The Aran Islands – Not the Cliffs of Moher

In the morning we woke up early for breakfast. At 8:30 a.m. we took the bus to Rossaveal, which is 45 minutes from Galway away.

We took the ferry to reach the biggest of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. The island is 9 miles long and about 2 miles wide, and mostly consists of barren limestone rock and small fields. The fields are surrounded by stone walls, where cows and donkies live. When we arrived on the island we went on to the Black Fort. After a one-hour-walk we saw the stunning Cliffs, we sat down on the stones took a break and had lunch. We enjoyed the cold fresh air, but suddenly it started to rain, so we went on. We walked and climbed over the stones while it was raining. After some time we went back to an Irish-Pub because we wanted to have a hot drink or a meal.

We also visited the Aran Sweater Market and Museum. It is the birthplace of the Aran Sweater, a sweater which was first used by the island fishermen. After that we drove back with the ferry to Rossaveal and took the bus back to Galway.

At 7 p.m. some of us went to the supermarket to buy food for dinner. Then we started to cook and made pizza with salad, it tasted very good! After dinner some of us went out. But not very long because everybody was tired from our trip and we also had to wake up early the next morning. Kathi and I went to the Internet to send our last E-mail before we went.

I hope everybody enjoyed this evening.

Beate Moch

On to Galway

Today we moved out of our host families' homes and drove to Galway, which is on the west-coast of Ireland.

For this we met at half past 9 at Bayside Station and took the Dart 8 minutes later to Dublin. There we had about one hour time till the bus arrived. After about four hours on the bus with a short break of about 10 minutes we all were happy to get out of it. We took our backpacks and went to the hostel. After a short walk we arrived there at 3 o’clock pm and checked in. Our rooms were small, but it was enough place for everybody and we had our own bathroom.

At half past 5pm some of us went to the supermarket to buy something to eat. After that we began to cook. We made Zucchini soup, pasta with a tomato-olive sauce and salad. After our dinner we decided to go out. We chose a pub with live music. Although the band was very good some of us went home after less than two hours, because we were so tired from our journey.

Nina Metzler

St. Patrick's Day

On St. Patrick`s Day it is said that eveyone is Irish, Irre, what is maybe the excuse for some mistakes that might have happened.
We met up at half past eight and found out that the dart had different a time table! We had planed to visti Howth in the morning and be back in the city early enough to see the parade. The next train would have been an hour later and so we decided to take a walk instead. This was our first little mistake ( what was good for me, because I forgot my ticket at home).
So we went to Dublin by the ten o`clock dart. We painted the chamrocks on our faices and ate lunch, we were to busy to notice that we had arrived at O`Connel Station ... Well, 8 of 9 People left the train ... It took me all together 3 differnet darts back to O`Connel Station and I guess that the others had a goog laugh about it (I hope so!)
The parade should have started at twelve but it didn`t and so we stood in the cold waiting for over an hour. Lucky, we had arrived so early, otherwise we wouldn`t have found enough space for nine people!
The street was full of families with little kids and tourists. Beate and I shared a waste bin to sit on and we without it we wouldn`t have seen much of the parade.
The parade consisted of schools, solders, dancing schools, music guards and important people. That wasn`t as boring as it sounds. It was realy nice to watch, we took a lot of pictures.
After the parade had finished we were surching for a pub, but they were all overfilled, so we went to the dart.
Most of us got out at Bayside and went home, Mr . Sankofi, Katharina and I drove to Howth. There we surched for seals, but we didn`t find any probably because it was to windy and cold. It started to rain and so we decided to go into a cafe where we warmed up and played cards, what was quite nice.
Our 4th mistake on that day was that Kathrina lost her scarfe at the cafe.
So we visited Howth two times!
I have to say, that we did use our dart tickets.
At home we (Kathy and I) packed and helped our host mum with the dinner.
We ate and went out to the lockal pub.
The other students were allready there and were waiting for us. Alex ordered onion chips all the time, some people played cards and others put the table decoration in their hair.
Mr Sankof arrived short time later and so we all celebrated St. Patrick`s Day together. The 5th mistake was somethig broken.
The pub was full and there was a live band playing 70es. Some of us started to dance and after a while there was no space left on the dance floor. It was fun and sweet, because people of all ages danced.
Everyone enjoyed St. Patrick`s day and went to bed very late.

