Friday, December 2, 2011

Ivan's trip to Ireland


My name is Ivan. I’m student from Bulgaria. I was in group witch traveled to Ireland.  Third meeting on the project for minority languages ​​in Europe, Comenius project, took place in the town of Dungarvan, Ireland. 

Our journey began from Sofia airport. We changed the plane in Frankfurt, Germany. We were in Dublin at 18:00 p.m. Students and teachers from Norway, Spain and Ireland were waiting for us at the airport. 

Our first stop was in Kilkenny. In Kilkenny we stayed for first night in a hotel. On the next day we looked around the town. It was nice and clear. We walk around the town and we saw a lot of beautiful buildings and sites. We visited places like Shee Alms House, Grace's Castle, Black Abbey, Rothe House, Kilkenny caslte. Tha castle was a unique building with large gardens. It was completely preserved inside and outside. It was surrounded by a river which once stopped the enemy armies. Across the street was design centre of Kilkenny. It is place for handmade jewelry, pottery and other products.
 
After the interesting walk we headed for the town of Dungarvan.

We arrived at school’s yard in Dungarvan. There I met the family of Mikayla Hickey. Their house is located about 15 minutes from school. We had a dinner and had fun with her family.
Kayla's parents took me to her school on Saturday. Once we gathered all students, we headed to Lismore by bus. There we visited cathedral "St. Carthage ". Our last destination in Lismore was the impressive castle from 12th century. 

We headed towards Ardmore. We reached the cemetery and cathedral where are the remains of St. Declan. He is an accomplished Irish saint. After the long and entertaining walk we were hospitably greeted by Áine and her students in their school. We dine there and everything was prepared by the students. Áine taught us Irish dances. All of us had a lot of fun. 

After the breakfast on Sunday Kayla took me to place with friendly horses. From there we headed to the castle which was abandoned. It was overgrown with vegetation and it was very beautiful. We went down and we ended up on the shore of the Irish Sea. Keila's mother drove us to the hurling pitch (their national sport) after the walk. We were given instructions by the trainer and students how to play hurling. And we played a little hurling and a game close to baseball. 

On Monday we went to school. Our first class was cooking. They gave us an explanation of how to make Irish bread and Irish soup. They showed us the necessary equipment and products and we started a collective work.
 
We started to work on the project at 11:00 am. The norwagians were first. We, bulgarian group, were next. We were prepared three videos- ”Educational System in Bulgaria”, “Minorities and minority languages ​​in Bulgariaand “Art -a common language for all minorities”. The spanish were after us. The Irish students showed us a video with the history of the area around Dungarvan and historical sites associated with the Celts. Principal closed the project meeting by awarding to all guests with a certificate from the school and gifts

After the meeting we had time in which to enter in other classes. We had Irish classes. We learned first Celtic alphabet and wrote our names. They taught us of old Irish songs.  Then we had music class. Teacher gave us Bodhrans and we started with the lesson. Teacher liked us and he was impressed by our skills. And that is how ended our day in school.  Keila's family sent me to the school on Tuesday morning. We left by bus.