RIEnglish

Dear readers,
here are some insights into Irish cuisine.

A little disclaimer: We mostly had water in addition to our food because you did not have to pay for it.

First night: Some of us strolled around Dublin where they discovered a small Italian restaurant. Fanny had a vegan pizza with very sparse toppings (like five artichokes, some capers and garlic) but it still tasted heavenly. Rene enjoyed pizza with bacon and olives. The dough was soft and crunchy at the same time. We were really delighted about our decision although it seemed rather expensive (16€ per pizza).

Meanwhile some others had more traditional Irish dishes such as burgers, chicken wings, fish’n’chips.

Day 2 in Dublin: The whole class attended a guided tour through Trinity College in the morning. Afterwards Fanny spent her break at Cutter’s where you could choose the ingredients for your salad or wrap. She went for a salad with spinach, onions, falafel, chickpeas, sprouts and raspberry topping for just 8€. It tasted absolutely delicious!!
Rene decided to go to a Spanish restaurant together with other classmates where all of them ate burritos with minced meat, beans, corn, salad, tomatoes and chili. Except Raphaela who had tacos. Everyone was satisfied with their choice and the price (around 10€ per person).

Day 3 – 8 in Galway: Rene, Leona and I stayed in Knocknacarra at Lizbeth Connolly’s. Ms Connolly put so much effort into cooking something vegan separately for Fanny, while also serving a completely different dish for Leona and Rene. For breakfast we had coffee or black tea, toast with peanut butter and jelly, cereals and fruits. Unfortunately, the food we sometimes got was not as fresh as we were used to. For lunch Leona and Rene got sandwiches, crisps, fruits and a chocolate bar. Fanny got couscous with vegetables and fruits too. For dinner we mostly had pasta with sauce which tasted great. We went out to restaurants twice where we enjoyed typical Irish dishes which were not that aromatic but still good.

All in all, Irish food is not that recommendable but if you have a good instinct for tasty dishes you are in good hands.

Irish Dancing dates back to the middle of the 15th century, firstly only practised by the Irish population, later during the 16th century, the British invaders adopted this dance style and even brought it to the Queen’s court. The dancing – taught by travelling dancing masters – spread all over Ireland. The nomadic lifestyle of the teachers also explains the unclear origin of the dance and its influences from French quadrilles and English country dancing.

As we all know from our lessons in the language school, the British oppressed the Irish people for centuries. Alongside the people, the culture also had to forfeit big elements of their rich history. Only in 1893 when the Gaelic League was founded, Irish people began to embrace dancing as a part of their culture again. The revival celebrated a big success all over the country. Young and old reunited by dancing and celebrating their own culture.

Our Irish dance lesson gave us only a small insight into the rich diversity of the dancing style, but it managed to amaze me instantly. Our dancing teacher, a young girl who distinguished herself with patience for our rather lame feet, showed us an Irish Ceili-Dance, the typical style of the modern period.
The fast movements were challenging but we all of us did our best to repeat the fast steps over and over again. I guess we looked a bit clumsy in our attempts, but it was good craic (Gaelic for great fun) to try it out. In the end, you can only truly experience a culture if you make the efforts to learn their unique ways, in this case, their unique way to dance.

On Saturday the 18th of May at 9 a.m. we went to Galway Coach Station. From there we had a two-hour bus ride, mostly along the coast to the wonderful village of Doolin. During the ride, we first heard about the news concerning the political scandal about the Austrian vice-chancellor H.C. Strache. Of course, everyone was excited and wondering about the consequences, so we kept following the news for updates.

After arriving at the pier, we boarded the ferry, which brought us to Inisheer, the smallest of the three islands. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there by boat.

After we arrived, we had to choose what we were wanted to do. There were several options: we could either take a ride with one of the tractors or a horse carriage, rent a bike to explore the isle on our own or just take a walk along the beach and visit the ruins of an old castle on the hill. Most of our classmates chose to rent a bike and discover the island, whereas the others decided to take walks and enjoy the nature.

We were a group of four and started our bike tour to the famous shipwreck. It was fantastic, so we decided to stay for an hour to explore the surroundings, which was a truly amazing experience! After some hours on the island it was time to get back to the ferry, which headed off at 1.45 p.m. to the Cliffs of Moher – our next great adventure.

