A touch of Christmas in Cork and a lot of good byes...

The last time I wrote an entry is a long time ago and while I am writing this I am already back in Germany but here comes finally my last entry.

In the last week I had the hard task to say good bye. First to my riding teacher, then to the charity shop team, my class mates and the other exchange students and finally my host family.
But before that I had a lovely last week.

 I was at a christmas market in Cork. There were mainly food stalls and you can´t compare it to the markets in Germany but the big wheel was great and we had an amazing view on Cork city.

On the 9th we had a school mass what means the whole school was in the church in Blarney and celebrated a mass together. The music group played "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" which was really cool=)

At my last weekend my host mother took my little host brother, another exchange student and me to Santa Claus. In Ireland the whole Santa Claus thing is a lot bigger than in Germany. Although I was far too old for it I really enjoyed the visit. It took place on a pet farm. There were different rooms through which we walked in a group with other families until we arrived at Santas hut.
A elf led us into the magic forest where Santas sleigh was located. We told a talking tree our secret chrismas gift wishes, a poor father had to wash Santa Clauses underwear and we helped a angel to fly again by throwing magic powder into the air. At the end we got a picture with Santa and a small gift.
 All in all it was very well made, the actors played with joy and the children had fun.
Afterwards we visited the pet farm. We were lucky that the animals were inside the stables because outdoors was the famous irish rain.
In the evening I was at chrismas party from our irish partner organisation together with Julia and other aupairs. It was my first time in a true irish pub!

On Tuesday and on Thursday last week I was at the Donkey Sanctuary in Lisscarroll as part of my volunteer week. Unfortunately the weather wasn´t that great on Tuesday so another girl who was there for work experience and I just cleant the water hods for the donkeys and put up some christmas decoration.
On Thursday the weather was better and after mucking out the stables in the morning a christmas carol singing took place at the Donkey Sanctuary. I enjoyed singing the carols but I am not so sure if the donkeys also liked it because they all left the stable after the first few songs...=)
On Thursday evening my host mother made a great last dinner for me and on Friday I flew back from Dublin to Frankfurt.

The big wheel in Cork

It turns in the opposite direction than the big wheels in Germany...

View on Cork city by night...

Santas sleigh

Magic powder for the reindeers

The chrismas angel can fly again

In the elf school

Santas living room...(The chimney has to be cleant=))

The father washes Santas pants=)

We finally arrive at Santas hut...

An old farm cottage

A hungry goat...

...and an interested pig

Hello! Do you have a carrot?

The Donkey Sanctuary

Me and a donkey

The wonderful decorated chrismas tree=)

Kinsale

On Saturday the 21st I went to Kinsale together with Julia. Kinsale is a town near Cork, which mainly lives from fishing and tourism. The bus journey from Cork took about 50 minutes and from the bus window we had a good view on the beautiful green irish fields. We arrived at 1 pm in Kinsale and walked through the small town. There were lots of little (book) shops and cute cafes. The whole town was so colourful! I took a lot of pictures then we went to a small cafe. It was cosy but when went out again it was raining. We walked a bit along the haven and the sea. At the bus stop we met lots of german people who also had spent their day in Kinsale and wanted to return to Cork again. It was really funny and it felt more like being somewhere in Germany then in Ireland with all the people speaking German around us. It was a great trip and Kinsale is a really colourful place in all the grey rainy days which started now in November.

It is a pity we couldn´t go in every little cafe there...

The cafe we finally went to (it was a hard decision:))

Hot chocolate again...

The Dublin/ New Grange Trip

On the 8^th of November I went on a trip to Dublin and New Grange from my organisation. We met at 7:30 am on Sunday morning in Cork. I was the only exchange student and the others were all Aupairs. By a Mini bus we drove up to New Grange. New Grange is the oldest built by humans and still standing monument of the world. It is an over 5000 years old ancient temple (uralt, altertümlich ehemalig) which is located in the Boyne Valley, County Meath. It is a big circular mound (Hügel) with a stone passageway and three small chambers (Kammern).When we arrived it was raining. We walked through the narrow (eng, schmal) passageway into the middle of the temple. It was really small so we had to stand close together. In the middle was a big room with 3 chambers on the sides. The people who built New Grange used the chambers to burry their dead people. On the walls were the typically engravings (Gravur) of the celtic people, for example the spiral. The construction of the roof was so good that in over 5000 years no rain could come trough it, so we were perfectly dry inside=). Our tour guide told us that on the shortest day of the year, the 21^st of December the sun rises over the valley and shines through the passageway and straight through the middle of the room to a wall inside one of the chambers. We had a short demonstration with electric light how it would look like (magical...). There are thousands of people every year who want to see this event, but just a small group of around six people can stay inside New Grange when at 9 am the sun rises and shines inside the temple. The group for 2015 was already drawn (ausgelost) but we could apply for 2016 ( what I did =)). I know I won´t be there next year but it´s so unlikely that I get chosen so I just did it for fun. There are still lots of unanswered questions about New Grange. For example none knows where the people who built it went- they simply disappeared. It was a pity but we weren´t allow to take pictures inside.

After the visit our bus driver drove us to DUBLIN! When we arrived there was a mist (Nieselregen) so we first didn´t go on the top of the double decker hop on hop off bus. We got out at Grafton street, the most expensive shopping street in Dublin and had to go on the bus again after just 30 minutes. Then we continued our sightseeing tour through Dublin (on top of the bus). It was the bus was open on top but luckly there was a roof over the first couple of seats. We didn´t have enough time to hop off at another place, but we could see a bit of the capital city of the Repuplic of Ireland from the bus. At the end I bought a Dublin jumper then our bus picked us up again and drove us back to Cork. I was really tired afterwards but it was a great trip!

New Grange

Group picture at New Grange

Grafton street in Dublin

"The needle"- a famous sight in Dublin