Getting Lost

The Planner ...

I always have a plan. And I always have a back-up plan. Let's be honest, I even have a plan C in the works just in case A and B both fail. I might be a bit of a type A, compulsive-planner personality.

So you'd think all this planning would translate to my preparation for three-months of traveling in foreign countries, right? Well, not exactly.

I did obsess about driving on the "wrong" side of the road and developed strategies for that. To my surprise other that trying to get in on the passenger side a few times, I rock the left-side driving! But I failed to recognized that in my life of GPS and navigation systems, I have completely lost the ability to navigate off a paper map and road signs.

The Panic ...

So in two days in Ireland, I've gotten superbly lost three times. Really, really lost, like eighty kilometers in the wrong direction kind of lost. Pull over to the side of the road and cry to unsympathetic sheep kind of lost. Contemplate turning on the cellular network and paying any roaming fee if the GPS will just f'ing work kind of lost. Scream at yourself to "Get it together, Heather!" kind of lost.

And so yesterday in one of those lost moments, I saw a brown, icon-only sign for a historic site and followed it. Maybe it was for Newgrange, although that seemed unlikely since it was my intended destination and the thirty-five minute drive had started two hours ago. But desperately, I followed the sign down a long single lane road, praying the whole time I wouldn't encounter an oncoming truck. And when I came to a small parking lot I happily pulled in and ran from the car.

At the base of the rustic wood and dirt steps, a sign read "Loughcrew Passage Tombs". Hope flared ... Newgrange was also a passage tomb, so maybe I wasn't so far off course!

Up the steps seemed to be the inevitable next move, so up I went. I soon passed a friendly Irish woman who assured me I was not AT ALL near Newgrange, but that this was a "looovly" spot and I should "keep up" to the the top. With a final "It'll be grand!" she continued down and I continued up.

The Hope ...

Suddenly, I saw a tour ... a glorious, organized tour with at least one person who had to know what he was doing. Hope returned in the form of the charming, cheerful, rosy-cheeked, gray-haired Dave, who insisted I join the group. The group was in fact ten women who were on a healing pilgrimage and chose not to speak. I don't really do silence, but I was just happy to feel less lost and alone, so I quietly admired the beautiful sunny day and the gorgeous views as we hiked past herds of grazing sheep.

Thankfully, Dave had not taken a similar vow of silence and so he and I dropped away from the group a bit and he gave me an overview of the area. (I was about an hour in the opposite direction of Newgrange incidentally).

As we crested the steep hill Dave began to describe the Loughcrew Passage Tombs or Sliabh na Caillí, which is Irish for "mountain of the hag". The site is estimated to be over 7,000 years old and built by neolithic man to be a burial site. The local legend is that it was created by a giant witch who dropped the huge stones from her apron while she leapt across the land. I found both stories fascinating. (I was an art history and mythology minor after all).

From outside it didn't look like much, but a grassy hill covered with rocks. The most impressive part of the exterior was the giant single stone alter or "Hag's Chair". Dave assured me the interior was the really cool part.

Hunched over, I crept inside the low cave-like entrance that opened into a chamber with huge, ancient, carved stones. Once in the center of the domed, stacked-stone chamber I could stand upright and see into the three small chambers lined in stones carved with swirls and flow-like designs. Dave explained that the entrance is solar aligned so on the autumnal equinox the sun shines in through the entrance and illuminates the stones at the back of the chamber.

The most amazing part of it all, was that unlike Newgrange, this burial monument has not been restored. It remained exactly as it had been created, but with 7,000 (seven-thousand!!) years of age on it. And we could just walk around, touch the carvings and explore it. These ancient monuments are just open and available to the public throughout Ireland. It's incredible!

After exploring for about an hour, I was once again feeling brave enough to return to my car to journey out once again. And on the hike down Dave shared a million more things to see and do while in Ireland. He also gave me idiot-proof directions to Newgrange. (I did ultimately make it there for the last tour of the day.)

So off I went, a much happier girl with a new friend and an incredible experience that would never have happened if I hadn't gotten utterly lost.

The Resolution ...

So I've resolved to be (mostly) OK getting lost and not having a plan for the next few months. I mean, it seems inevitable, so why fight it?

And with that new resolve, I got lost going to dinner last night, ended up at a different restaurant, made friends with a lovely couple next to me and am going with them to a craft beer and food tasting at the local brewery tonight. But that's another story ...