Marble Arch Caves and Hurling Match

This past weekend was extremely busy. Some people had fieldtrips four days in a row. I had one to the Marble Arch Caves in Northern Ireland on Friday for our Environmental Earth Science class and one to the Hurling match between Dublin and Cork on Sunday.


The Marble Arch Caves were amazing. We got to walk along a path inside them while stalactites were dripping on us and all we could hear was the rushing water of the river running through the cave. It was very dark inside the cave, which made it very difficult to get any good pictures. We had about and hour-long tour through the cave where we were informed of how each aspect of the cave was formed. It felt as if I was on a different planet. I had never seen anything like it. When you see pictures of caves you think you can imagine being inside them, but it was a completely new experience.


On Sunday, we were taken to a Hurling match just outside Dublin. None of us even knew what hurling was or how it was played before we went to the game. It was fairly easy to catch on to the rules while watching it though. I have hated sports my entire life but hurling was the most interesting sport I’ve ever seen. It was like a mix of field hockey, soccer, baseball, and lacrosse. I have no doubt that any of the players could excel in any of these sports. They had to be extremely talented to play hurling. You should definitely look up some youtube videos of hurling matches online if you have never seen it before. It’s extremely fast paced and looks really dangerous. A bunch of guys holding wooden sticks all trying to swing at the same ball.

It was also quite the experience to hear all these irish guys screaming from the stands at the players. One of the really odd things I found about the game was that during halftime, all of the children in the stands would run out onto the field and get to play some hurling and talk to the players. I really hope that we can go see another match before we have to leave. Only 33 days left before I leave =( I’m going to miss Ireland so much.