Sights, sounds and smells of Ireland in June

Typically Wicklow County

Since travelling around the fantastic country of Ireland, I have been making some comparisons with my state of Tasmania. I started thinking we were very similar but the further we travelled the more differences I noticed.

  • Lots of stone fences
  • In lanes, lots of hedges with stone under them
  • Lots of houses in between villages, many more villages than in Tasmania
  • Many brand new houses for sale
  • The awful smell of slurry – dangerous as well – two deaths while we were here
  • The friendly people
  • Narrow roads especially L roads
  • Drove on the correct side of the road
  • Loud noisy crows in the trees
  • Lots of roads around the coastline
  • Every Irish country has a different accent, even within one county different accents
  • Lots of rhododendrons and fuschias in the hedgerows as well as blackberries
  • Very little natural forest, mainly pine plantations
  • Very little food being grown, the occasional potato field or onion field but didn’t see any orchards or strawberry fields
  • Every meal contains onions of some sort and usually potato as well
  • Great road signs but some are overgrown by the large deciduous trees
  • Friendly drivers when Miss W got in the wrong lane and indicated to move over
  • Smell of the sea especially seaweed around the coast
  • The amount of tourist buses in such a small country
  • Similar teaching resources in Irish schools and Tassie schools
  • Friendly kids and teachers
  • Ireland 68,890 square kms in land, Tasmania is 68,401 square kilometres
  • Tasmania has over 2000 km of walking trails, lots of walking cycling trails in Ireland
  • Tasmania has 18 national parks and about one third of the state is reserves, parks or World Heritage.
  • National parks in Ireland usually relate to bogs and peat while in Tasmania they are most often natural forests
  • Tasmania population 510,900 while Ireland has 4.78  million or thereabouts
  • Lots of cyclists not wearing helmets especially in coastal touristy areas
  • Many towns with hanging baskets to welcome visitors
  • Still light around 11pm in Ireland during daylight savings

What else would you add is typically Irish that I have missed out?

 

Davo at St Peters Bray

What a great morning at St Peters Bray!

First was the long drive around the outskirts of Dublin on the M50 then branching off to Bray. Google maps gave Miss W excellent directions on how to find the school.

We met Martina Sexton @ceanntina who was looking after the remnants of the year 2, 5 and 6 who were not at the sports day.

What a great bunch of students. They listened to all the information Miss W gave about Australia and Tasmania in particular. They asked interesting questions about the animals.

Then we headed to the library where the children logged onto the computers to show us their favourite blog post on their school blog. Many liked the post about their principal who has recently had twins.

Some visited my blog to check out what we did on previous travels and Johnny left a comment.

Then Miss W learned how to make a podcast using the soundcloud app on the ipad and how to make a 6 second video using vine.

A lovely morning tea with the staff and we were then on our way to Greystones for the afternoon.

Here are a couple of images from the morning in Bray.

Davo loves being patted by students!

 

Davo loved reading to the students and Martina!

Activity for students:
Leave a comment telling an interesting fact you learnt about Australia or ask a question you still have about Australia.