After the Easter break, classes 6a, 6b and 6c went to Dublin for the English language trip.
Fortunately, the weather was great, we had no rain, and the sun was almost always shining! All the students were staying with host families, in pairs or threes. The host families were friendly and nearly all of them cooked nice food!
On the first day, we took the flight to Dublin and arrived at 12 pm. Our host families picked us up at the language school in Dùn Laoghaire and we had some lunch. Then we walked around Dùn Laoghaire and along the beautiful coast.
On Friday, the language school had prepared a treasure hunt in Dùn Laoghaire, so we could get to know the town; in the afternoon, a tour guide showed us around the city of Dublin. She told us many interesting facts about the city and the Irish people, and we were impressed by the beauty of the capital city and the country. Even though Dublin is a big city, it seems green and quite diverse. The Irish are very friendly, positive and open-minded. It was funny though (and dangerous!) that the Irish crossed the road even when the traffic light was red.
The programme on Saturday included a cliff walk in Howth, a peninsula close to Dublin. Class 6c also visited an exhibition on Vincent van Gogh, which was fascinating. The 1000 m2 exhibition area included many famous paintings and we also learned about Van Gogh’s painting technique and life. A light and sound show that brought his most famous works to life as well as the VR experience – here a state-of-the-art 3D immersive technology was used – were the highlight.
Howth, a little fishing village near Dublin, was lovely, too, but very windy. We did the cliff-walk and took many photos of the stunning panorama.
We had the best weather of our week in Dublin on Sunday when we went on a day trip to Glendalough, which means “valley of two lakes”. A coach took us there and we went to the Lower Lake. The medieval monastic site was impressive and tranquil at the same time. We had a picnic at the lake and admired the incredible view.
In the afternoon we had a guided tour at Dalkey Castle, which was quite amusing, actors like a pharmacist, an archer and a chef explained the life there a long time ago.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we were in our language school for the morning and in the afternoon, we visited the EPIC museum (Monday), Croke Park (Tuesday) and Wednesday was free time, many went to the Botanical Gardens of Dublin.
Quote by Oscar Wilde
The EPIC Museum is about Irish history, the museum has lots of digital elements and individual and personal stories of emigrated Irish people are told.
Croke Park is Europe`s third biggest stadium, Irish sports and concerts take place there.
CC BY-SA 2.0
Thursday was the day of our journey back to Austria, we luckily got to our planes in time and landed safely at 6 p.m. in Graz.
I really enjoyed the trip; it was such a precious experience to be in a foreign country and get along there, to talk in English and to spend an awesome time with my friends and classmates!
by Grabner Hannah, 6ck
English School Newspaper 