Marie Veletzky

Dublin Castle and a boring evening

Report of Thursday, the 15th

In the morning we started with our English course at 8:20 AM like the other days before.

When it was over at 11:50 AM we took the dart from the station BAYSIDE at 12:30. We got of the train at TARA STREET and walked to “Dublin Castle”. We arrived there at 1:30, but the tour that we could take started at 3:45. Because we didn’t want to wait the whole time we bought the tickets and split up in 2 groups. One went to “St. Patricks’ Cathedral”, and the other group, who were Marie, Alexander, our teacher and I, went to the “National Gallery”. There we walked through the pictures of the 19^th century. I don’t know what the others saw at the cathedral, but I think they saw the cathedral.

We all met again at 3:30 and had to give them our bags, because they were afraid that we carry something away, maybe we would have done so if we had had our bags.

When the tour started at 3:45 our tour-guide began talking about the history of the castle, which is now a building from the government. He told us about the symbols of the families who were owner of the building, and the great fire when there was a party in the 17^th century and so everything was rebuilt, but they tried to let it look like before.

We also saw the other historical rooms and heard a funny story about the picture of the Irish who met the pope. They thought that the painter was dead because they didn’t hear anything about the painter any more. But on a tour some weeks ago, one of the tourists said that he was actually alive. The tour-leader asked him if he was sure and he said that he was sure because he had played golf with him the week before.

There was one room for the ladies where they could relax and “choose” their new husbands with a very complicated way of flirting.

At the end of our tour our guide showed us the underground of the buildings where they had their weapons and other stuff that they wanted to hide in their halls. But in the 17^th century there was a explosion in the weapon area and then everything crashed down. But they had also rebuilt them, but not for their real use.

It was a very interesting tour, also because the guy who was our tour-leader spoke very interesting and made many jokes.

After our tour we went in the building again to get our bags and then we drove back home to our host families. But no one wanted to go out in the evening, only me, but in the end I stayed home too. Just reading and watching “South Park”.

We stayed home, because “Boring people do boring things.”

Richard Pammer

Interesting Orchids and a funny squirrel

In the morning we got to school like every day and learned something about the states of Ireland (Ulster, Lemster, Monster and Tonnaught). We did some Idioms and Irish myths, like the Banshee or Leprechaun. After school some of our group went to the liberty and some to the Lidl. At half past 12 we met at the Dart station and drove to O'Connell street and took the tram to Abby street. In the tram Krista asked a woman where the station of the bus 19 was. We got there and after 20 minutes we jumped into the bus and drove to the "National botanical garden"!
There we could see beautiful flowers, interesting Orchids and tall palm trees.
In the garden also lived squirrels. Marie, Nina and I fed one of them, as we wanted to go away it jumped on Ninas leg. That was very funny. After we have seen enough we set down in the cafe', there we drunk some hot chocolate or coffee or ate cakes. It was very good there. Than we went back to the bus station and drove home.
Later on the evening we celebrated Kristina's birthday and we all enjoyed a pint of Irish Ale.

Fotos of the botanical gardens

a wunderful flower

The funny squirrel.

After we had looked at al the flowers, most of us

drove home, but Alex, Mr. Sankofi and Marie went to the Luminarium, a light instalation.

Penny's is paradise and bags for 1€

On Wednesday we also went to school. At school we played the same game like the day before and we spoke about how to get a driving license in Ireland. In Ireland the license is much cheaper than in Austria because you don’t have to take driving hours.
At last we had a school tour with Jimmy, the caretaker of the school. He showed us the garden and the plants of the “green” school.
After school we had the afternoon off for us. So everyone could do what he really wanted. For most of us this was shopping. Some went to Penny's with is a really cheap cloths-store, like H&M. (The price speaks for the quality) The most also go to Carroll’s to buy some souvenirs.
At 6 pm we all had dinner at home. At 7:50 pm we all took the train to Dublin, to visit a pub. Only Alex stayed at home because he sad that he was too tired to go out. (I think he only wanted to meet some girls in the park)
First we wanted to go to a pub with live music but we didn't find a place to sit down so we kept on searching.
After a while we found a pub with was called “Turk's Head”. We decided to go in because it wasn’t really expensive (for Ireland) and it looked nice.
After a drink we had to leave the local because we had to take the last train home, which was at 11:20 pm at Tara Station.

