Irlandreise der 6ABC

Poem about our journey to Dublin

We went to Dublin, it was a nice time,
So this poem starts with a rhyme.

A city full of different people,
Departure time was very evil.

Early at 7 a.m. we flew away,
To the country where we were going to stay.

The plane brought us high in the sky,
To our families we had said goodbye.

Unfortunately, while sitting down, Emil’s back was not straight,
If we had seen the room before, we would not have paid.

There was an Indian security man,
Who threatened us with a temporary ban.

A huge difference were the traffic lights,
They were so confusing that we almost died.

The flag is orange, white, and green,
There is so much we haven’t seen.

We weren’t allowed to bring our own food,
But we did anyways, so we had a good mood.

Eating in restaurants was very delicious,
At taking pictures, we were extremely ambitious.

All in all, we are proud to say,
At the end, everyone wanted to stay.

(Rosa, David und Emil S. – 6C)

Dear Matei,

Hi, how are you? I hope your last week was as awesome as ours. We really want to give you some insights into our school trip to Ireland. We were in Dublin from Monday till Friday.

Although the flight wasn’t the most enjoyable—because we had to be at the airport at 4 a.m. and were all incredibly tired—the stay was even better. Right after we arrived at our hostel by the River Liffey, we did an interesting city tour with a really funny tour guide.

The next day, we took a small trip to a tiny town 30 minutes from Dublin. We sat at the port and had a beautiful view of the ocean. Later, we walked to another small town called Blackrock, where we had time to eat lunch and drink coffee.

On Wednesday, we drove three hours by bus to Belfast. The city is just great. Moreover, the food was better than it was in Dublin. We also had an extremely interesting tour with ex-soldiers from the IRA and a loyalist paramilitary organization.

Even though the trip was mostly characterized by positive experiences, we also had a dramatic encounter. In a side street, we witnessed grown men fighting each other violently—and no one did anything about it.

The following day, we went all across the island to explore a city called Galway. In Galway, we discovered an abandoned lighthouse that stood on an island a bit off the coast. The city was very lively, and except for the sea access, it reminded us more of Vienna.

All in all, it was a beautiful trip, and we all would have enjoyed a longer stay.

Best wishes,
Anton and Miro

Aglaia & Mars 26.5 English Fictional story

            It wasn’t until too late that we noticed the strange man tailing behind us. He was short, even shorter than a kid would be—but he was no child. No, this was a grown man—creature? —with a ginger beard, pointy black shoes, and a clover-green top hat adorned with a gold buckle. Everything about him was dripping with mischief and greed, but we had been too distracted to even notice such a despicable man.

            But this story doesn’t start with our green friend, but rather, two students returning to their hostel late one Dublin evening. It was 9 p.m., and we didn’t have to be back until 9:30, meaning we had time to stroll around the city. We had been warned to look after our wallets and phones and to be wary of pickpockets, but the idea of being robbed seemed so unrealistic in our minds that we weren’t too bothered by it. We walked past Temple Bar, both famous and beautiful, glowing red and covered in small lanterns and lights, through the crowd, heading toward Dubh Linn Garden. The Garden sat upon an old pool from which the city got its name— “Dubh” meaning “black” and “Linn” meaning “pool,” combing to create the name Dublin.

            “Phew,” Aglaia said as we walked around the circular garden, “I’m really full.”

            I said, “yeah, those fish and chips were really good!”

            “I do feel a little nauseous, though.”

            “Oh no,” we stopped walking, “maybe we should buy a drink or something.”

            Aglaia nodded and we started walking in the direction of a Circle K convenience store. Once we arrived, we both instinctually reached for our wallets which had been sitting comfortably in our back pockets, only to realize—

            “Hey, I can’t find my wallet,” I told Aglaia.

            Aglaia reached around her pockets as I began to search for my purse. “I can’t either. What the heck?? Maybe we dropped them outside?”

            I nodded, but we both knew the chances of us finding our wallets sitting on the sidewalk were unlikely.

            Outside, the street was empty, with only a few tourists still roaming around. A few tourists and… a rather short man? Child?

            “Hey, who the heck is that guy?” I pointed him out to Aglaia.

            The man speedwalked away from us with frantic glances back as Aglaia responded, “Dude, those are totally our wallets in his hand!”

            Without another word, we both bolted after the man, who, after noticing us, promptly began to scurry off into a random side street. He was heading in the direction of Trinity College, where he’d surely be able to lose us. Despite his short stature, he was surprisingly fast, and I nearly tripped a few times on the bumpy stone road. He raced around another bend as Aglaia extended her arm out in an attempt to grab at the man, who I had just noticed was clad in all green. The man, however, managed to skip away out of Aglaia’s reach and continued down the narrow street. 

We came crashing into the front gates of Trinity College, which were already closed at that time of night. Between the two metal fences surrounding the gates, we had the man cornered. I stood on the right and Aglaia on the left, inching closer to the man with arms out, ready to grab our stolen wallets.

“Give us our wallets back, you shortstack freakshow!” I shouted at him.

Aglaia pushed him further back while yelling words I will chose not to write down, but then, all of a sudden, the man performed a trick no human could ever do.

With a high-pitched grumble and a scratching of his ginger beard, the man leaped three meters into the air, and I could have sworn a rainbow appeared in his trail for a brief moment. He cleared the fence, landed behind us gracefully on his small black boots, and, after turning around to chuckle at our pathetic attempt at revenge, continued running away, heading toward the River Liffey.

“Is that a regular dude or the dang Lucky Charms mascot??” Aglaia asked me, mouth agape.

“Honestly,” I thought about it for a moment, “that might have been a real freaking leprechaun.”

I immediately realized how crazy I sounded, but it didn’t matter. Whether or not this guy was actually a leprechaun (which at this point felt entirely possible) didn’t change the fact that he still had our wallets.

We sprinted after him across the river, running down the main road toward the Spire. He was fast, but losing energy, and I could tell it wouldn’t be long before Aglaia and I caught up. He arrived at the base of the Spire, panting, and Aglaia grabbed him by the shoulders in order to keep him from running away again.

“All right,” I said, panting, “give us our wallets, man.”

He let out another short grumble and emptied his pockets, letting tons of gold coins spill out and, finally, handed us our wallets.

Aglaia and I let the man go and didn’t ask any questions, but I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what that man had been. A leprechaun? Or just a really short robber? Either way, we returned to the hostel on time and happy.