easiest, so it can be a good time for divination or seances. You guys already know what my thoughts are about ghosts - and Edinburgh is supposedly the most haunted city in all of Europe, so hey!

Here in Edinburgh, the Samhain festival is an annual event that celebrates the modern continuation of an ancient Pagan tradition: Samhain (also spelt Samhuinn), a harvest festival that marks the end of summer and the coming of the cold winter months.

I know it looks a lot like him, but I promise you that's not Darth Maul holding the flaming torch.

Costumed performers in every colour of face paint and technicolour costumes.



In the picture above, this woman is cleansing or clearing the space with branches for the people to walk on - in the neo-Pagan tradition, this removes negative energy from the space and readies it for magickal work.



As you can see, the crowds turned up by the thousands to see the parade! Everyone was out in their Halloween costumes, so vampires and werewolves and Mary Poppins and hell-devils were out in throngs to see the Samhain parade.

It was so squished though - I could barely move, everyone was trying to get to the front to get a good look! To be honest, most of my pictures of the evening were of the top of people's heads than anything else... So these are the good ones which I'm putting out for you guys to see ha ha ha!

Friendly performers posing for photos afterwards!

What do you think? Does Edinburgh live up to its reputation as a festival city?

Samhain 2012 was organised by the Beltane Fire Society, which aims to sustain Celtic traditions and integrate them with the art of street performance; apart from the Samhain festival, it also organises the Beltane festival which is held on Calton Hill in May every year. To get involved with the Beltane Fire Society, email volunteers@beltane.org at any time.

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Little comforts of home

Just a reminder: on November 9 (four days!!!) I will be hitchhiking to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Edinburgh Student Charity Appeal and associated charities! If you haven't already, you can donate to me via Virgin Money-giving here. I am so eternally grateful to you for helping me help these charities!

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A few days ago I got a package in the mail!! I love getting stuff in the mail, it makes your heart sing and it's so fun to rip something open.

I don't know if you've ever seen this super-cheesy advert for Milo - the strange thing, though, is how true it is. Milo is such a huge thing if you've grown up in Singapore or the South-east Asian region. It's comfort food, like macaroni and cheese. Only better.

 

If you don't believe how much we nuts love Milo, just look at this - the epic Milo party that my flatmates and I had when I was living in NUS.



Milo everything - Milo packets, Milo cereal, Milo tins, Milo sachets... If anyone from Nestle is reading this, do you want to sponsor me for some Milo please?! I think this picture proves our obsession.

Also, first girl from the right is Katie, who was an exchange student for that semester - and when she flew home to the USA, she brought 2KG of Milo powder with her because you can't find it in Florida or Texas. (Milo conversion: success!)

So anyway, back to my mail package. I'm pretty sure you guys've figured out what was in it by now.



So, Celeste and Phyllis, thank you so much for the Milo!!!! When you're 11,000 miles away from home and a tiny can of Milo costs £3 at the Asian food store, getting Milo in the mail is like getting a giant hug from home. There's nothing like this chocolate malt drink - hot chocolate really doesn't compare.

If you haven't tasted Milo, I insist that you do. Cold Milo (made super thick, not the thin watered-down crap) is like drinking heaven in a cup.

And if anyone from Nestle is reading this do you want to sponsor me for Milo at all?! Ha ha ha!

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Brú na Bóinne

Let me tell you about how crazy I am when I'm determined to do something. I go absolutely freaking all-out, nearly get myself into disasters, but keep my fingers crossed and hope that everything will work out.

The latest thing that I got myself into that could have potentially turned out to be a disaster was my crazy idea to go to Brú na Bóinne in County Meath, about 2.5h from Dublin, alone and on the day of my return flight to Edinburgh.

Let me first tell you about how I got there.



Brú na Bóinne is a group of three Neolithic monuments constructed over 5000 years ago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of ancient burial tombs, shaped like mounds with several satellite mounds around the three big ones. Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth are the three big mounds, with Newgrange being the most well-known for its solar alignment during the winter solstice around December 21 every year.

Newgrange at Yule, or the Winter Solstice.

Get this - these monuments are 600 years older than the pyramids in Egypt, and 1000 years older than Stonehenge.

But what's the big deal about 5000-year-old tombs anyway? It's hard to say - maybe it's the realisation that the people who lived 5000 years ago were every bit as creative as we are today, or that standing in the walls that were constructed 5000 years ago you have stepped back in time for a little bit and are seeing the work of people who lived five milleniums ago, almost exactly as they saw them (I only say almost exactly because over the years after Newgrange was rediscovered the insides were vandalised).

