Friday

Today the day was cloudy and a little bit cold, but it didn't rain, so we could enjoy the whole day.

In the morning, we went to Ardgillan Castle, a wonderful castle placed in Balbriggan with wonderful gardens. We spent the morning there.

We made a photography contest, we had to take a picture, think about a story and explain it to the teachers.

Later, we had to follow a map in order to complete a sheet with information about the different trees we could find there.

In the afternoon, we went  to the cinema. Some of us, watched The Boss Baby, and the rest of us watched The Smurfs. They were great!

Last day in Dublin

Today it was our last day in Dublin. 

We arrived at Connolly Train Station at 11 o'clock. 

We went on foot to the Famine Memorial. A series of statues that commemorate the Great Famine of the mid 19th century.During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall between 20% and 25%. No invent in history has had a more profound effect on Ireland and the worldwide Irish Community than the Great Irish Famine. The statues seem to be walking to a ship called Jeanie Johnston. 

Between 1848 and 1855, the Jeanie Johnston made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore, and New York. On average, the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers see ever carried was 254. Despite the number of passengers, and the long voyage, no crew or passenger lives were ever lost on board the Jeanie Johnston. This is generally attributed to the captain, James Attridge, not overloading the ship, and the presence of a qualified doctor, Richard Blennershassett, on board for the passenger. 

Then we had a short walk to the Trinity College. There, we interview some students on their graduation day and we visited "Turning darkness into light" the exhibition where The book of Kells is shown. During the visit we could also have a look at the Trinity College Library, one of the most famous libraries in Europe. 

We watch some students playing a cricket match while we were having lunch and after that, we went to the Natural History Museum. There, we learn lots of interesting facts about Irish and world wildlife. 

At the end, we went shopping and we have bought some presents for our families. 

Wednesday: Croke Park Stadium and Guinness Storehouse

Our favorite double decker bus picked us at 10 o'clock in the morning in front of one of Balbriggan's churches. It took us straight to Croke Park Stadium. We spent the rest of the morning there enjoying and amazing tour. 

Our guide was awesome and we learnt so many interesting things! Croke park is the third biggest stadium in Europe after Camp Nou and Wembley. Nowadays it is only used for gaelic sports and ruled by GAA. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is Ireland's largest sporting associations in the world. There are two main gaelic sports: gaelic football and hurling. Irish people are very proud of theses sports because they are amateur. Players don't earn money and they always support and play for their own county. There are no transfers. We were lucky because today it was a special day. Thousand of students from all around Ireland are coming to Croke Park during this week. 

They are allowed to play on it against other counties so we could watch them and learn the basic rules of these sports. We also visited the restrooms, warm up rooms, the stands, a vip area and the museum. There we could practice some skills required for playing these sports.

              Warming up before going to the pitch

After having lunch at the stadium we took the bus to The Guinness Storehouse. There, we learnt about the history of one of the most famous beers all over the world and its importance for Irish economy and history. We watched the brewing process, talked on video  with Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brand 200 years ago and enjoyed the magnificent views of Dublin from The Gravity Bar.

Tuesday

The day has been cold but we have enjoyed a lot.  We have been to Skerries and Malahide.

We have spent some time at the beach and we have gone to Malahide.

We have spent a great day together!!!

Monday Videos

Monday. Visiting Dublin

Today, the day was cold but we were ready to start a great adventure. The day has been great!

At half past nine we met the teachers and we went to the train station because we were going to spend the whole day in Dublin. 

We arrived to Dublin and we made a contest. We had to find The Spire in some maps that Pablo gave us. The first group finding it was the group in charge of guiding us there. 

We took some pictures at The Spire, James Joyce sculpture, Ha'penny Bridge and we arrived to Temple Bar. There, we visited the bar with the same name. It is a very famous bar in Dublin and it is very important for the U2 band history. 

Later, we went to Dublin's castle. There we had the opportunity to watch some shows. The first one was an amazing music band. They played some songs and let us to be part of them.

We also watched an interesting theatre play called 'A rather dramatic quiz' by Theatre Lovett, in which we were part of a contest and we had to answer some questions. It has been really funny!!

To finish we have made some hand printed bags. There were three different patterns and we chose the one we liked the most.

We spent some time in the park playing rugby with a flying ring (yes! with the one which has the guinnes world flying record: the Aerobie Flying Ring), and we had fun outdoors.

We went back to Balbriggan at six o'clock to spend the rest of the day with our families. We hope tomorrow will be as amazing as today.

Ireland IX - Our adventure begins

Today we got up at half past one in the morning because we had to arrive to the train station  at 2:45. 

We arrived at the station and after that we travelled by bus to Madrid, because our plane was waiting for us there.

We waited in the airport for a long time because our flight was delayed. We played, laughed and spoke a lot. 

At 11:35 we caught the plane to Ireland that was supposed to leave at 10:35. We arrived to Ireland at two o'clock local time.

A double decker bus was waiting for us there. It took us to Balbriggan where we met the families.

We are going to spend the night with them. 

Tomorrow, another adventure is waiting for us.