Reise n°4: Ireland

I was in Ireland the first week of may. I have been to Ireland because, I have friends who are studying in Galway and Dundalk. It was a week trip, so we had so much time to visit different places. 

The first hike was the first day in Dundalk. Dundalk is a small town without specific interest. Dundalk is at the border with Northern Ireland. I was here just for a night. This evening was suitable for discorvering the Irish nights in Pubs. I had also tasted Irish Bier, which are totally different from German Bier. As for me, I prefer German Bier, they have more taste and they are not cut with watter. 

The second interesting place that I visited was Dublin. It is the most populous city of Ireland. Dublin is a very old city which has been founded in the 9h century. Dublin has many landmarks and monuments dating back hundreds of years. One of the most famous monument is probably the Spire of Dublin, with a hight of 122 meters. It could de define by the following terms, "elegant and dynamics, simplicity bridging art and technology". 

 

The other important monuments is the Trinity College of Dublin, which is the most famous university for the country. It is Ireland's oldest university. Trinity college is in the centre of Dublin, and it occupies 47 acres. In 2010 it was ranked by the Times as the best 117th best university in the world. 

Dublin is the city in europe with the most green spaces per square kilometre. There are many park areas around the city. I had visited Dublin under the rain, also I had well seen that it is a green city. 

Dublin is really interesting it is a living city, with a lot of wonderfull buildings with typical architecture from Ireland. There also a lot of inconvenience, the weather and the cost of life. It has rain all the day, and it is one of the characteristic of Ireland, the rainy weather. 

The second part of my trip takes place at the other side of Ireland, at the west coast. It is the third largest city after Dublin and Cork. Galway is known as Ireland culture heart and it is recognised for its vibrant lifestyle and numerous festivals. Galway has a lot of Pub, inside Irish traditionnal music is playing. Galway is a major centre for traditionnal Irish music. Ten pourcents of the population speak Irish. It is why Galway has a reputation to be the window of the Irish culture notably du to the atmosphere, the language, the music and dancing traditions. 

During my stay in Galway I have visited the surrounding areas such as the Cliffs of Moher. They rise 120 metres above the Atlantic ocean and reach their maximum height at 214 metres. The cliffs receive almost one million visitors per year. The cliffs of Moher appeared on Harry Potter last film. It takes just one day to visit the Cliffs of Moher and discovered the others interestings points. 

Connemara is a region next to Galway. The connemara is a wild land, without any inhabitants or just a few. It is a region with a lot of contrats between colors, landscape, relief. The coast of Connemara consists of a number of peninsulas. French singer Michel Sardou had composed an international hit with the song "les lacs du connemara". I have met a lot of foreign students who were able to sing this song. 

The aran islands are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. Irish is the main spoken language on all three islands. Aran islands are wild, visitors come in large numbers. 

During this trip with my friends we were going out every night in way to enjoy Irish Night. And I must admit That it is really crazy. 

Ireland is a green country. Every summer I go with my parents in Britain, and in Britain I can see not the same but approximatively landscape. Ireland has got the same origin, Gaelic, this culture has been separated in Irish culture, Scottish culture, Britain culture, but they all come from Gaelic. I don't want to talk about Irish economics, they have several problems which can be solved immadiately. Ireland was a pleasent wild and green parenthesis.