We had a Ceilidh to celebrate the end of the program and learned a bunch of traditional dances!
Ceilidh Dance Video 1 Ceilidh Dance Video 2 Ceilidh Dance Video 3
Dundalk Institute of Technology
The day we’re all here for, the tour of the campus. We explored a Tesco and ended the night at a bar with some music; we’ve found that they’re pretty much stuck in the 70s, the musician was playing lots of Eagles and Beatles, and stores/restaurants in both Dublin and Dundalk play almost exclusively all the oldies but goodies.
Exploring Athens
We had a great breakfast this morning, there was actually normal Greek food instead of just soggy hotel eggs and such. We went up to the Acropolis which was really cool, and we had a great tour guide, Thanos. He was very informative and interesting, and talked a lot about things that weren’t necessarily related to exactly where we were or what we were doing, but more about Greek life and traditions and such. From the Acropolis we could see an ancient theatre which was really huge and cool. We also got to see Mars Hill where Paul gave a speech that’s in the Bible. Thanos took us on a walking and bus tour where we also saw the first modern Olympic stadium, a statue of Harry Truman (thanks to Mrs. King I actually remember the Truman Doctrine), and the grave of the unknown soldier. Our guide was talking about how Lord Byron loved it here and was buried here; this stuck out to me because we visited his castle in Switzerland, and I really enjoy being able to learn about and see these connections across different places. We went out to dinner and got a really delicious cheese ball (reminds me of the hunk a chunka cheese I got in Mexico) and there was a band playing traditional Greek music the whole night. Halfway through dinner a few dancers came out and started folk dancing, and then later they brought up some people (including me) to dance with them. It was a really fun night, and now I can brag to the theatre company about being a part of a real oppa.
Off to Greece
Had to say goodbye to most of the peeps I’ve been hanging out with for the past 2 weeks which was kind of a bummer, but I’m super stoked to go to Greece so it’s ok. It’s really strange, I’ve been able to sleep really well on the coach whenever everyone else is awake and talking, but now that everyone’s asleep and it’s silent, I can’t sleep.
The Acropolis museum was very cool; it astounds me 1) how they are able to find all this stuff and 2) how they are able to piece it all together. There were lots of statues of Nike, whom we saw the big statue of in the Louvre. We got a Greek buffet for dinner which was very good – they put some kind of dressing on the cucumbers that made me actually enjoy them, and there was this pastry thing that I have no idea what was in it, but it was very good. Then a couple of us wandered around Athens just exploring. There’s someone playing some type of instrument on basically every corner, and it’s Greek music which makes the situation even cooler.
Exploring Rothenburg
We had a very free day today, and we had done a lot last night already, so we just walked around all the shops. We visited the Christmas shop which was actually pretty cool. We had our last concert in the square and then after dinner we played exploding kittens in our fancy balcony. Since it’s most people’s last night in Europe, we had a celebration thing where we all just gathered together to watch the slideshow from all the bus cameras.
Matterhorn
We drove and then took a train to the town at the base of the Matterhorn, Zermatt, and then took another little train to the Matterhorn viewing place. It was a very beautiful and a clear day, so the mountain wasn’t covered at all. For dinner everyone got together where we had played our concert and had cheese fondue and some of the locals performed for us. They had a normal little band and classic Swiss dances as well as the classic long horn thing. There is also the tradition that if you drop your bread in the fondue, you have to go around the table and kiss everyone of the opposite gender on the cheek, so that was entertaining because a lot of people had to do it.
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Montreaux
We got up early before breakfast so we could walk around the town which is really beautiful. I was able to meet with Coco today and it was really great to see and talk to her! She followed us up to the Castle of Chillon where we took a guided tour. The castle has amazing views and has a gorgeous interior as well with the nice dark wood columns and ceilings. Then we took an hour walk next to the lake down to Montreaux, it was a very beautiful walk and then the town was very busy because they were setting up for the Montreaux Jazz Festival, so Coco and I just walked around and talked. It was great and it didn’t feel like it had been 3 years since we saw each other last. We got back to Crans-Montana, ate dinner, and then had our concert. It was definitely our best concert yet, and it was pretty fun because there was such a big crowd of locals. The Swiss really enjoyed our concert and the red band played Stars and Stripes three times.
Concert & London Eye
We had our first concerts today in the park and a church which took most of the day, and then we went to a pub and got fish and chips, and then went to the London Eye. The Eye was quite fun with a lot of the green bus in the same carriage thing taking lots of pictures.
Capricorn Caves & Dreamtime Aboriginal Culture Centre
We had 2 hours of free time at the hotel but we couldn’t swim or get wet. I did table tennis, then we all did mini golf. When we were done, it was time to go to Capricorn Caves. At the cave, it was pretty much just walking through a rainforest and caves. We went through a skinny cave by candlelight, but since I didn’t have a candle, and the person in front walked too fast, and the the person in back had to stop, I was left me in pitch dark so I hit my head, but at least Heather had her camera for a little light. We also learned that guano is bat poop and is used for make-up in some countries around the world! I really hope it’s not in America!
After that, we went to Dreamtime Aboriginal Culture Centre where we learned about the Aboriginal culture, watched a weird but cool aboriginal dance and saw the didgeridoo being played. It was really cool because you can make different animal noises like the dingo, kookaburra and kangaroos riding motorcycles! We also learned how to throw boomerangs, but I wasn’t very good so I bought one to practice in the backyard.
