Book of Kells

A last change in the program let us have the opportunity to visit another important landmark the Book of Kells in Trinity College. One of the best parts of the visit is that you can enter the long room, the fantastic library full of old books. The first part had a lot to read, and most of the group went quickly through that part, because they weren't very interested. After that they had some free time, to say goodbye to the city centre and even to buy the last present they forgot to buy in other days.

Last Sunday

One more time, and for the last time we spent a full day in Dublin city centre. The weather was miserable, but the adventurous students wanted to have fun in the second edition of the cultural hunt. After a month they have a lot of knowledge o the city and its monuments and with this hunt they have to put into practice what they know. In two hours they had to go to different places to find things and to take pictures, and to do so they had to ask people to take the pictures, or to give the directions if they were a bit lost. Despite the weather they had fun, the winners were Pablo, Iñigo and Javier, who completed 12 of the tasks they had to do: Congratulations again!

Last weekend by Iñigo

On Friday we had a normal day, going to the lessons and doing sports and going to the swimming pool as well.
On Saturday we went to Wicklow to see a natural park and several old ruins and then we went to a very famous jail.
On Sunday we did a cultural hunt and we walked around the city centre. My team won! And in the evening we went to our last disco

Glendalough and Wicklow Gaol

On our last weekend in Ireland, we had a beautiful place to visit Glendalough. Apart from visiting the village where St. Kevin settled down in the area with its different churches, the cathedral and its famous round tower, we walked to the lower and the upper lakes. There were lots of people there but we could enjoy the views and the walk, because the weather although cold it was sunny, and that, here in Ireland, is considered lovely weather!
In the afternoon, after lunch we went to another place not so beautiful, because we went to a jail. There we could read about the terrible conditions people suffered when there were in jail there, some things were a little bit creepy, but it was interesting.

Ane's opinion

I had a great time in Dublin because we did a lot of interesting things, for example: We went to Dundrum  that is the biggest shopping centre here in Ireland; we went Aviva stadium too and to a lot of castles. It has been one of the best experiences in my life. I have met new people and I made a lot of friends. I hope I can repeat next year.

Projects

Today I've had the opportunity to be in some of the presentations of the students. I've herd about Irish literature and about the flags of Italy, Spain, Ireland and Navarre. They have been working on these projects during the weeks they have been here and they did a great job! I would have liked to see more presentations, but some people are shy and don't want me in their audience. Nevertheless I know they would have done a great job, because their level is very good and they are getting good marks in their weekly tests.

Glasnevin cemetery

Yesterday we had our last trip programmed. We visited Glasnevin cemetery a very important place due to all the people who are buried there(1.5 million) and the important people to Ireland's History whose tombs are there. The guide showed us where Daniel O'Connell, Michael Collins, Parnell or De Varela are buried, and she also explained to us their importance in the History of this country. She showed us some tombs of Irish who fought in the Spanish Civil War, as well as where all the people who fought in the World Wars.
It is a pity that the group didn't find it so interesting, because they don't know about Irish History and those famous names didn't sound familiar to them, although now they know a little bit more.

Mikel's conclusions

This last week has  been so strange because sometimes we want to leave but seconds later we want to stay here longer. For all the group, this has been a great experience because when you land on Ireland you know nothing but when you land on Bilbao you come knowing how to walk around Dublin by your own without problems. We have made a lot of friends ones closer than others, but for me this has been a great experience.

Visit to Dublin by Alex

I enjoyed very much the trip of yesterday: we went to Dublin, and we had 2 hours of free time and that's good because some people had to buy something for the family and like this we had time to buy something and to see the streets of Dublin that they are very beautiful! Then we returned to our house to have dinner and then we went to the disco. I'm enjoying a lot this time in Ireland!

Elisa's comments

I can not believe that this is going to be our last week. I never thought that all the things that I've lived here, could be lived in only one month... It is not as long as a year, but we've done a lot of things, we've made a lot of friends, we've visited Irish places, we've had the opportunity to know about the history, food, people, how they live, how they think... I wouldn't change this month for anything.

Malahide castle

This is our last full week here. It's incredible how fast these 3 weeks passed, time flies, especially when you are having fun!
Yesterday we had the opportunity to know another famous landmark very close to Dublin.
The visit to Malahide Castle was very interesting, our guide explained to us very clear how life was in it and she told us some spooky stories about the ghosts who live in the castle, but we didn't have the chance to see any of them...luckily

Impressions by Javier

These days are being awesome, I'm having a lot of fun. I've liked all the visits. People here in Ireland is very nice except when they are driving because they become rude. The worst thing is food because I think that I'm eating too much fast food, and mostly all they eat at home is precooked food.

Afternoon shopping

Yesterday we went to Dundrum a very big shopping centre. To go there we took the long way and we walked and took different means of transport ( the bus and the LUAS). Once we were there they had some free time to buy or have a look to the different shops you can find there. And to finish, we had dinner there too and we could celebrate Alex's birthday!

Bray

On Sunday morning we met to go to Bray. Bray although is only 30 minutes away from Blackrock is another county, Wicklow. That day there were lots of things going on there, the funfair, the market and at 2pm an air show.

We had timeto go on some rides, to have lunch sitting down on the beach, to watch part of the show and to go up to the cross on top of Bray's Head.

It was a great day, and we returned home for dinner and to get ready for the disco.

