Hike Tour to Silverstrand Beach & Pub Dinner

Friday 6th October 2017,

 

As we have been on the journey to the Cliff of Moher yesterday, during the whole day, we have decided to make a relaxed breakfast. Today is our last day in Galway therefore we have booked a Pub Dinner, where we will spend all the remaining money from our class account. After the meal we will make a reflection of our project.

After we had a good breakfast we started with our hike to the Silverstrand Beach. Because of spending a lot of time, traveling by bus or plane, we decided to start the hike from Galway. The hike tour we found at google maps. Now we were anxious, if the route takes us past the cliffs as shown on google maps. Fortunately the weather has changed from rainy to windy and cloudy. Here you can see the route to the Silerstrand Beach:

A little summary of our hike tour:

We started our hike tour directly at our Hostel, named Bunk Boutique Hostel. Then we walked along the Eyre Square to Galway City. When we reached the coast we went first to the South Park. Like yesterday there was low tide at this time. Afterwards we walked to Salthill. Being sometime along the cliffs we passed the golf club of Galway. Also we walked along the Rusheen Bay. As we arrived at the Silverstand Beach there was a beautiful sight. The width of the Beach and the height of the Cliffs were impressive. Unfortunately, it was too cold to go swimming. After taking a few photos, we noticed that the ocean has slowly returned to high tide. At the beach we had a relaxing break, then we went back to our Hostel. Some of us drove back to the Hostel with the bus, some of us walk. As we arrived at our accommodation we made us ready for our Pub Dinner. Here some pictures of our hike tour:

Some information about Salthill:

Salthill is the entertainment district of Galway. Along the Beach there are many Hotels, Pubs, Casinos, Night-Clubs, the Golf Club and the Sport- and Amusement park of Galway. The difference between a Pub and a Night-Club is, that the Pub has a closing time “Last order”, the Night-Club not. In former times Salthill was the district, where the richer people of Galway lived. Now it has changed to the touristic district of Galway.

After we had a good meal, we made the reflection of the day and the complete tour. Afterwards we finished the remaining evening in the pub.

Here a little reflection and the day plan of tomorrow:

It was a great trip, we had much fun and we have learned a lot of things about Ireland. Tomorrow we will have the last breakfast at Galway then we travel back to the airport in Dublin. From there we will fly home to good old Germany.

 

Tour to the Cliffs of Moher

On Wednesday we woke up and had a little breakfast. After this everyone went to the supermarket, bought a snack to eat and then we started our daily program. We booked a day trip, where we saw several sights around Galway. The tour started at the tourist center and there we are entered into the bus. Our bus driver Tom explained us the daily program and we drove to our first stop. The first stop was near the Dunguaire castle, built in 1520. When we were near the castle the water disappeared, because at this time was low tide. After 20 minutes we drove on along the cost. We had a wide view, because we had very nice weather. The next stop was on coast, where we took a lot of photos of the landscape and the small cliffs.

After the small cliffs, the tour went on in the hilly landscape to Doolin. In Doolin we had a lunch break in a little pub. In the pub we got our food and drinks very fast. So we had time for a little look in the small village.

The next stop was the highlight of the day. We went on to the 200 m high and 8 km long cliffs of moher. At the cliffs of moher were impressive views over the Atlantic Ocean. There we were 2 hours, enjoyed the landscape, took pictures and some of us bought a few souvenirs and ice cream.

Along the cost we went back to Galway and we had wonderful view. Before we arrived in Galway, we stopped at the Portal Tomb and the Cahermore. At the Cahermore told us our bus driver Tom a lot of interesting facts.

On the way back we drove past the Dunguaire castle again. On this time the water was back, so it was high tide.
When we were back in Galway, we went to our hostel and relax for a short time.

At the evening we into the city for drinking a beer.

Traveling to Galway

On Wednesday we woke up very early because we had to clean up the house and pack our bags for the journey to Galway. Some of us bought some food for our common breakfast.