From Dublin City Centre, there are three options you can take to get to the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, where you will buy your ticket and book your tour to the three monuments.

1. Tour group

This is the easy option - simply following a tour to go out to the monuments. Oftentimes, these groups will also include stops at other sites, such as the Hills of Tara and the Boyne Valley, so they're a great option if you want to do more than just Brú na Bóinne. The Hills of Tara and Boyne Valley are also the sites of important Irish historical monuments of an archeological nature, so if you're into mythology and/or ancient history this might be the choice for you.

Mary Gibbons Tours and Boyne Valley Tours both provide popular tours to these sites.

2. Shuttle bus

The company Over The Top provides a shuttle bus service for €17, €15 if you're a student, that takes you to and from the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, with two departures and two returns a day. Departing at 9AM and 11.30AM from the tourism office on Suffolk Street, it returns at 1.30PM and 4.30PM from the visitor centre so it's a convenient pick-up point with plenty of time for you to look around and explore each place properly.

There is one caveat, though - there must be a minimum number for the shuttle bus to operate, so in the low season (anything that isn't summer, September-May) it's essential to book the bus in advance. At least seven persons are required for the service to run, so if it's a number less than that this won't be an available option

I wanted to take this option, and I'd turned up for the 9AM bus - only to realise that they weren't operating that day because I was going to be the only person on it!

3. Public bus

This option is a risky one because of the tight schedule on which you have to operate as well as the transfers you have to keep in mind. The buses go from Dublin to Drogheda, which is the nearest town to Brú na Bóinne, and then you have to take a bus from Drogheda to the visitor centre.

100X will take you from Custom House Quay, near the Bus Eireann Busaras, to the bus station in Drogheda. It departs at 10AM from Custom House Quay, arriving at 11AM; it returns from Drogheda at 4PM and reaches Dublin at around 5PM.

163 in the direction toward Donore stops at the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre. It departs from Drogheda toward the visitor centre at 11.15AM; it returns from the visitor centre to Drogheda at 3.10PM. This gives you roughly four hours to complete your tour of the sites and get back in time for the return bus, which is actually less comfortable than it sounds. I'll explain why in a bit.

Here's a useful PDF file of the Bus Eireann bus timetables.




So you've got yourself to the visitor centre, and you've bought your tickets to visit the monuments. Newgrange is located about 3KM away from the visitor centre; Knowth, about 4KM. This means you'll have to take a shuttle bus from the visitor centre to the monuments, and the sticker you're given tells you what bus time you're on.

Each monument tour lasts one hour. I would have liked more time to look around the monuments on my own after the tour, but the return shuttle bus arrived pretty promptly, so we weren't given much time to look around. Of course, you could choose to skip the shuttle bus and walk back to the visitor centre from the monuments, but then by the time you got back you'd probably have missed the bus to the next monument, which for me was Knowth.



The entrance stone to Newgrange is probably one of the most striking things about Newgrange. All the stones are richly decorated with all sorts of symbols and beautiful carvings - triskeles on everything, chevron lines, concentric geometry, and lots more. It's stunning to think that these beauties have been so well preserved for 5000 years.



Although it looks massive from the outside, the interior is actually really small - it's narrow and cramped, and there's only one passage that leads to a cross-chamber, three recesses on the left, front and centre. It's beautiful, and although it has been vandalised over the years before the site became managed and lots of the original artefacts inside have been stolen, it's nonetheless one of the most awe-inspiring experiences I've had.

We aren't allowed to take pictures inside Newgrange, so if you want to see the inside you'd normally have to make a trip and go there yourself. And indeed you should; I highly recommend it. But because you read my blog and I love you guys, I've searched the internet for other people's photos of the inside. :)



Those photos really don't do it justice. There's nothing like being inside and experiencing it in person.

My next stop was Knowth, one of the other two, and lesser-known, monuments. Surprisingly, I actually liked Knowth a lot more than I did Newgrange - it felt more authentic, less reconstructed, and I really liked that there were so many little satellite mounds around the big one.



The smaller mounds were probably used to bury less important members of ancient Irish communities. My guide for Knowth was Mandy Boyle - she's fabulous, answering all sorts of questions even though I'm sure she's heard them a thousand times, being so dedicated to her work and enthusiastic about people who want to know more about Brú na Bóinne.

