Angloville Part Three, 14 - 16 August

After breakfast on Sunday the 14th, about 10:00 the entire Angloville group set off on a day trip to explore.  We drove south through Dublin and into the Wicklow Mountains National Park on a very narrow mountain road but with excellent views.  Here are a couple of short videos of three of our stops to enjoy the scenery.

After getting through the mountains, we arrived at the Glendalough National Park which includes both the Ecclesiastical Settlement and Monastic Site as well as hiking trails, two lakes and other interesting sites.

At the entrance to the Monastic Site, a woman was playing music on a relative of a bagpipe.

It is called the Irish Uilleann Pipes.  While bagpipes require the performer to blow air into them, the Uilleann pipes get air from bellows that are moved with one arm - this means your mouth is free and after I stopped videotaping, the lady began to sing along with the music from the pipes

There were well maintained hiking trails between the different sites in the park.

On Monday the 15th, we did our final speaking sessions before lunch.  After lunch, the participants did the oral presentations in English and we finished the program.  Tuesday morning, we started saying goodbye to participants, some of whom had flights that morning.  Some had flights on Wednesday morning, so they went on a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher.  The two Hungarians took it easy until their evening flight home.  I went with two Polish participants to visit the Guinness Storehouse.  Our time included an introduction, a self guided tour, a lesson on how to pour Guinness from a tap (including a certificate of training), samples of Guinness in the bar and finally a pint of Guinness to enjoy in the circular bar on the 7th floor which allows views of Dublin in all directions.  One of the more interesting parts of the museum was the section with a history of Guinness advertising.

I said my final goodbyes back at DCU and then took a taxi to the Clayton Hotel out near the Dublin Airport.  I had a pleasant stay there, getting up at 3:40 Wednesday morning, catching a 4:30 shuttle to the airport, then a 7:15 flight to Amsterdam, an 11:05 flight to Chicago (it was nine hours long) and a 4:20 flight to Portland (it was a four hour flight).  I finally arrived home about 7:30, some 24 hours after waking up in Dublin.

Angloville Part two 12 - 13 August, 2016

On Friday the 12th, we continued with our visits into Dublin.  Our task this time was to develop eight questions and interview eight people.  I had Marek and Paulina with me, and each of them interviewed four people, one each from Nigeria, England, Germany and Saudi Arabia, and two each from Croatia and Ireland.  All agreed to also be videotaped, except for the man from Saudi Arabia.  I was going to post some of the videos here, but Blogspot limits video uploads to 100 megs and all of these were longer.

On my morning walks, as I wondered the neighborhoods around the University, I often came across some very nicely landscaped yards and gardens.  Here is one I found to the west of campus in a neighborhood called Johnstown Park.

On Saturday the 13th, for a real change of pace, our city games adventure was to visit the town of Howth and find five things there.  While we could have taken a bus and then a train, the three Polish members of my team (Sylvia, Paulina and Ewa) thought it would be worthwhile to spend some of our own money and take a 40 minute taxi ride there.  Along the way, our driver stopped so we could take some photos of Dublin harbor, barely visible in the distance.

We took the taxi a bit further to the Summit Inn, appropriately named for being on the summit of the highest point in Howth.

We walked the short distance up the hill and found the trail system that would take us to Bailey Lighthouse, one of the items on our list.

Bailey Lighthouse is in the distance in the next photo, barely visible - we decided not to walk out that far.

We returned to the main trail that headed very gradually downhill towards the center of town.  The flora was colorful and lined the trail.

As we came around the corner, we spied the Irish Eye in the distance - it is the split in the rock from the island just off of Howth.  It was the second item on our list of things to find.

We also saw some nice estates along the trail.

Here is a better view of the Irish Eye as we got closer.

Another item on our list was Martello Towers.  Here is what Wikipedia says about them:

 Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts.


They stand up to 40 feet (12 m) high (with two floors) and typically had a garrison of one officer and 15–25 men. Their round structure and thick walls of solid masonry made them resistant to cannon fire, while their height made them an ideal platform for a single heavy artillery piece, mounted on the flat roof and able to traverse, and hence fire over, a complete 360° circle. A few towers had moats or other batteries and works attached for extra defence.

