Our Rainy Days

15.7.2015 taydellisetnaiset

14. week

On Monday Noora went to help to buy some last minute souvenirs and eat out in Bistro Bianconi with her parents as it was their last night visiting us. When they came to say goodbye to Siru, they presented her with a Claddagh ring – a memory they had purchased for both of us. Noora knew that Siru had been thinking of buying one for herself for quite long time – from our trip to Killarney, to be exact – so she knew what kind of ring would be perfect. The ring has a curious design of a crowned heart held by two hands which represents love, loyalty and friendship. Siru was so flattered and thankful by this gesture that the farewell was not completely tear-free.

On Tuesday Siru went to school before Noora, because she wanted to stay at home until her parents left. When we were united again, we had our Teamwork & Creativity presentation, which went very well. The teacher was praising our presentation skills, saying that we looked like we were speaking to our friends or family because we weren’t as nervous as some of the others. We, too, had noticed earlier that the Irish students were not as sure with giving presentations – lack of education on giving them, we found out. We told that in Finland we are taught to do presentations from early age, so it was all natural for us. After school we went back home and switched apartments because our friend Meri was coming for May Day and Siru wanted to spend the few days she had with her. In the evening we met Meri at the bus station and as if to welcome her to Ireland, it was raining.

We had our Team Building Game due date for Adventure Tourism on Wednesday and we went to Shelly Valley in Strandhill to perform them. The forecast didn’t look very promising, but we still went there as practiced, even though we would have had the opportunity to go inside in Knocknarea. The teacher had decided that we could handle a little bit of rain, especially as she always emails us to dress weather-accordingly. When we arrived at the beach, it was indeed raining as it had been promised. We left Meri in Mammy Johnston’s so that at least she wouldn’t have to get wet. The rain eventually stopped – only to start again even harder. Everybody was cold and soaking – even us, who had prepared ourselves with rain coats – it seemed absurd just after a theory lesson of doing a risk assessment. Before the class we had voted to do all the team building games that day, but as the weather was getting more and more horrible, we had to stop playing the games. Half of the teams didn’t get to do their games, us included, and we would have to do them the following week. We were all quite crossed about it all and the teacher apologized embarrassed about her decision. Not very happy we went home to change some dry clothes on and continued to Pennies, where Meri bought a lot of stuff – we were happy that it wasn’t just us that Pennies had ruined. In the evening, exhausted by the tough day, we wanted to relax in Lillies and get Meri to see our favorite pub and hear traditional Irish music. She was enthusiastic to go and she and Siru stayed for another drink, whilst Noora left to sleep after just one.

On Thursday it was the Finnish May Day, which we are used to celebrate with sima, home-made mead. We didn’t have to differ from the traditions, because Noora’s mom had made us some before she left back to Finland. Meri had also remembered us with paper streamer and balloons, which, too, are essential for May Day celebrations. They had also bought some festive things with Siru from the city center, such as popping candy and lollipops for dipping and bunny sun glasses. In the evening we listened to music and talked about everything that had happened since we last saw each other.

We had decided to go see the nightlife of Sligo and went to T&C first. Siru had been there earlier, but for Noora and Meri it was mutual, new experience. We were a bit too early there, as nearly nobody else was yet there, but with the few other customers we talked a bit and told them about the Finnish May Day traditions. To pass the time before more people would join us in T&C, we went to Garavogue for drinks. From there Meri and Siru continued back to T&C and Noora went home.

On Friday Siru stayed home with Meri. Noora went to school and heard from a teacher that there would be a bus strike the next day. In our usual situation it wouldn’t be so much of a problem, but Meri was supposed to leave for Dublin to catch her flight back home. By the time she shared this piece of information with rest of the girls, they became more and more worried, but to our relief, the trains operated normally. We checked a few alternative train schedules, the connective bus timetables and called a cab to take Meri to the train station in the morning. All being set we ate some pizza and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On Saturday morning Meri needed to leave. We walked her outside of our apartment complex where the taxi came to pick her up. We exchanged goodbyes and she left on a way back to Finland. At this point we felt envious and a bit homesick. We knew that when the study week starts we would have a lot free time – free time that could be spent back at home. We tried not to think too much of the weeks to come, when we could be home but would need to study hard, and focus on the exams. We changed our stuff back to our own apartments and watched movies to relax.

