September 15th, 2018 was the day when the adventure started for 39 girls from HLWest (5CHW, 5DHW, 5AHW). OUR TRIP TO IRELAND. Accompanied by our truly motivated teachers Mrs. Margit Rauch, Mrs. Anna Laimer and Mrs. Bianca Praxmarer we had a great 2-and-a-half-hour flight from Munich to Dublin. When we finally arrived in windy Ireland a bus took us to our final destination: Bray. Each of us waited excitedly for our host families, who picked us up in their cars.
After our first night in Irish households we went on an excursion into the beautiful country side of Ireland. Glendalough: a valley in the Irish Wicklow Mountains, which is about 40 kilometres away from Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. Glendalough is famous for its monastery settlement, mysterious forests and crystal-clear lakes. In our eyes this is one of the best places to discover in the country.
On Monday morning we started our language course at PACE language school in Bray. The headteacher of the school divided us into three classes, where we had different teachers who practised English with us for the rest of the week. Our lessons began at 9 a.m. and ended at 12:15 p.m. After singing, practising and reading we went on a walk-through Bray and Dublin with our teacher Derick (a really kind man). We learned about the history of Bray and Dublin and of course we bought a lot of souvenirs. In Dublin, we saw memorial statues as well as important buildings like the National Gallery and Trinity College.
Tuesday was the day we tasted the famous “Guinness” beer. A bus took us to the North of Dublin where we marvelled the big Guinness building. Passing the big beer factory, we walked straight into the amazing Guinness Museum. The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. We learned a lot about the story of the Guinness and we were fascinated by the whole concept.
We had some free time on Wednesday and went to Malahide Castle on Thursday. We had a guided-tour through the castle and we got a really good overview of the history of the castle and met one or two ghosts ;-). Unfortunately, we could not see the beautiful gardens because of the rain.
We usually enjoyed our evenings spending time in groups; together we discovered some pubs and traditional restaurants. Especially the Harbour bar was a really lovely place, were we all had a really good time with our teachers.
We will always reminisce about Friday, it was a really busy day for all of us. In the early morning we went on a walk to the Greystones Cliffs, the landscape and the view to the ocean were beyond marvellous. In the afternoon we went to Dublin, where we had a really good Whiskey tour in the Irish Whiskey museum. Late in the evening we participated in an Irish dancing program where we learned the traditional dance step by step. All of us had a really good time.
The following day we had our flight back to Munich, followed by a good (felt like an eternity) bus ride to Innsbruck. After a long trip from Ireland to Munich and back to Innsbruck, we were all relieved to see our family and friends.
Nevertheless, our trip to Ireland and the experience of a language school was a success because we did not only improve our speaking skills; we also learned a lot about Irish history. It was our last school trip and will never forget the memories we made.
Text: Melike Yildirim, Johanna Moser (5CHW)
Bilder: Schülerinnen der 5AHW, 5CHW, 5DHW
