I arrived in Dublin on Sunday, 31st July and because Monday, the first day of the course was a bank holiday in Ireland, I decided to go on a day trip, since getting to know the country, the people, the culture, the sights, landmarks of the host country is also an important goal of Erasmus+ mobilities.

The excursion also included a border collie sheepdog demonstration, where the dog was able to control a small flock of sheep at the special whistle signals of its owner.

The tools we were taught are Quizlet, Kahoot, Canva, Mentimeter, Wordwall, Padlet and others.

Our Future Learning School in Dublin organized for us every Tuesday and Thursday special cultural, artistic programs, which were also parts of the two-week course. First, we visited EPIC Museum of Dublin that presents among others Irish emigration to the whole world, the circumstances that had forced people to leave Ireland, the life of people arriving in other countries, mainly the New World and every side of their everyday lives; food, drink, shelter, music, work, entertainment, everyday life, family, career, relationships etc. All of my colleagues, including myself, were surprised how many people with Irish roots became famous outside Ireland during the centuries and how many well-known people have Irish ancestors, like Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Ned Kelly, Rihanna, Barack Obama, etc.

Besides this highly valued, beautiful and colourful artifact from the 9th century that contains the first four books of the New Testament (the Latin “Vulgata” version) written by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the very popular exhibition also contains other precious scripts mainly from the Middle Ages.

The aim of these two weeks was not only to get to know new ICT methods that can be used in the classroom, but also to get to know the most famous landmarks and the people of the host country we were visiting. Bearing in mind this purpose, on Saturday I visited the cliffs of Moher, the city of Galway, the western region of Ireland, travelling along the Wild Atlantic Road.

On Sunday my direction turned towards north: the Dark Hedges (where scenes from the series “Game of Thrones” were shot), the Giant’s Causeway (which is a fantastic creation of nature, the more than 40000, perfectly hexagonal basalt columns having different lengths appeared due to a volcanic eruption by lava solidification. The origin of these attractions is also explained, of course, by a legend – told by our tour guide – about two giants living in Ireland and Scotland respectively), Dunluce Castle and the capital city of Northern Ireland, Belfast.

During a one-hour-long black cab tour, the drivers explained the strange way of life in this city, they showed us the high walls that separate the Catholic and Protestant inhabitants of the city, the gates that close at 11 pm and there is no trespassing between the two communities.

The Catholic side preserves the memory of the victims of this long lasting conflict. It was a very interesting and also a quite shocking experience. Watching a documentary or listening to real people living there their everyday lives is definitely a different experience.

The very first day of our course was a bank holiday in Ireland so on Wednesday same week we had to make up for what we had missed. We did this by listening to a very interesting presentation about Irish educational system. We found out that schools are patronated by the state but the church also has a serious role in the functioning of educational institutions.

It was surprising to get to know that although Irish language is compulsory in schools and students have to take an exam at the end of their secondary school studies, only 10% of the Irish population use it as a first language and only 4% use it at a regular everyday basis. It was also a strange data that although 80% of the population is Romano Catholic, 10% member of the Church of Ireland and 10% Evangelists (umbrella term for Protestants), the most famous, old churches in Dublin: the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and the Christchurch belong to the Church of Ireland and the Catholic churches, like Saint Mary’s are quite new. Of course, during the first week I visited all three above mentioned churches, which all are very famous landmarks of Dublin. Our Catalan groupmate was quite shocked that Irish language is so “ignored” and the majority of the people speaks only English, while another groupmate said that the Church of Ireland should be the Catholic Church, because the majority of the population follows this religion.

Just two names to mention in connection with Saint Patrick’s Cathedral: the dean of the cathedral used to be the famous writer of “Gulliver’s Travels”, Jonathan Swift. He is said to have hold masses that lasted for 3-4 hours, a proof of his autism. Another famous person whose statue can be found in the cathedral together with his entire family is connected to the subject I teach and he is Robert Boyle. He was born in Ireland and his father, Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork had 11 children. The statues of the whole family can be seen in the cathedral.

(After coming home I played again Robert Boyle on Akinator and this time to the question whether he is English or not I gave the answer: “Yes”. Going further on this path, the system was able to find out my character after 47 questions)

Because of this reason, our teacher, Lucia included some techniques, methods that can be useful at teaching vocabulary for all ages. One of these games was the “Stop the Bus”, which had already been known for some Polish students and me, under the name “Country-City…” In this game, after choosing a letter, you have to write the name of a country, city, boy, girl, object, geographical name etc., whatever you have agreed on previously. We chose: country, city, animal and adjective. If somebody finishes writing all categories has to shout: “Stop the Bus!” It is a very good game that is able to develop vocabulary, students get to know words from their colleagues they have not known before. For example: I managed to win the game with the animal-word “nandu”, which is a kind of ostrich from South America, that nobody had known before.

During the second week our school Future Learning School Dublin organised for our group two another cultural programs: on Tuesday we participated in a walking tour around Dublin learning about lots of historical connections. We got to know where the word "slave" comes from, the Vikings who were among the founders and shapers of Dublin, had their first slaves from Slavic people, so basically slave meant Slav.

We also visited Dublin Castle and found out details about famous Irish people like Jonathan Swift, about the Irish revolution and freedom fight for independence between 1916 and 1922. These events eventually led to the independence of the 26 counties that today form the Republic of Ireland, except for the 6 northern counties which under the name of Northern Ireland are part of the UK, having as ruler the English queen, Elisabeth II. until recently and now the English king, Charles III.

