en33l

a trip to ireland

On Thursday, the 24th of August we started our trip to Ireland. 

Although having a bus with a toilet and a videorecorder we were not allowed to use one of these things. Our first part of the way finished in Rotterdam. There we had to go by ferry to England. We started at 18:15 o'clock and had to sleep on reclining seats. Those were very comfortable!! - Joke! The only problem was, that there was no regular and cheap food.

In the early morning we arived in Hull in England, very tired and K.O.! After leaving the ferry our bus trip from Hull to Holyhead took very long and so we had to have a lot of breaks. First we drove to the next Burger King-Station for having a breakfast (with many kalories). And later we had a break in Wales, where we got a first of the Irish Sea.

When we arrived in Holyhead, we took the ferry to Ireland, but there still was nothing to eat (nothing regular). After that we drove by bus to Dublin.

On the 25th we arrived at our hostel, called "Abraham-House".

come and see dublin...

What we did on Saturday...

First - the General Post Office (GPO) 

It was one of the main settings of the Easter Rising in 1916, occupied by the Irish Rebels. You can see a lot of historical paintings which give you a clue about the events of the uprising.  There is also a statue of Chuchulain, the national Irish hero.

As the Post office is still in use you can get your stamps and airmail stickers there.

Second - Dublin Castle

We didn’t see much of it except the inner court and the church from the outside. The castle used to be seat of the European Parliament some time ago.

Third - Trinity College

It had an interesting video show about the history of Dublin - but don’t go there if you haven’t had enough sleep the night before  ;-) You can also visit the famous library which is quite impressing - and for free for pupils. It includes the Book of Kells which is supposed to be the oldest still existing handwritten book. If you have the time, go and see it!

Fourth - Shopping and Temple Bar District

As for good shopping possibilities we advice you to try Grafton street, Mary Street and Henry Street, large pedestrian zones - but go and see the small sidestreets as well, they are worth it!  

Temple bar is Dublin’s definite pub-quarter, but... there are some pubs you have to be over 21 or even 23 (or wearing really short skirts...) to get in, and you should never come in a group over six and later than 21.30h, otherwise it will be pretty hard to find a seat for everyone.

Irish pubs are officially supposed to close at 23 o’clock - latest at 1 o’clock they really do. As we couldn’t find a place in Temple Bar we wandered around looking for alternatives - and finally found a pretty good one in „The Celt“ just around the corner and only a few minutes away from the youth hostel. 

We spent two great evenings with live music and a lot of friendly Australians, Germans, French, Americans, Scots, Bavarians and Guiness (we found about one or two Irish). We had a lot of fun, especially with our teachers singing Irish folk songs in front of the whole pub audience... :-)

And what we did on Sunday...  

First - Guiness Hopstore

An exhibition of guiness history and fertilizing process - and a lot of advertisement posters - Guiness is good for you!

Go there by bus - it is awful to walk through the run down quarters of Dublin.

Second - Kilmainham Gaol (Jail)

We had a very interesting guided tour through the gaol - very fast spoken, but full of personal histories of the former prisoners (most of them politic prisoners).

 We did Irish history in 12.2 so this visit was a must - and it really wasn’t a waste of time.

from dublin to letterkenny

On 28th we went on from Dublin to Letterkenny in the morning. During the trip we stopped for a visit at Monasterboice.

On our way through parts of Northern Ireland, we paid a sisit to "Castle Coole". It was really interesting because of all the old furnishings.

In the afternoon we dropped the other class ( EN32L ) at the Donegal Farm Hostel and finally moved on to Letterkenny. 

Our accommodation in Letterkenny ( 16.000 inhabitants ) was really nice ( we had two houses just for ourselves ).

After having moved into our rooms we ( our course with Mr. Rosemi ) explored the city. 

The next morning a really motivated " girl-breakfast-group" ( Meike, Birte, Ani, Anja ) organised the breakfast and the supply for the next days. The weather was really incredible so we decided to go to the beach. Some of the brave girls even jumped into the cold and savage tide of the Atlantic.

On the following tour we got another impression of the fantastic Irish landscape. During a break on the cliffs we took this photo :  

The evening we had a really delicious BBQ with meat, potatoes, salad and something for the vegetarian students. Nobody really liked the potatoes so Mr. Heine promised a glass of really strong Gaelic liquor to everybody eating one more potato ( one glass for every potato ).

All the potatoes were gone in a few minutes and the group was in a REALLY good mood.  

The next day we made a trip to Derry, a town in Northern Ireland. In the past, Derry was the place of many bloody IRA fights and riots .We could still feel all the " danger " and aggression of the past; the graveyard, the anti-terror-fortification 

 or the political paintings on the walls of the catholic quarter ( the city got divided in two quarters, one for the Catholic inhabitants and one for the protestant half ) created a frightening atmosphere;

we felt really relieved after having left the town.

The evening three brave boys and girls went riding on a farm near Letterkenny. The boys did really well but the girls still had to practise. Nevertheless it was great fun.

These were just some of the amazing events on our trip to Letterkenny and we would never really have the time and space to write down everything we experienced. We hope, whoever might read this article will have the chance to see this incredible country himself... .

trip back home

On 31st we had our departure from Letterkenny in the morning. The trip "back home again" started.

First we had to pick up the other group again, and then we drove by bus to the highest cliffs of Europe, called the "Slieve League".

But only two or three persons from usour group  had the chance to see them, because they walked alone and not the "right" way, our teachers had chosen!! 

We walked a different way, it was raining cats and dogs.

But we did not see anything of the cliffs. Well, a very nice walk!  

After that we went into a pub to drink a hot chocolat and in the afternoon we drove on by bus to a little city called "Sligo".

We were hungry and so we decided with twelve persons to go to an Italian restaurant, were we finally have to pay a lot of money! "We did not only have to pay our food, also we had to pay for the service as well!".  

On our way back to Dublin we passed some very spectacular sceneries.

At 5:00 o'clock in the morning we were allowed to enter the fery back to England.

There we all slept on sofas, but it was not very easy because of the waves.

Three hours later we arrived in England and we drove to Wales for a visit of the castle where Prince Charles had been crowned, Caernafon.

In the afternoon, we arrived at the ferry in Hull and we took of at 19:00 o'clock. But there was a problem. We all had no reclining seats, but later we were allowed to spent the night in another room with such seats. Well, we did not need these seats, because we all slept on the ground! In the evening we made party and celebrated in a hall, where a band was playing music. It was very funny, because all girls from our groups stood on the dance floor and danced the "Macarena".

In the early morning of the 2nd of September we arrived Belgium and started our last trip by bus. We drove through Belgium, through the Netherlands and last but not least through Germany!

At 15:00 o'clock we finally arrived in Aurich.

It was a very hard trip without a lot of sleep, but we often had a lot of fun and we all survived it.