This year we enjoyed what nearly all students of the third year of HAK Feldbach experience: a wonderful trip to Ireland. On 23 April we took our flight from Bratislava Airport to Dublin. After our arrival we were taken to a meeting point in Raheny, where we got to know our host families. Karin’s and my host family was sooo nice and they had two cute dogs. We stayed at our host family’s place for 4 nights. In the mornings we always had lessons at Babel Academy of English. However, we didn’t only improve our English in Dublin, but we also learned a lot about Ireland and its history. After a short lunch break our teachers could hardly wait to start with the afternoon programme. We experienced, for example, a tour through the city centre of Dublin, a Liffey cruise, a visit at the modern and interactive EPIC Emigration Museum and a guided tour at Kilmainham Gaol. Many of us decided to visit Guinness Storehouse.

On Saturday we headed north and went to Belfast, where we stayed only for an hour due to the Irish weather conditions. Our next accommodation was a hostel on the beautiful peninsula of Portrush. Despite or just because of the stormy weather the coast was absolutely amazing, so we couldn’t help taking a lot of photos there. Northern Ireland offered us spectacular landscapes. One of the nicest places we saw was Giant’s Causeway. Again we took lots and lots of pictures. Then we went to Londonderry, where our bus driver Brian told us the whole story about Bloody Sunday, which was very interesting.

For the last part of our programme we went to Galway, a nice city back in Ireland. From there we made a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We had breathtaking views from the cliffs and nice weather, so that we could see the Aran islands. The following day was already departure day, but we still had the whole day long to say goodbye to Ireland. We passed by Connemara, one of the most impressive Irish regions. Additionally, our coach took us to Dunguaire Castle and to Kylemore Abbey.

One week in Ireland went by much faster than we’d thought. We really enjoyed our stay on this beautiful island and therefore we’d like to thank Walter Loder for the organisation of the trip.

Text: Schnepf Karin and Schwanner Valentina, 3BK