On Thursday we visited “Dublinia” (a museum mainly about Vikings and Dublin) and Christchurch. When talking about Vikings everybody imagines mainly fierce barbarian warriors but the truth is that Vikings contributed a lot to the development of Ireland, they shaped its culture as well and Irish people proudly consider them as being their ancestors besides the Celts.

In this museum we discovered a very similar game to chess played by the Vikings "Hnefl Tafel". A young Hungarian member of our group who had just learnt the rules of the game from an old staff member, managed to beat him in his first game.

After the north, west, east (Dublin) and the middle of Ireland I decided to visit what remained: the southern region of the island. This day trip included the visit of Rock of Cashel (an old Irish fortress and castle), the city of Cork (with the famous English Market and the harbour) but the most important program was: “kissing the stone” at Blarney Castle, where hundreds of tourists were queuing for hours to get through a narrow spiral staircase to the top of the tower of the castle, where laying on their back they are pushed outwards from the castle wall, above a frightening depth and in this way, upwards they can kiss the stone.

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If you proceed in this way you will become expert in a foreign language. If you kiss the stone twice you will have a red-haired son. If you kiss it three times besides the boy you will have a red-haired daughter as well, in fact twins. No wonder that the place is so popular, this legend being the biggest attraction of Blarney Castle. Apart from the Scottish bagpiper who steadfastly blows 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' among others, on the castle wall.

But not only the countryside, Dublin also offers a lot to see. According to one of our tour guides its name was given by the Vikings, meaning dub-lin=dark pool. For instance: Phoenix Park is a huge territory including the famous Dublin zoo, the building of the American Embassy and the residence of the President of Ireland. It is worth hiring a bicycle (that I did) or taking a tour by the sightseeing bus (that I did as well).

One of the most famous products of Ireland is Guinness beer. Visiting the Guinness Storehouse, you can find out a lot about the family, the founder, the “secrets” of the brewery, the enigma of 232 °C and many other interesting facts. At the end of the visit, on the 7^th floor you are awarded with a cold glass of Guinness, which can be life-saving on hot summer days.

Irish food is also famous and tasty. In “Darkey Kelly’s Restaurant”, where live music was played I tried Irish lamb stew that proved to be very delicious.

„Darkey Kelly's"

In another pub, “Cobblestone” we enjoyed the most authentic Irish folk music available in Dublin (at least according to the recommendation of one of our tour guides) while tasting other beer types of Ireland besides Guinness: Galway Hooker, Legacy and others. But the most famous place, invaded by tourists especially at weekends, a district of a couple of streets is “Temple Bar”.

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While travelling on day trips tour guides put in some music and in this way I got to know Irish folk music and other songs, groups, singers that I had never heard before. Even while I am writing these lines, Irish songs are echoing in my ears, like “Dirty Old Town” from The Pogues (Kisses in Gaelic Irish), “Molly Malone” or “The Rooster”.

It was inevitable, therefore, to buy some CDs that contain folk music or the greatest hits of The Pogues.

Molly Malone's statue and song

Another music experience that should not be missed in Dublin is “Rock and Roll Museum” where you can find relics, pictures, musical instruments and many others and you can listen to interesting stories, facts, information, anecdotes about famous Irish musicians, singers and groups like U2, Thin Lizzy, The Dubliners or The Cranberries.

There is also a room where you can try musical instruments or your voice, you can play the guitar, the bass guitar, the drums (that I did) or you can also sing.

When shopping I could recommend “Penney” department store, where you can do shopping relatively cheaply, respectively “Jervis” department store that is very close to the Future Learning Language School. If you want to buy souvenirs for family members or yourself, “Carroll’s Gift Shop” is perhaps the best choice, because you can find here the widest variety of items.

Irish people are very kind, helpful and friendly and in different shops you can find shop assistants from different other countries as well, from Romania to Nepal. During these two weeks we made a lot of good acquintances. If you find the right places, you can buy food at a relatively low price (for example: “meal deal”=a big, long sandwich with lots of ingredients and a soft drink included for 4 €).

Dublin is located on the coast of the Irish Sea. Together with my colleagues we decided to visit the sea shore at Sandycove, where we took a walking tour to Forty Foot. There were some very hot days in Dublin and in the whole Ireland during the second week of August so the beach was full of people who enjoyed the relatively cold water of the Irish Sea.

On the very first day of our two-week course our teacher, Lucia told us that our task would be to write a blog about our professional and everyday experience in Dublin and in Ireland. We should write this blog during the course and present it at the end. Everybody from the group looked desperate because nobody had written such a writing piece before and thought that it is a “mission impossible”. Only our teacher looked confident. She claimed that anyone can write a blog. And she was right. Everybody managed to do the blog-writing task and hopefully by reading my blog you enjoyed one of the results of this two-week course and had a great time.

Besides being a very useful tool learnt and practised during the course, blog writing is also very useful when realizing one of the most important aims of Erasmus+ programs, namely dissemination.

We would like to thank again to our teachers and staff members, Lucia, Claire, Diego, Gonzalo and others for their kindness and help and for the pleasant and friendly atmosphere they created during these two weeks.

Thank you very much!

And some more photos...

Dublin

Glendalough

Cork

Galway

Belfast

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral

Saint Mary's Church

Trinity College

Cliffs of Moher

Dark Hedges

Giant's Causeway

Rock of Chasel

Temple Bar

The "Emerald Isle"