Suhteet Ystävät ja perhe Suosittelen Höpsöä

13.7.2015 taydellisetnaiset

13. week

On Monday and Tuesday we did a lot of school work. We had a few bigger tasks to do and we wanted to start doing them, piece by piece, so we wouldn’t have to leave them to the last minute. Noora’s parents were coming to visit us in Sligo on Thursday and we had planned to go on a trip to the west coast of Ireland, but we still didn’t know in detail where we would be going.

Wednesday was the due date for the Teambuilding Game report for Adventure Tourism. The task was clear: to come up with a game that could be used in team building, give instructions, write down equipment required, do a risk assessment and a contingency plan (another team building game that could be carried out indoors). We decided to use a game that Siru and I had played on the first week of our school, where a group of 5 people need to listen to the instructions (e.g. 1 back, 2 hands, 2 elbows, 2 knees) and do a formation with only those body parts touching the ground. The purpose of the game was to get to know the team members a little bit better and using the strengths of each team member work towards the common goal. It was a competition – two teams competing against each other with a certain time limit every round, but at least we had thought of it as good fun. We handed in the written report and headed for Shelly Valley in Strandhill, where we were to practice delivering the games a week before the actual assessment. The day was as beautiful as ever – you were not quite sure if you really were in Ireland. It was really warm and sunny and because we were in the shelter of a sand valley, even the wind didn’t bother us.

On Thursday we had a short day at school so afterwards we went to city center. We had been talking of going to hairdresser numerous times, but we hadn’t done anything just about yet. The day was nice and we decided to check if the hairdresser nearby would have free times for the both of us that day. They were happy to tell us that we could get haircuts and we wouldn’t have to wait long. The service was quick and we were satisfied with the results – Siru got the front hair she had longed for the summer and Noora got rid of the split ends that made her hair look not-very-well-groomed. Happy with the new summer looks we continued to Fabio’s for ice-creams. We had visited earlier, so the owner recognized us and we ordered our treats in Italian. We went outside, by the Garavogue River, to enjoy ourselves, the sunny day and the divine ice-cream. Back at home we took a bed sheet we had bought for the team building game and decided to grasp the opportunity – we laid it out on the grass and laid on top of it with drinks and good books. Later in the afternoon Noora’s parents arrived and we cooked some dinner for them. It was so good to see familiar faces from Finland and to our joy they had brought us presents – more rye bread and salty liquorice!

On Friday we all went together to visit Aoife, who had always been helping us with our trips. We told her we would like to go to the Connemara region and Bunratty in three days and she suggested us the most interesting places to see and visit. We decided to book just the latter night in advance and leave the first night open so that we wouldn’t be bound to one place if we wanted to see the other – a true adventure. She gave us a booklet with all the licensed hotels, hostels and B&B’s categorized by the region to help us with finding the accommodation, though. Aoife did a wonderful job in informing us as she always had and we wanted to give a little something for her as a thank you; we gave her a card we had made and some chocolate. She was seemingly touched by the gesture and she gave us a hug and thanked us for the opportunity to arrange our trips.

After we had gotten all the information we would need, we went back home and finished packing everything necessary for the trip and soon enough started our adventure in Noora’s parents’ leased car. Our first stop was in Westport, where we decided to grab a lunch. We had a walk through the small town center in search of a place to eat and soon after witnessing what would seem like a funeral, we found a place in which everybody were happy with. The cozy pub had three floors and on the uppermost of them we had these enormous portions of chicken, potatoes and some vegetables. We were quite full, but we still stopped for nice cups of coffee for everybody else than Noora. As a cherry on top of our stop we found few charity shops where we dropped by and bought a little this and that.

As we had all packed ourselves back into the car we continued our way towards the Connemara Peninsula. We didn’t really know where we would go that day, so we just drove. When we saw this beautiful building that looked like an enormous castle of fairytales in distance, we all agreed we would go there. In the guidebooks we found out that it was Kylemore Abbey, but also that it was already closed for that day. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit it or the gardens, but the view was still magical and we took some photos and visited the shop inside. Back at the car we looked through the accommodation guide and called to a nearby B&B if they had room for us – the lady in Cornestones B&B in Moyard was happy to welcome us and our accommodation for the night was solved as easily as that. The place wasn’t very far away from the abbey and on the way to the B&B we saw quite many interesting places to visit the following day. The B&B was very cozy and in a very beautiful and tranquil area, aside from all the traffic. The lady who had spoken with us on the phone was there to wait for us. She made us some tea and gave us some advice on what to see next morning, listening to what we had in mind and giving some very useful tips. We decided not to have any real dinner since the lunch had been so big, but rather eat our packed lunch and have a walk before going to sleep. The rooms were very tidy and furnished with style, but first and foremost it might have been the first night that it was actually warm to sleep!

