Recently our school paid a visit to Coláiste Acla on Achill Island. 29 girls from TY went accompanied by two of our teachers Ms. Bergin and Mr. McGrane.
We got on a luxury bus complete with comfy seats and WiFi at Celbridge Manor and took a five hour bus trip to Achill Island. We stopped in Longford at a McDonalds. Funnily enough I had been to the McDonalds before many times on trips to Longford with my dance school.
When we arrived at the coláiste we had lunch of soup and sandwiches before being split up into our houses. I was put into Teach Marion. However we didn't go straight to our houses instead heading straight for the beach for a surf lesson. We spent about two hours trying to surf. I didn't quite stay standing for more than a second but I managed to surf the whole way in on my knees. After we struggled out of our wetsuits and headed to our respective houses. When we reached the houses we were split into our rooms. Sadly I wasn't with my best friends as there was only one room of five and other people got there first. However I got to share a room with Carmen. We spaghetti bolognese for dinner. After this we were allowed to do whatever we wanted in our rooms until the bus came to pick us up for an Irish class and a game of dodge ball. When we were dropped back to our houses we had supper before again having free time. Our phones were then collected at 10:30 and lights out was at 11.
The next morning I woke up really early just before six I think. There wasn't much I could do because nobody else was awake so I decided to plait my hair and get dressed. When everybody else was awake I went into my friend's room and spent most of the morning between them and Carmen. We had breakfast at 8 and the bus picked us up at 9:30 for team challenges. We were split into 3 teams and had to complete various tasks such as races and mental tasks. We also did some wall climbing. We then had lunch of soup and sandwiches again before heading to the bog. At the bog we completed a mini obstacle course and jumped into rivers and through tunnels. At the end we went down a slide into a mini lake. The lake was really refreshing and we got mostly cleaned off there. We were dropped back to our houses for a dinner of curry and showers before another Irish class and a céile. We were dropped home for supper before our phones were taken off us at 10:30 and lights out at 11.
The next morning we got up and changed the sheets before breakfast. We then packed all our things and headed for the coláiste. We left our bags there before going for a walk in a river. After the walk we sat and looked at some of the views of the island. We also got to ask loads of questions about life on the island. After this we were brought back to the coláiste for lunch of soup and sandwiches.After this we got our bags and got back on our snazzy bus. Another five hour bus ride followed with another trip to a different McDonalds.
The ceannaraí were really nice and were one of the mains reasons we had a good time. They were really good craic and weren't put out by anything we said or did. I think they were really happy tat we were eager and willing to do everything.
Some of the best craic was the bus trips around the island. We had epic karaoke and banter. There was even hot water with orange squash to warm us up after our adventures in the cold water. This sounded really weird to me but was actually really tasty.
Some of the funniest times were probably trying to get in and out of the wetsuits. The first day we didn't quite get them on right and all ended up with big red marks our our necks. The second day most of us had copped how to put them on right, but still getting them on was a workout in itself.
The trip was really fun and makes me really want to go to the Gaeltacht during the summer. However Gaeltacht trips are quite expensive and I'm not sure I will be able to go.