At 10 am we started our tour with walking to the tram. The destination was the central station named Dublin Houston. The train went off in time at 11:25 am. The train journey was quiet and very pleasant.

Arrived at Galway the weather was really bad. It rained very violently all the time.

We had to walk 150 meters from the central station to our hostel named Bunk Boutique Hostel. The polite lady at the front desk had pointed out that we can only check in from 3pm, because the rooms were not cleaned yet. So we explored the city and went to a good looking old pub. The price for beer and food is much cheaper than in Dublin.

At 3pm we checked in in our hostel. We have very nice cleaned up triple rooms with separated bathrooms. Afterwards we went to a shopping center not far away from her. We bought some food, something to drink and souvenirs like pullovers.

Finally in the evening we went to a pub next to our hostel to take dinner.

Cisco and Kilmainham Gaol visit

On Tuesday we´ve got up very early and had some problems because we had some time pressure and just one bathroom.

Cisco was just a half an hour walk away from our house and on our way we passed by also some other big IT company’s like Oracle and Citrix.

At Cisco Systems we were received by Berry Redmond one of the systems engineer how is responsible for the sales department and the product Cisco Spark.

During his presentation Berry explained the disruption of Cisco and other big companies and showed us the new technologies. He said that Cloud computing is one of the new technologies Cisco will offer to their costumers and Cisco is changing from a hardware vendor to a software company. Also he told us that IT-Security is a big topic for Cisco and all other IT companies around the globe. That’s the reason why the security sector is hiring so many new specialists.

After the presentation of Berry, his bosses boss, Adam Grennan overtook the meeting and gave us a introduction what’s next in the Cisco product portfolio. Both of them seemed very interested in our education as state certified technician.

For lunch the group got divided in two groups. One of them bought food in the supermarket nearby the house and the other group had lunch again in the Trinity College. They met again in front of the Kilmainham Gaol Prison. While the group which had lunch in the college walked all the way to the prison the other took the bus number 123. To take the bus you need to know a few things like the coins must be fitting and to stop the bus you need to give a hand signal.

The guided tour inside the prison was really interesting and there were a lot to see for us.

In the evening the group was spitted again. One visited the movie “Wind River” in the Savoy cinema and the other group went to the pub close to our house. Later on we met in a pub called “LIVING ROOM” which is at the o’connell street and a nice location especially for younger people. At the end of the day we had eight tired students and one tired teacher.

 

Our first day in Dublin

Monday the 02.10.2017

After a short night we started the day with an extra long breakfast. One group the bread and  other needed things in a supermarket in our vicinity. Then we left the house after everyone was ready to go. Outside our house we saw the Croke Park which is very closely to our house. Unfortunately, there were only events once again on sundays, so we could only look at it from the outside.

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With the help of a map we moved towards the inner city of Dublin. We were really surprised in what conditions most of the houses were. The houses were partly destroyed or abandoned and for sale.

During our way to O’connell street we noticed how many stores, shops, bars or restaurants where on every site of the road. In general Dublin is a very lively and busy place.

From O’connell street onwards we saw multiple attractions and landmarks Dublin has to offer like the post office from 1818 or the Spire a giant metal needle. The O’Connell Monument at the end of the street before we crossed the Liffey River via the O’Connell Bridge. Then we followed the river on the left side close to the Temple Bar district where we later on found the name giving Pub “The Temple Bar”. We visited two old pubs in Temple Bar. They looked both very nice inside and outside and had an “old look”.

After that we went deeper into the central of Dublin to the Viking/Medieval Area where we went to the Christ Church and the Dublin Castle. By checking out the Trinity College, some of us took a lunch in the canteen which was quite good.

Then we split up the group and went to the local markets to buy some souvenirs, postcards or even shirts.

Later on we went home to our house and did a little feedback round. At the evening we played some card games and looked at the pictures from the day while we discussed what the best things were we did that day or what moments where the best ones.