In the morning I went to see St. Patrick´s Cathedral. It was of course magnificent. I had a guided tour with a couple from the Netherlands and our guide, a wobbly old fellow, forgot about dates and years and names but still told us interesting stories and facts. For example, the Guinness family had paid for the renevation of the cathedral. That´s not the first time the family is mentioned during my (very historical) week and I think they have had a lot of power over the hundreds of years of Irish history. Maybe they still have. But, the elderly guide just didn´t stop talking and the tour had taken over an hour, not 40 minutes as it should have and I had to rush to our final lesson.



The final, short lesson was about reflection: what did we learn? Of course I learned more english and I think that I´m much more fluent now. After this week I know a lot about Ireland, its history and culture. But most of all I´m confident that I can travel alone in the future, if I want to. I didn´t taste Guinness, I didn´t spend nigths at the pub and I didn´t walk around Stephens green. Only one of those is something that I will do tomorrow before I leave.

Finally, we played a game of hurling. It´s a bit like rugby, but more violent, said our teacher. Well, to tell you the truth, we didn´t play, just tried to balance the sliotar (ball) on the hurley (stick), but it was quite impossible at least for me.



We spent the afternoon in Powerscourt gardens as the Academy had arranged a haf-day tour there. It was a beautiful place that I would have never visited on my own. It had an amazing, big area with different style gardens. The National Geograpfic has nominated Powerscourt to be the third best garden in the world.



My week is now almost over. It has been a week of language, culture and history and I have enjoyed everything tremendously.

ps. Good to go home but definitely not coming to work on monday. Too tired. All this travelling.