Due to the fact that my host family’s house was very remotely located going into town during the week was not really a part of our freetime activities. So rather than spending our time in a pub or at Penneys, which were probably the two most frequented places in town, we really enjoyed the time with our hostmum when we walked her dogs along the beach. 

On our second last day Joyce even got free tickets for us to visit Waterford Crystal. As her brothers were former workers there she really enjoyed showing us around and telling us some interesting facts about the manufactoring. Waterford Crystal was a really nice place to visit as you could observe workers blowing, cutting and engraving glass and of course, seeing all different steps which are necessary to get those lovely crystal pieces.

We really loved those activities our host mum did with us but we also enjoyed times when we were just sitting on the table and having interesting conversations about the differences between Austria and Ireland. We were also really amused about all the funny family stories they’ve told us and the lovely pictures they showed us.

However, sometimes we needed time for ourselves and we therefore experienced some parts of Ireland on our own. On our second weekend for example we spontaneously decided to do a trip to Dunmore East which was a small fishermens’s village not far away from our home. We roamed around the lovely streets, took pictures of Irelands famous little cottage houses with those famous roofs which are made of straw, water reed and sedge. After our visit we took the bus into town where we spent the rest of our day. As our hostmum told us about „Waterford Walls“ which was a project that was founded in 2015 by a small group who wanted to bring some much needed colour back to Waterford, we decided to do a small sightseeing tour around the city. It probably took us more than one hour to see all the different types of graffitis and street arts, but it was really worth it.
We also had the chance to accompany our employers to Ireland’s oldest aggricultural show at which they participate in a horse jumping show. In the morning we helped our employers to load in six horses into their big horse lorry. The front of the lorry was furnished like a camper van with a small kitchen, a sitting area and even a toilet was integrated. As we arrived at the show, we had the chance to explore the quite big area with a lot of different food and clothing stalls ourselves and enjoyed the beautiful weather. There were also shows at which farmers presented their cattle like cows, pigs and loads of sheep. Some of those breeds we've never seen before and it was quite funny to take pictures of them or even to stroke them.

 
On another Sunday we went with some other students who also took part in Language Exchange Ireland to the so called „Cliffs of Moher“ which most people probably associate with Harry Potter. Although the ride to the cliffs took about four hours it was really worth it. The lovely view and the colourful scenery around there were so beautiful that I really quickly forgot about the long drive back home which was lying ahead of us.

Apart from those trips we also had a really short trip to Dubiln, which is Ireland’s capital. At first we’ve visited the guinness factory which most students found very boring. Even though we were entitled to have a free guinness after our visit I didn’t like that part of our trip. In my opinion visiting the guinness factory would have better been missed out so that we could have spent time on something more interesting instead. Unfortunately, it was already 1 p.m. when we arrived in Dublin City Centre so we didn’t have very much time left to do some sightseeing. Our coach already left at 5.30 which really caused us to hurry up in everything we did. So after my friends and I had lunch in an lovely italian restaurant we browsed around all possible gift and souvenir shops to buy little somethings for our families back home in Austria. But at the end of  the day I had to confess that the trip to Dublin was too short and not worth the money. It would have been better if we stayed there for a whole weekend, so we then really could have done some sightseeing and experience the city.

To sum up, I really enjoyed all those short trips to places I’ve never been before. However, it was too bad that I worked from 9 to 5 everyday and was so remotely located. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a lot of Ireland because of these reasons but maybe I will come back someday and experience the country myself.

-Jessica Ulmer