Wednesday 21 June Kerstin Krischanitz Guinness Brewery

We got up at eight, then we went to St. Mary's secondary school. At 2pm we met at Tara Street station (DART). After this we went to a photo gallery. The artists were, among others, Fred Reilly and Ulla Schildt. It was a graduate show from a Dublin college. Ulla Schildt's photos showed big animals and small children. Fred Reilly's sheep in quick motion pictures. After this some of us went to the Guinness Brewery. There you could see how Guiness was made, the ingredients and the production stages and so on. In the first room you could see a big basin, like a giant sand box, filled with Barley. There was also a waterfall.
The stages of production were shown. Then you could try Guinness beer. One floor above you could answer questions on a touch screen and leave a message on a big advertising column. In the end it was very nice to drink a pint of Guiness in the 7th floor of the scenic bar and see Dublin from above.

Monday 26 June Cliffs of Moher Steffi Haegele

We got up very early, had breakfast and prepared our lunches ( apart of this was the pizza we had made last night) and then went to the bus station. From there we took the bus to the Cliffs of Moher. This was a day tour with somke other stops along the way. The Cliffs of Moher are 8 kilometers long and 200 meters high and consist of sandstone and slate. After one hour at the sliffs we drove on to have lunch, butr only with 9 people of our group, because 5 people had missed the bus. We met them leater again. They had got on with another bus.
Back home we took a nap, had dinner and then everybody went on to do their things. Summing up it can be said that the day was interesting but also very exhausting.

22 June 2006 Kilmainham Gaol Anita Mareiner

During the day we went to Kilmainham Gaol. Gaol is an old word for jail. This jail is near the Irish Museum of Modern Art, so we took the bus from the Tara Street DART station. The jail has been there since its construction in 1795. Before this time prisoners had all been kept in the same room, whether they were women, children or men. After the 18th century the jail was rebuilt. Nowadays prisoners normally don't share cells with other prisoners.
In the little chapel where the tour started, the prisoner Joseph Plunkett had married Grace Gifford before he was shot because he had taken part in the Easter revolution of 1916. He was executed in the jail yard, together with his friend James Conolly, who had been seriously injuried and had to be strapped onto a chair during execution.
During the tour we passed the little cells where some other prisoners had been waiting for their execution. Among them William Pearse, John McBride, Thomas McDonough, Jean J Houston and Tom Clark. All these were executed in the jail yard. The two black crosses in the yard stand in rememberance of the revolutionists.
In one cell we could see a painting of the holy mother Mary on the walls, painted by the prisoner Ms. Plunkett. The last prisoner left Kilmainham Gaol on 16 July 1924. It was the rebel Eamon de Valera.
I think it was a very interesting excursion into the cruel past. The old part of the building let you feel the cold alarming narrow radiation of this jail. The room where the prisoners came to before execution also has an oppressing air. You can really feel what prisoners must have felt in 1916.

Wednesday 21 June 2006 Art Galleries Veronika Birkner

Since the weather wasn't that good, some of us were really angry and aggressive, and really uncomfortable. The lessons at St. Mary's were quite boring, but anyway, it is interesting to see how students in other countries suffer.
After school some of us organised the afternoon programme. It was alittle bit difficult, but in the end we decided to go to some photo galleries and then we split up; some went on to other galleries and the others to see the Guiness Brewery.
The first galleries were not really exciting or special, but the last one, the RHA, was fascinating. Many different artists were shown, with different styles and techniques. Afterwards we went for a short shoppingtour, but we were in a hurry because we had to be at the DART station in time to make it home for dinner in our host families.
When we got to the DART station we didn't look where the train was going and just hopped on the train. Soon we found out that we were on the wrong train and got off. It was quite exciting to find a way home, but also this story had a happy end.

Veronika Birkner

20 June 2006 Kerstin Fischer Hop-on-hop-off

I woke up at 8 o'clock. Weather was ok. The sun was shining.
9 am: School started, got copies: maths, the history of Ireland, symbols of Ireland, skiing, Irish youthscape survey, route planner, fast food,...and talked about them, also about our last day, and shopping and later we saw a map of Ireland and our teacher showed us important places on the map; talked about holidays, did role plays.
12.30pm School's over; student programme: met at Tara Street station (2pm), took the "hop on hop off" bus (weather was very windy) to the National Gallery, there were three levels of paintings, prints and statues. (14th – 20th century)
4.30pm "Hop on hop off" bus again; at sstop #5 (still very windy)
5.45pm took the DART home.

My opinion:
In the morning the sun was shining and I thought it wouldd be a warm day without rain. In school it was a bit boring,. We only read and talked about stuff I'm not very interested in. Only onee topic was nice – holidays! Later we did role-plays. That was funny. After school we went to the Dart station and took the train to Tara station. Kathi and I went through the streets and bought some ice-cream...mmmh. We met the others at Tara station; after 20 minutes some still hadn't appeared, so we went to stop #21 of the hop on hop off bus, where we had to wait for a very long time again until the bus arrived. After 5 stops we got off at the National Gallery. It seemed very boring, but later I found some interesting paintings. I liked they wayy they're painted or some figures). At 4.30 we resumed our hop on hop off tour through Dublin. It wasnice until it started to rain and we decided to go back home for dinner. We caught a train and arrived in time for dinner. Later I went to the public library to write an email to my boyfriend. At half past nine I went to bed.

Monday 19 June 2006 First day at school Andrea Petrin

We met at the school cafeteria at 9am. Kathleen, our host, welcomed us and gave us a sheet of paper. A band was playing at Radio City Club that night, you could read.
At class, our teacher Louise Höfler, told us some things about her life and asked us about ours. Most of us had to speak about where they live, pets and siblings and so on. In the break we were given the programme for the upcoming week. Some of us went to the library after school; they let us use the Internet for free there. We had the afternoon off, some of us went shopping. We got off the Dart at Tara station and walked Westside to the O'Connell monument over the O'Connell bridge and went until the Spire, which was built in 2003 and was expensive, turned left to Henry Street to go shopping there.

In the evening we met at Bayside station at 8pm to go to the centre to se the concert, Kathleen told us about. So we go off at Tara Street again and on to the Radio City Club. We went down in small groups as Kathleen had advised us and listened to the music. We met at 11.15 to take the last train home to Baldoyle.

Sunday 18 June 2006, Margarita Brendinger:

As it was raining today, we decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art (it's dry there!) There were exhibition about:

Ireland photography 1952 – 2005 (Magnum gallery): divided into two parts. There were photographs about Irish life now and then, especially about the independent war of Northern Ireland.
Irish Art of the 70ies:
Many pictures of different artists. Look at the photos to get an idea. The third exhibition was about the Portuguese artist Joao Penalva, where they showed his installations, photographs and drawings.
All in all it was ok, it was for free! I found the Magnum Ireland exhibition the most exciting one.
Afterwards we went shopping in the city centre of Dublin. There are very many shops for clothes, souvenirs, and food – all very expensive.
At six o'clock it was dinner time, we had to be in our families for that. In the evening we were looking around Baldoyle, the little suburb we're staying at.
I went to bed early, because I had to get up early the next day. It was our first day at school. I was really looking forward to that.
After the first two days in Ireland I'd say it's great here. I don't think it'll get less exciting here.