At Knowth you can't enter the original chamber built 5000 years ago because the passageways are too narrow for visitors, but there's a small little visitor's chamber built into the mound that visitors can enter anyway and that's pretty cool. The length of the passageways at Knowth are also about 15m longer than the one at Newgrange - and there're two chambers at Knowth, each opposite the other but without a through connection.

Knowth's solar alignment falls with the Autumn Equinox - so Newgrange isn't the only one with a solar alignment!



I'll admit, I felt like I didn't get as much time looking around as I would have liked - but then again, this was me taking my time to slowly examine and look at things, so. Also, a cool thing about Knowth is that you're allowed to walk on the roof of the mounds if you want to!

Here comes the crazy nearly-missed-my-bus bit of my day.

The return bus from Knowth was supposed to leave to the visitor centre at 2.45, but it wasn't until 2.56 that the bus finally left to go back. When I reached the visitor centre at 3.04PM, I was running like I'd never ran before to catch my 3.10PM return to Drogheda so that I could get back to Dublin.

I caught and got on the bus to Drogheda at 3.09PM. If I'd been there just one minute later, it would have left and I'd've been stuck there. Talk about a close shave.

Anyway, I got on my bus safe and sound, and made it back to Dublin comfortably with lots of time before my flight later that evening (which, by the way, was delayed because Ryanair really sucks) but really it's one of those kids-don't-try-this-at-home things.



Brú na Bóinne: Palace of the Boyne. Sounds mighty fancy, like kings may have once resided in here. Maybe if we listen hard enough, we'll be able to hear whatever it is that these old stone walls are trying to say to us. Within these chambers are contained magic.

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On November 9 I will be hitchhiking to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Edinburgh Student Charity Appeal and associated charities. If you haven't already, please help by donating via Virgin Money-giving here. Thank you everyone!

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The cruel past

Kilmanhaim Gaol (Jail), one of Dublin's most notorious prisons and most haunted sites, was built in the 18th century and seen as a then-modern, new way of holding prisoners that aimed to better reform and benefit the persons they intended to keep within their walls.



The single cells were intended to hold prisoners and separate them from the world, and reform them through sensory deprivation. Overcrowding soon occurred though, and up to five prisoners a cell were often placed in a single tiny cell with just one window and a candle which had to last them for up to 2 weeks to provide heat and warmth in the cold limestone walls.



Walking through the prison and being told about the prisoners, you can't help but look into the cells and wonder about the lives of the people who lived there. Children, women, and men, arrested for petty crimes, alongside political prisoners such as Joseph Plunkett and later also his wife Grace Gifford.



This, the East Wing of Kilmanhaim Gaol, is the only section of the jail where visitors may enter cells, and is the best restored section. Prisoners were sometimes given things to pass the time with, crayons and paints, and the result is sometimes humorous - painting "To Let" and "Hotel" in their cells - and sometimes leaves the kind of visual reminder that haunts and stays with you.





Grace Gifford's painting of the Madonna and Child, in particular, makes you painfully aware that looking through the eye-hole, you are looking into the life of a person who lived, who led a life, and who died.

Grace Gifford married Joseph Plunkett less than a day before Plunkett was executed at Kilmanhaim; they were married at a chapel in the church before an altar with only two guards as their witnesses and were not allowed to speak to each other except to recite their vows.



The black cross here marks where prisoners were privately executed by firing squad, as opposed to public executions by hanging.

Walking through Kilmanhaim is like walking through the lives of a thousand people - each the result of some circumstance in their lives that made them come to Kilmanhaim, sometimes even voluntarily submitting themselves to the jail by committing some petty crime and be arrested to guarantee food rations and shelter in winter, if nothing else.

It is a place that makes you think about living and about the people who have lived before us. It is a place of tremendous sadness and tremendous awe. And in some strange way, it is also a place that makes you become somehow attached to these people you have never met, as if you have even for the briefest of moments been there as they lived.

Access to Kilmanhaim Gaol is by guided tour only; tickets may be purchased at the gate.

Bus Route(s): No. 69, 79 from Aston Quay Dublin 2; No 13 & 40 from O'Connell St. Dublin 1 or College Green Dublin 2.

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On November 9 I will be hitchhiking to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Edinburgh Student Charity Appeal and associated charities. If you haven't already, please help by donating via Virgin Money-giving here. Thank you everyone!

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