On Monday we went to the Tourist Office before school to book our RAG-week –trip to South of Ireland. We explained which attractions we would definitely want to see reserved just about everything that we could in advance. The woman in the Tourist Office was very helpful arranged everything for us so that we could just enjoy our trip. As we have noticed, the long school days with short lessons and non-existential breaks in between them are really tiring. When you have multiple group projects alongside with the lectures and your only time to do them is after school, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. Like on Tuesday; we had so much work to do that our main objective was to make it out of that day alive.

On Wednesday we went yet again to the Donegal Adventure Centre with our Adventure Tourism class to improve our team working skills. On the menu for the day was a task called prison break, where, for starters, we had to get everyone in our group through a hole in the wall to the other side of the wall. There was, however, a catch – nobody could touch the wall when doing the task and the first person could only be helped from the starting side of the wall and vice versa for the last person. It was challenging at first, because there were just few of them who wanted to be in the front line and others couldn’t do anything. Towards the end we could work better as a team. 

Prison break & All aboard

Next we had a similar task, but instead of going through we had to go over about a 3 meters high wall. It went well and everyone who wanted made it over. We also had the traditional “crossing the river”-task where we had a certain amount of planks that we would use to move from place A to place B – everybody was supposed to stand only on them, not on the ground and as the planks were few, we had to support each other. We also had kind of “minesweeper”, where we would cross a gridded area, which had mines in it. We had to find a safe path for everyone to cross it. After the lunch break we were divided to two groups and we picked to members of each team to be blindfolded. The blind ones were escorted to an area where the task were supposed to do. Other team members needed to give instructions for the blinded ones, who had to assemble a puzzle by listening others and their instructions. The task was a bit tricky, since it was hard to perceive which part goes where.

Last but not least we had a teamwork exercise called “All aboard”. In the high ropes area there was another platform on top of approximately 7 meters high pole – slightly bigger than in the “Leap of Faith”, but not considerably. The task was to get 4 people standing on top of it, joining hands, leaning backwards and letting go. The pole had no steps whatsoever – only holes for pegs that we were given a few. Noora went first and as she went higher, the others would throw more pegs at her so she made it to the top – hugging the pole and using the pegs as steps was the easiest and most efficient way of using the pegs given for her. One after another her teammates joined her and were pulled standing up. It was actually pretty relaxed exercise even though you would go high – at least compared to the Leap of Faith. The instructor actually shouted at Noora that she most seemingly enjoyed it up there. Siru didn’t have the time for trying it out, which was really a shame. So that our day wouldn’t be too short, we decided to pay the school gym a visit. It was already dark by the time we got home from school, but we figured it would be about time to do something active. The rowing device was self-explanatory, since we had both seen similar ones and the treadmills were easy to use after some exploring, but some of the equipment at the gym would really need some explaining and tutoring.

After school on Friday we picked up our open road passes (3 travelling days out of 6 consecutive days) from the bus station, just to be sure that we would get them before going. In the evening we went to Lillies with our Erasmus friends; it had already been a while since we saw them and for the next we would be gone. Half of us gave up before midnight but the rest went dancing to the Garavogue Bar for a little longer. The next morning we enjoyed sleeping long before packing for our trip. Otherwise we just tried to relax because we knew the next day would be a long day sitting in the bus. We had planned to wake up early on Sunday morning to have the time to walk to the bus station, but come the morning it was raining cats and dogs so we decided to call a cab. Our taxi driver happened to be the same lovely Paul, who had taken us to the waterfalls. For the next 7 or so hours we spent travelling – we had a change of bus in Galway where we had some time to eat. We had a tasty and affordable bowl of vegetable soup from a little cafe in the Galway bus station. The next bus took us to Limerick, where we decided to have coffee and tea. The beverages were fairly expensive and at the table Noora noticed that her cup was already dirty. Not very assured Siru had a taste of her latte – so strong that it couldn’t be drank without making faces. We decided not to complain because we were afraid of getting cockroach muffin as a compensation.

From Limerick we caught our last bus to Killarney, where we went straight to our hotel (we most definitely did not stop in awe when we saw words “Outlet Centre” and we did not buy more jewelry. No. That was not us.) Randles Court was as spectacular as we had hoped – the room was cosy and it had a bay window we both were immediately in love with. We quickly changed our clothes and went on for a quest to find a restaurant to eat in. The man in our reception didn’t have any recommendations, so we decided to have a look by ourselves. 

We decided to go in the Scotts pub, which seemed nice, but as we had a taste of our foods, we were not anymore so sure that this was the place that we were hoping to find. Noora’s “steak” wasn’t a steak but a few slices of dry “well done” meat that had more tendon that you would hope for. The rest of the meal – the vegetables were straight from freezer, only heated up. Siru’s Shepherd’s pie had the same problem – the ingredients were surely not fresh and the taste and feel of the meal were according. The disappointment showed and Noora even gathered her guts to mention it to the waitress, who was seemingly sorry. As a compensation we got a cup of tea and coffee. Siru’s coffee was yet again like poison so she didn’t drink it. Overall the food was just poor, but we comforted ourselves with the idea of our 4-star hotel and a chance of finally going to sauna. In the end the sauna was very dry and there was no water to toss on the stove, so we ended up using the steam room instead and having a swim in the pool.

The ”steak”

Shepherd’s pie