Good morning/ day/ evening everybody! It´s the second blog in two days as this is the second part of the previous week.
In the last post I told you that we were head to toe into preparations for my family’s visit. Finally, on Wednesday evening, my hostfather and I drove up to Dublin airport to collect them. Their flight had a short delay, since they took off half an hour later as planned, but that was fortunate for us. That way we could watch the whole champions League match (Liverpool-Ajax), before we had to leave the house. I even made a sign for them, just for the crack. I didn´t know what to write on it, ´cause I had already asked my dad and when he had no specific request I told him I´d think of something. Little did I know, that my brain isn´t the best at thinking of funny stuff. Well, I still made a poster in the end, which I hold at the airport. It was very quiet there since it was late at night. I was very excited and spotted them straight aways as they came out the door. After some hugs and happy greetings, we drove back as quick as possible. My whole family was very tired, as they´d had a long day and they even got an extra hour because of the time difference. It didn´t matter though, we were just happy to be reunited again :) After a short but peaceful night, we were all up again on Thursday morning, ready to drive up to Belfast. Fortunately, my host family has a big car so all of us were able to fit into one car. We drove up to Belfast and my family got to experience the crucial Irish driving. It´s horrendous sometimes, I´m telling you. They drive with no consideration of others, especially in the countryside. Well anyways, we got to Belfast and went to the Titanic Museum straightaway. That was brilliant! Most of the museums here are very well done and their exhibitions are very lively. They are designed visitor friendly and there are multiple interactive stations. I really enjoyed it. Also, my host dad has been a professional photographer and still likes to take pictures. I think this is the first “family vacations” we have good photos. That´s pretty cool. We strolled around Belfast briefly before we drove back home, but I had time enough to go into another Spar. Guess what, this time it was actually a good Spar and I just loved it. My family laughed at me, cause they think it´s quite ironic, that out of all things I get so happy when I see a spar here. I think it´s just because it´s something familiar form home and it´s always exciting when they have something here, that we have in Austria too. When we got back home, the rest of my host family got to meet my family. They got on well and we had a good time. All kids discovered the foosball table (That´s what they call it here. It´s Tischfussball in German). We had a really good time up there and enjoyed our time together.
Their stay continued on Friday with a trip up to Dublin. We went to see Kilmainham jail. It´s a very historical prison and the tour was very well done as well. I find those tours very interesting and try to take as much as possible in, so I can enhance my knowledge. We stayed up in Dublin afterwards and went to Temple Bar. It´s a district in Dublin, which is more or less just with Bars, Restaurants and culinary places. I loved it there. It just gave off this old, lively city vibe, which I love. We also ate there in a nice Pub. It was my first time in a Pub here in Ireland and I have to say I like the atmosphere. It was slightly dark in there, but there was brilliant music playing. It was just a good time! In the evening there was a little kids disco in my village. My sister and I dropped by just to see what´s going on there. It´s not very common for my village to have something on, so if there is some event or just anything, it´s always very exciting.
On Saturday I brought my family to Sheridan´s. We walked there and were just chatting. There is so much to tell and know. My family loved the store as much as I do. We had a lovely breakfast there and they had a look around the shop too. Just lovely! In the afternoon we all went to Trim, where a kind of medieval festival took place. It was very interesting to see how they lived ages ago. We even could try out some things. I tried to make a fire with Iron and stone and tried on a knight helmet. The festival went on ´til the night and a parade took place in the evening. After a chaotic waiting, the parade finally passed by with a small delay. It still was gorgeous. I was amazed that all attractions were pulled by humans. It was superb! they even planned on doing a fire show, but for health and safety reasons, they were canceled. Because of that we all went to a pub with some friends of my host family. Oh, let me tell you, we had the best time. They were all such lovely people and we had a great laugh. We all just enjoyed our time.
The time passed by very quickly and before we could blink it was already Sunday, the last day of my family´s stay. Just the five of us got up early and went for a long walk up to the Tower of Lloyd. You literally walk in the countryside of Ireland. All you see is trees, bushes, sheep, fields, then there is a house in the middle of nowhere and the order continues. My family loved it and I do too. MY hostfather pick us up on our way back and we drove to the oldest graves. They are called Newgrange and are a World Heritage site. They were discovered some years ago and the whole site was dug out and made ready for sight. It was pretty cool.
Their stay finished off with the Austrian night. All my sister, parents and I cooked together to prepare delicious Kässpätzle with potato salad. Oh it was just terrific. We had Austrian music and for the dine I even put on my dirndl. We had the best time and I really enjoyed having my family over. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with them and my host family really made an effort to show them as much as they possibly could. That was very nice of them.
To sum it up, I had the best time and was absolutely delighted to have my family here. The goodbye wasn´t bittersweet this time either because we all know, that we will see each other soon enough. Until then the weekly phone calls, keep us updated:)
Lots of love and relaxing holidays to Austria Emma<3
There are a lot more pictures in galerie :)
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