Erasmus+ training course In Dublin

 

As I announced my friends and family that I was accepted to the course, the reactions were equal – keywords ‘"Guinness, rain, whiskey, landscape, wow, great time’’. So I definitely had no doubts about something great being ahead of me.

 

I started traveling with Flixbus direction Vienna-Bratislava and from there I took Ryanair plane to Dublin airport, where the shuttlebus was already waiting for the guests of the Clayton hotel. I admit, I totally forgot about the ‘’English’’ driving style on the ‘’wrong’’ side of the road and for a moment it crossed my mind that the driver is just a bit less skilled. But he was and I arrived to the hotel where I encounter another surprise – the organizers of the coursed generously accommodated us in truly luxurious hotel. Of course I have briefly checked it beforehand, but sure I did not expect that! Waiting in the reception line, I thought to myself that if I don’t really marry the president, there’s most likely not going to be many chances for me to enjoy that. So, in a nutshell, if you’re young travelers with no sponsors, I would not recommend you the stay – the prices are around 120 EUR per night. Which made me appreciate the course organizers even more. The glamour of the ambient almost blinded me in a good way, that kind of elegance was purely a shock to my poor accustomed-to-hostels soul. The hotel interiors were not the only thing that came to me as a shock – so did the dinner, since even the native speakers needed the help of google to see what can we actually choose from the menu. 

 

The first night and the dinner were more of a get-to-know events, to introduce yourself in a relaxed manner, some introduction games and I realized there are lots of countries I do not know a single person from. I even met two girls from Slovenia, my home country. With my 25, I was one of the youngest participants since there were hardly any students there, mostly just young full-time workers. We played some get-to-know games and got introduced to the weekly plan – it was meant to be relaxed, the programme started at 9:30 and included lots of coffee breaks, yet it was planned the way that it consumed most of the day and didn’t leave us much time for visiting the city outside of the afternoon when it was planned by the organizers. That was a bit less comfortable, especially due to the hotel location around 40 minutes outside of the Dublin center. So in the end we decided to enjoy the comfort of the hotel; I have postponed my departure for one day anyway, just in case.

 

The content of the programme was a bit different than I imagined it – despite the main topic being the ‘’Breaking barriers’’ (Barrier-free is an English expression that describes structural or architectural design that allows access to individuals with special needs), the emphasis was at the planning and management Erasmus+ and EVS projects that included the disabled people. Some of us thought there’s going to be more to learn about disabled people themselves, interaction with them, improving skills as personal assistants and so on. But instead I gained the feeling, how much work and planning is put into the project organization, how important it is to be organized, decisive and have the complementary partner and last but not least – that every project planning at some point hits a rock bottom and nothing works as planned. And it’s completely normal! 

 

Somewhere along the course we had a city visit. As you can probably imagine, Ireland is full of national pride, symbols and culture and it seems like Dublin captures all of it in its atmosphere. Relatively small capital with only around 500 thousand people living there, is perfectly suitable for discoveries by foot and feel the city spirit on the way. On every step you will find clover and sheep symbols, Irish music, huge amount of Irish bars to choose from. Souvenir shops are full of bringers of Irish luck, St. Patrick, amusing T-shirts with paraphrased beer praising. The 1912 was the year proudly presented as a hard-gained autonomy. Also the pride in sadly slowly disappearing Irish native language and symbols are present and commercially used for jewelry and souvenirs. The statue of Molly Malone, Whiskey museum – all in fitting together in the unique style. Despite the status of the largest city of Ireland, the image of Dublin stays traditional, there you will not find any modern skyscrapers – in the fact, the buildings taller than 3 floors are more or less exceptional, which only contributes to the impression of relative comfort in contrast to the other European metropoles.

 

Quite a while ago, I discovered the internship offer for Ireland and was quite surprised seeing the condition: "no introverts due to potential issues integrating in the Irish culture’’. I found it rude at first, but I got my own chance to make sure about the highly talkative natives and surprisingly open nature of them. At the beginning I was confused by everyone asking me ‘’How are you’’ and small talk of majority of salesmen. I found out some of them were really slowly doing their job, but they were talking to everyone in the meantime! 

 

Of course it would be a sin not to try the famous Guinness from the pub and I admit, I am not a huge beer fan. And some people found it odd that I’ve never tried a beer with fruit syrup before, but I loved both of it! Absolutely incomparable with the canned Guinness! Travellers guide: the price of a beer in the city center is a bit more than 5 eur normally.

 

And I admit, I was not brave enough to try the black pudding. It’s not a pudding actually. It contains blood among other things.

 

Of course we can’t forget about the rain stereotypes, but fortunately, the natives gave us some comfort saying it rains only twice a week in Ireland – during the week and on the weekend. No, really. We did not have extreme misfortune regarding weather, but we got sprinkled over at least twice per day. However, the rain was not a "heavy" one as we are used and did not stand in our way by the comfortable city walk.

 

I really do not recommend waiting until the last day to book a hostel. Dublin has a bit of an accommodation problem and it is really not cheap to book it last minute. But the hostel Dublin International YHA receiver many nice reviews, where you can even rent a room for affordable price. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to travel across the country, so I decided to give it another shot in the near future, just so I can enjoy the countryside and its landscapes as well without checking the watch so frequently – as the Ireland deserves it.