At the top of the hill of this picture(Bray's Head) is the cross, and tthere we went

Air show

Views of the bay from Bray's Head

Belfast

Last weekend we went to another country, we were in the United Kingdom, in Northern Ireland. We visited Belfast, a city with lot of history. We had a guided tour and thanks to it, we discovered the city. After we had some free time to go to the places we thought were interesting. Here are some pictures of the day

The group in front of the Peace wall where we could sign

In front of the City Hall

Farewells

This last week was a little bit hard, some roommates and classmates left and it was though to say goodbye, but at the same time it's great to see how well they get on with people from other places of Spain or other countries that they feel sad when they have to say goodbye.
The good news: more groups are coming! And that means new opportunities to make friends.

Cristina's impressions

I think coming it's a great idea, because you have fun with some new friends while you learn english. Something I think that isn't very good it's that there are arts&crafts and swimming pool only some days of the week, I think it would be better if they were allways because some people don't like sports too much. The rest of the things are incredible, and the college is very good. The levels of english are good but it will be better if in the classes were more people from other countries.

Julia's impressions

In my opinion this experience is being very enjoyable and nice. When I arrived I thought that I wasn't going to enjoy so much and that I wouldn't like to repeat the experience again.
The trips we do are interesting, but one trip I didn't like was Dublin castle.
My friends are very nice and agreeable and I'm very happy.

Last week by María

This week we went to a lot of beautiful places, like Dalkey castle, where there are many actors and actresses who act like there were in the 18th century and it was so funny. Other day we went to Dublinia, that is a museum that is about the Vikings and how they lived.
On Saturday we visited Kilkenny castle and other day we went to Killiney hill where we met a girl and we spent the evening and walked and saw a lot of things.
I'm having a great time in Dublin!

Phoenix Park

Phoenix park is a huge park in the north of the city, and taking that into account and that the group in general wasn't willing to walk a lot we saw a very little part of it, but surely they had fun and also they practised some sport, climbing, playing a clapping game with locals, a little bit of football, but we didn't see any deer!

Saint Patrick's cathedral

Yesterday morning we visited Saint Patrick's cathedral, after some inconveniences we arrived there. The tour is free, we were given a leaflet with all the information about the important things to see and everyone went on their own to see them. When we were finished we walked to Grafton Street and we had some free time (30 minutes) and what a surprise, most of them appeared with food!

Killiney Hill

I have to say that this place is one of my favourites in Dublin, that's why on Tuesday after dinner we met to go there. It's a nice walk and the views of Dublin, Dalkey island, Bray are just spectacular, as the day was clear without clouds I think we even saw Whales.

This park is very popular among locals and not so many foreigners go there, as one woman told us, because this group in general is very talkative and they are always willing to talk with someone, this time was Lorraine, the owner of Marley, a beautiful dog. Thanks to it, they started a conversation and it was difficult to interrupt it to continue our walk.

As we went after dinner we could see the sunset from the top, but as they are also slow walkers, we arrived quite late at home. Nevertheless they enjoyed a lot and the following day they could sleep a bit more as we had a trip.

Aviva Stadium

Yesterday morning we started with a trip to Aviva Stadium. It's a stadium that doesn't belong to any football or rugby club, where only international matches of these two sports are held, as well as some concerts. The visit was interesting and we could also feel like the sportsmen that have played in that stadium with all the went we went through the tunnel to see the pitch.

Sunday trip by Marta

On Sunday we went to Howth by train when we arrived we went to the beach after it, we went to take the bus to go to the top of the mountain there were very beautiful views there of all Dublin. Then we went to eat fish and chips and finally we returned home and we went to the disco at the college.

Howth

Howth is a fishermen's village located in the north od Dublin, it is a peninsula that can be seen from Blackrock and that some of the students thought it was an island. We took the DART and there we could realize how popular that village is, because the train was crowded!
Once we arrived, we walked first along the west pier to see from the end of it Ireland's eye. I was very surprised that some of them could remember that we flew over Howth and the island when we came!
The idea was to go over the summit (so we could see the views and the other part of the bay of Dublin where these days we saw Howth) and go down again to have fish and chips, but the adventurous group had another idea in mind. They were captured with the spectacular views and they wanted to go to the lighthouse, but in our way there they saw a path to go down to a beach, and there we went. We had a lovely time, but after we had to go up again to the summit to take the bus to go down to the village to eat fish&chips. The seagulls as always were around people eating on the grass and we had a little issue with one of them that made Ane throw her fish to the floor.
At 15.30 we took the DART to go to Merrion square because the was a festival there the City Spectacular. There we could see different artists who perform in the street all over the world. All of them very amazing and the ambient was faboous too.

At 6 o'clock we left the city centre to go home, on Sundays there is disco and they have to have dinner at get ready for it!

You can't see properly, but the group is there dancing and having fun!

Kilkenny castle

Our second full day trip was this time to Kilkenny. After two hours by bus we arrived to this beautiful city and as we had a guided tour through the castle, that was the first place we went. During the visit we were shown different parts of the castle and we could listen how people lived in that huge castle.
After that we had some time to visit the city and to eat our lunch or to go to Starbucks because the rainy and cold weather didn't allow us to do anything else.
And to finish our visit we took a touristic train and we could see the most famous landmarks of the city, some people didn't pay a lot of attention to the explanations but at least they saw a little bit more of the city.

?

Dublinia

We started the week with a trip and to finish it we had another trip, this time to Dublinia, an attaction with three exhibitions all located at the historic crossroads of Dublin. It is a good place to know more about its citizens throughout the ages.

After that, instead of coming back to the college we stayed in the city centre exploring its streets and we had dinner there too. After dinner we went home, next day we had another trip and we had to rest for it.