The Martello towers were used during the first half of the 19th century, but became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled artillery. Many have survived to the present day, often preserved as historic monuments.


The next photo shows the Martello Tower in Howth, as we passed by on our way into town.

There are two lighthouses in Howth, the Bailey Lighthouse on the south side and seen above, and the Howth Lighthouse in the harbor on the north side of the city center.

We were also supposed to find the Howth Castle and the Cromlech, but never got that far.  One of Paulina's cousins was coming to pick her up at 6:00, so we stayed in the center of town waiting for the cousin's arrival.  After that, Sylvia, Ewa and I wanted to have seafood for dinner and decided to eat at King Cidric's restaurant - our taxi driver had recommended it.

The three of us shared a seafood platter designed for two people to share, plus salad and beer.  The platter had oysters, lobster, prawns, crab legs, crab salad, a crab cake, smoked salmon and Irish brown bread.  It was a very good decision to stay and eat here.

Not only did our taxi driver recommend King Cidric, but Michelin Guide also recognized the restaurant.

After dinner we walked to the local BART train station and rode the train into Dublin Center, where we joined another team (Dara, Izabella and Veronika) and walked for a bit to a pub that was not a tourist pub.  Dara lives in Dublin and instead took us west of the Spire on O'Connell St. near the Smithfield Plaza, where we all enjoyed some traditional Irish pub music and a beer.

The first five days of Angloville at Dublin City University, August 7 - 11, 2016

On Sunday morning, I went out for my morning walk and had breakfast, then checked out of the Hotel St. George.  My plan was to walk to Dublin City University, as it was only about 3 miles away.  After about 15 minutes, one of the wheels on my suitcase started having problems and became so bad I had to stop.  Fortunately, I found a French cafe around 10:00 and sat down outside with my coffee - and just then, a taxi came and dropped some people off.  I asked the driver to return at 11:00 to take me to DCU.  I enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine for the next hour and then took the cab ride to DCU.  It is a compact campus in a suburban area of northern Dublin.

After checking in with Angloville, I found my room.  DCU operates their dorms like hotel rooms during the summer.  We were in suites with five bedrooms and a lounge in each suite.  The bedrooms have individual locks and en suite bathrooms.  The lounge has living room, dining room and a kitchen area with fridge, stove, microwave, coffee maker, etc.  I then set out to explore the campus.

 There is a beautiful performance center and theater, the Helix.

Most of the buildings are brick and have been around since 1982 when this campus was opened.

Our Angloville meetings were in a classroom in the School of Business.

Later in the day, there was a school band playing to welcome people to an event at the Helix.

As I continued to explore the campus during the week, I found other points of interest, such as the School of Nursing and Human Sciences.

In Ireland, there is often rain, so they have covered parking for bicycles.

In the neighborhood just off campus, there is a building used by the local Scouting organization.

And the neighborhood has multiple signs about picking up after your dog.

Angloville was created to help people improve their verbal English skills, so we had a busy schedule laid out for our ten days.

On Wednesday, Aug. 10, we went into Dublin on a scavenger hunt.  One of the things we saw was the bell tower in the center of Trinity College

We were tasked with learning some words and sentences in Irish.  I bought this magnet, thinking it said "Greetings from Ireland" as the small print in red states.  It actually translates as "kiss my ass."

This sign had a better usage of Irish words for us.

Another thing we were supposed to find was an Irish street musician playing Irish music - but because of the rainy weather, we could not find any, so I took this short video of the statue of Molly Malone and this guy playing his guitar and singing - but it was not Irish music.

On Thursday, one of the places I found to visit on our one to one Angloville discussions was Le Petit Cafe, a wonderful little French cafe about ten minutes from the DCU School of Business where we met for each of our sessions.  Here is the coffee and snack we had.

On our Thursday trip into Dublin, we were searching for historical things.  My group went to the Dublin Castle.

Then we met up with another group and I went with four Polish participants to Epic, a new museum that just opened in May as part of the 100th anniversary of Irish Independence.  Epic shows the history of the 70 million people of Irish descent and how they emigrated from Ireland, especially during the potato famine of the 1800s.