Kylemore Abbey

On Saturday morning we had salmon for breakfast – the breakfast was set beautifully and it was delicious. After breakfast we thanked, paid and left for Connemara National Park, which we had driven by the previous night. We walked an approximately 5 km trail and enjoyed the amazing panorama view of the national park and the Diamond Hill. After admiring the wonders of the nature we continued to the Avoca store, which we also had passed and were curious to visit. From there and the Cottage Handcrafts we visited next we bought some souvenirs before continuing our tour of Connemara.

We kept going on a scenic road named Skyroad, where we could see a lovely seascape. To get to the good parts, though, we had to drive through very narrow roads with not particularly appealing scenery. We stopped in Clifden for a lunch – we had broccoli soup in some pub and kept going – we were to drive to Bunratty for the night and there was still much left to see. We couldn’t drive by every small scenic road but we had to start cutting corners if we wanted to see something. We decided to drive by a scenic loop through Ballyconneely, where we stopped at the Coral Strand at Derrygimla – it was a scenery just like in Mediterranean. The water was bright turquoise, the sand was white and the sun was shining. We picked some seashells and pieces of coral with us before slowly starting to head to our final destination, Bunratty. We decided to fuel up in Roundstone, where we visited The Bogbean Connemara -café, which had just been opened this spring.

Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park

Coral Strand in Derrygimla

In Bunratty we found our B&B – the Innishfree B&B – dropped our bags and took a short shower before leaving for a dinner. As our surprise the restaurants were not going to be open late, so we had to be quick about it. Another surprise was that the Bunratty Castle was right at the city center and the ramp to the highway was just some 15 meters from it. After some confusion and driving around in the small center of Bunratty we settled for the Bunratty Castle Hotel’s restaurant. The place was quite full and there were two groups that were having surprise parties – one anniversary and one birthday, we assumed. It took quite long before we got our meals but in the end the food was so good that it didn’t matter. Our hunger being satisfied we went back to the B&B and to sleep.

Bunratty Castle by night

As clear as it had been when we went to sleep, it was in the morning – the heating had been cut for the night. The rooms were chilly when we got back from the restaurant and beyond that when we woke up. No chance of getting a warm shower let alone withstand the cold when not under the blankets. The breakfast was ok, it was only shadowed with the irritation of the overly cool night. The breakfast room had big beautiful windows and the rising sun warmed our cold bodies. The lovely, three-legged dog of the owners’ did the rest – it melted our hearts.

We left to the Bunratty Castle where we first strolled around the Folk Park. In the castle grounds there are houses from different eras and from different income levels. The huts of course looked worn down as they are old, but compared to what we were waiting to see from what we had heard, the houses didn’t look that poor to us. They were quite well constructed and had many different rooms – just about one house was as we had been described to; a house with a single room, which would house all the members of the family and some household animals, too. The castle itself was as you could imagine it – only narrower. The walls were very thick which, in turn, would mean that the rooms were quite small, apart from the vast main hall. It was still huge and had many things to see. The wooden carvings that they had done in that time were beautiful and decorative. In the Folk Park there were also animals like donkeys, small Connamara ponies, lambs and so on. There would have been lots of houses to see, but we had seen our fair share and decided to move on.

Our next stop would be the climax of the trip – one of the best visited natural attractions in Ireland – The Cliffs of Moher. The day was quite windy and we had heard that some people from year to year fall off the cliffs because they went too near to the edge. There were lots of signs forbidding access beyond the path due to the danger of erosion, but most people were still standing where they shouldn’t. Some were actually climbing over the edge just to take pictures as if they were falling and some were doing cartwheels of standing on their hands. We were terrified of their recklessness and were content with taking some typical touristic photos from a safe distance. After the Cliffs it was time to start our way back home – we only stopped in Ballyvaughan for a quick bite in Logue’s Lodge bar & restaurant before our arrival in Sligo.

Suhteet Ruoka ja juoma Ystävät ja perhe Matkat