June 6, 2007
Oxford, England – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team closed out their six-day stay in Ireland on Monday, June 4 and took their tour to North Wales on Tuesday, June 5. Sophomore Mary Veith reports in on her teammates and their European tour from June 3-5.
Day 4 – Sunday, June 3
The team celebrated mass in Dublin at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday morning. Our walking tour around Dublin was cancelled due to the rainy weather. Instead, the team was given a free day to explore Dublin on our own. Among popular spots visited were the Guinness Factory, local museums, and Trinity College where the famous Book of Kells is located.
Later, the team got back together to travel into the Dublin Mountains to Johnnie Fox’s Pub for the evening Hooley. The four-hour Hooley included a banquet-style meal, followed by an Irish band and Irish dancers. The possible highlight of the day was when Heather (Ferguson) and Maria (Brooks) were chosen from among the crowd to join the performers on stage to try Irish dancing!
Day 5 – Monday, June 4
This morning the team enjoyed a later breakfast and then headed back up into the mountains to Glendalough. We stopped for an elegant lunch and then continued on to the estate for a day of team-building activities. We were divided into the red, blue, silver, and yellow teams and competed in various activities ranging from archery to other more mentally trying tasks that required communication and cooperation.
In the end, the red team prevailed and was awarded the prize of a bottle of champagne! Later, we enjoyed our last night in Dublin in the famous Temple Bar area and prepared for an early start the next morning.
Day 6 – Tuesday, June 5
At 7:45 a sleepy Irish lacrosse group boarded the ferry for Holyhead. After a two-and-a-half hour ride we arrived and boarded our bus to head to Chester in North Wales. In Chester we had lunch and a guided tour of the area where we learned of the Roman influence on the Welsh city.
We then got back on the bus for a long ride to Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare was born. We had free time to explore the quaint town and then headed to Oxford where we checked into our hotel and walked to dinner at a local restaurant.
Though we spent much of the day on the bus it was, as Kinney (Caitlin McKinney) pointed out, “Cool to be in three countries in one day.”
Along with that, it was interesting to see the stark differences between Ireland and England, two countries so close in geography yet so distant in wealth and culture.
Until my next report……
Go Irish!!!