What whiskey and butter will not cure, there is no cure for.
Christoph Spitaler

Guinness from above

Tuesday the 13th was our second day at Irish school. There we read a text about history of Ireland, traditional instruments in Ireland and played a game where everybody got a name of a famous person. Just with questions where you can get the answer “yes” or “no” you had to find our who you are.
In the afternoon we visited the Guinness Brewery. There were many floors in the factory where you got information about how Beer is made and what the ingredients are: water, roasted barley, yeast, hops. We also had the possibility to taste some Guinness, everybody got one pint for free and I think most of us liked the dark, famous, Irish beer.
In the evening our group split, some of us went to cinema (one half watched “Hot Fuzz” and the other one “Notes of a scandal”) and some of us went to the theatre to see “Julius Cesar”.
I think everybody of us enjoyed this evening.

Kristina Pokorny

Bray and the walk along the busy street

Monday 12 March 2007

For the first time here in Ireland, we had to get up for school, which started at 8:30, but we had to meet at 8:20 just like every other day. We met Mark our teacher, who was a real nice guy, and we had a lot of fun in class. We even got a break between 10 and 10:15.
After school we took the Dart to Bray to make a cliffwalk to Greystones. In the middle of our walk, the cliff was closed, so we kind of had to walk around it, which made it even longer, but more fun too.
Around 4 pm we were actually done and sat done at the beach for a little rest. At about 5 pm we took the Dart from Greystones back home for dinner. After dinner, we took a real quick shower to be on time for the Dart back to the city centre, because we decided to check out the pubs around “Temple Bar”. So after we walked up and down the street and decided where we want to sit down, we realized how expensive the beer in Dublin was. So at around 11 pm, after just one beer, we took the Dart back home again to go to bed.
Overall, it was a great and funny day, where we got a beautiful view over the sea around Ireland. I think we all enjoyed this day, because it really was something different that and something you can’t do everyday in Austria.
Christa Reisenbichler

Bray and Guinness

The Day at Bray

Guinness from above

First full day

Alexander Inzinger
Report on the first (full) day in Ireland
In the morning we met at the car park in front of the shopping center and the local pub (about which we will talk later…).
In the best mood young people can have after getting up, Martin guided us to the coast, which turned out to be very impressive. We enjoyed the cold fresh air and we went to St. Mary`s secondary school – a building made out from a church and some kind of prison.
(Kathleen tells me: “It was a training center for Christian Brothers”
The headmistress of the Bristow school of English – Kathleen Bristow – welcomed us and gave us some starting information. Then she introduced us to our teacher, Mark, who is a quite a nice guy. The lessons turned out to include much talking (about Ireland, talking about us, talking about everything we want to talk about).
In the afternoon we were taken to jail. Okay, not a modern jail, but Dublin`s most famous “old” prison, Kilmainham-jail. Very interesting, very impressive. We had an idea to make a big party in the east wing, that was the most impressive part of the jail.
In the evening we went to the local pub, mentioned at first, the “Racecourse Inn “. Quite Nice.
Everyone was ordering cider (I was the only one who had now idea about alcohol, so I ordered a Teacher`s, which turned out to be a Scotch)
Alexander Inzinger

Leaving Vienna

We leave Vienna right on time on March 10 2007 to head for Dublin. And everybody is there and nobody is late and I have my passport and all that makes me extremely happy. An excellent two and a half hours later a self-assumingly funny taxi driver drops us off in the middle of nowhere and leaves all to ourselves in Baldoyle, which is like the end of the world. At least it feels like that. Then Mary Roony shows up in front of Lidl's and all is well. We have arrived in Dublin. And did it rain? Not really, and everybody always congratulates us on how lucky we are with the weather. For me it's back to the same family as last year, and they welcome me with a cup of strong Irish tea and a chicken sandwich. Or is it cheese? Later in the week we discover that Baldoyle has a pub and a library and all. So maybe it's only halfway on the way to the end of the world.




Read about the adventures and travels of nine students and one teacher of Herbststrasse school Vienna in the following blog entries.



Martin Sankofi