Continue Reading →

After our exhausting but adventurous trip to the Aran Islands we took the ferry back to Doolin with a scenic tour past the Cliffs of Moher. From the sea the cliffs seemed to be so huge because the people who were on top of them looked tiny. In fact the cliffs’ maximum height is 214 metres. Some of us were really glad when we finally got back on land because the sea was so rough that some of us felt very sick. Morevoer, it started to get cold pretty soon and we started freezing. But as soon as we were in O’Connors Pub and had lunch everything was fine again.

Full of excitement we set off again to see the cliffs from the top. For me personally this was my favourite part of this day. Some people were so ridden by fears that they couldn’t even go to the walls which were built for safety reasons. At some parts of the cliffs you could go to the very edge and look at the sea, which was really thrilling. Gladly – and to our teacher’s relief – we all made it back to the coach safely.

During our time in Galway we had the pleasure of staying with a lovely host-mum. After arriving in the city by bus she picked us up and made us feel very welcome with her incredibly tasty veggie lasagna and hearty kind of humor.

We lived in a very cozy little house with her, our Swiss “host-sister” and two fluffy cats. Tom, our host mum’s son also stayed with us this week and his girlfriend Harris from Greece also visited Galway exactly in the week we were staying. Our dinners were quite multi-cultural and it was interesting to hear different people talk about their lives. We also discussed different ways of pronouncing English words which was funny because in fact even Tom and his mother weren’t always entirely sure about everything even though it was their first language.

Anne, our host-mum, always tried her best to create a perfect home away from home for us. We were really sad that we had to leave her after this incredible week. Even though we didn’t like Anne’s sandwiches we wouldn’t hesitate a second if somebody offered us to experience this journey again.

To be honest I really wasn’t a supporter of our plan to go to Ireland instead of maybe France or Spain. I hated the thought of rainy weather and detested packing that many clothes. But in reality, the second we stepped out of the plane at Dublin Airport I knew I was completely wrong. The sun was shining and it was perfectly warm. Believe it or not, I even got sunburned really badly on our first day there. I didn’t expect this to happen but the weather decided to stay this wonderful. All in all, I think we were really lucky with the sunshine and nobody at home believed me that we had such good weather on the island which is known for its rain.

On Monday, the 13th of May, we visited Trinity College in Dublin. A student (who was originally from Paris) guided us through the campus and filled us in on Trinity’s rich history.
The prestigious university was founded by the Pope in 1311, this forerunner is known as the Medieval University of Dublin and was far from what the college is today.
After that, many years of ongoing construction followed and made it the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin. This created a very unique campus surrounded by buildings from different centuries. Walking through the college ground, we could almost feel the stress and the tension of the students who have to deal with the tough competition of going to one of Ireland’s most renowned university.

The new library

Artwork on campus

Entry to the campus

We also visited Trinity College Library, which is best known for the display of the Book of Kells. Due to an enormous amount of visitors and the fact that we were restricted from going near the shelves, it was an underwhelming experience.
However, the lively atmosphere and observing the Ivy League students totally made up for it!

Our tickets

Book of Kells

Trinity College Library

Dear readers,

after our train trip to Vienna and a three-hour flight, we finally arrived at Dublin International Airport. A bus took us to our accommodation, which was called Abbey Court Hostel. It had a colourful front with beautiful flowers all over it.
We just brought our luggage to the rooms and headed off to the town to grab some food. Our class split up into two groups because we couldn’t agree on where to eat.
One half went to an Italian Restaurant and the others to a typical Irish pub.
The majority was exhausted and therefore only three were motivated to experience the nightlife.

We started our day with breakfast around 8 o’clock and after that we strolled around the city to a lovely park. Our next stop was Trinity College where we had a guided tour with a friendly French student. Afterwards we had a look at the famous Book of Kells, which is exhibited in the ancient library on the college campus.
In our two-hour lunch break everyone spent their free time differently but most of us went to a restaurant or a souvenir shop. The last points on our programme were Dublin Castle and the Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, which were also interesting and impressive.

At 4 o’clock we left the capital city and started our bus trip to our host families in Galway.
Even though it was only one day in Dublin, we got a good impression and saw a lot of amazing things!

Denise & Lisa

It’s been more than a year since we were in Liverpool and now we have more exploits to report of, after spending a week in Ireland. Read on, if you want to find out what 4AKM were getting up to in Dublin, Galway and surroundings!