There were some parts of being in Ireland that they never got used to, like bangers and mash, church bells that played "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" on the hour, and gigantic Irish basketball players.
But other parts of the trip were a revelation, like finding out that they could still live without cell phones or Internet access 24 hours a day. In fact, they enjoyed it.
The Bard College men's basketball team returns Thursday from an eight-day trip to Ireland where they kissed the Blarney Stone, toured the Guinness factory and played three games against top competition.
Head coach Adam Turner, a Bard graduate, kept families and friends involved in the basketball program abreast of what was going on with an e-mail journal of sorts, in spite of intermittent access to the Internet. What follows are excerpts from his musings:
DAY 1
The red eye flight from Philly went smooth last night. Everyone was so wired that few of us slept at all so as I speak most of the team is crashed out in the hotel. It took around 45 min to get all of the money converted over and it was painful seeing a hundred dollars quickly become 65 euro. It is about time for the dollar to come back. Food is going to be EXPENSIVE.
We took a bus 30 min into downtown from the airport and then transferred over to the Luas (tram). We transferred right in the heart of Dublin which was pretty alive and beautiful. The people were incredibly helpful in helping us figure out how and where to go along the way. We then took the tram around 30 min outside of downtown to where our hotel is. It is almost in a suburban area (think Westchester County).
We are about a 30 min tram ride from downtown Dublin and will be heading in tonight to have a team dinner and enjoy a night out in the Temple area right on the river. Everyone is pretty beat so it will be an early night for sure.
The people here are incredibly nice. We are a little out of the way though and had to walk around 15 min to find a restaurant for lunch as everyone was starving. The guys had clear priorities upon arrival - FOOD and SLEEP - and the rest we will figure out after! Food was diner-like with a little Irish twist (varieties of meat). The guys were definitely soaking in the culture and place for the few hours they were awake and we can't wait to get a taste of the rest of Dublin.
We don't have outlet adaptors or temp cellphones yet so it is definitely somewhat of a disconnection for everyone but it is going to be a great chance to bond as a team and spend a ton of time just enjoying the trip.
On deck tomorrow is a trip and tour of the Guinness Factory in Dublin which is supposed to be an incredible building and experience. We then have practice in the afternoon and will head back into a different part of downtown during the night. It seems as though plans have changed and we will be playing the Dublin Thunder, who are a club team here.
DAY 2
When we last left off we were heading into town for our first night out together in Dublin. We took the "Luas" back into the city center and had planned to eat at "Burdocks Fish and Chips," which I had heard was a tremendous spot. The walk to Burdocks went through the "Viking/Medieval" section of Dublin which featured Dublin Castle, many cathedrals and pretty much all buildings that were five centuries old or older! It was incredible to be in a major city and be walking through history. Everyone's heads were definitely on a swivel and it was NOTHING like anything we have the U.S.
Upon arriving at Burdocks (which we had assumed based on the website was a sit-down restaurant) we found it to be a 15x15 take-out fish and chips joint. We decided to find another place to do a more formal sit down team dinner, but after walking around for 5 minutes figured we would go back and get a real taste of Dublin with Burdocks. The place was awesome, with a Viking theme and 5 or 6 different fish and chips options. Fresh Cod and Chips, Scampi and Chips, Haddock and Chips, etc. When I say this was the most food I have ever gotten for $8, I am not exaggerating. We ate on the stairs of a historical building right outside of a graveyard as a team and stuffed ourselves to the point of not being able to move. Not exactly an athlete's diet but delicious none the less.
From there the guys got to hang for a few hours in the Temple Bar section of the city (think The Village in NYC) which was an incredible part of Dublin right on the river. There were street performers and acts all over. The roads were shut down so that most of the people were hanging out on the streets walking around. It was a fun night for all and we came home fairly early to get some sleep as we had a long day ahead of us today.
This morning we met at 9 to head back into Dublin and walked through a different section of the city where we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral grounds and from there made our way through a cool little part of the city off the beaten track on our way to the Guinness Factory. The factory was amazing. It was a seven-story building with the history of the company from "how Guinness is brewed" to "advertising through the years" to the Gravity Bar, which is the tallest point in Dublin and overlooks the city with a 360-degree view. It was an awesome experience for everyone and a quintessential part of the history of Ireland. I learned that at one point in early 20th century, Guinness employed 10,000 people, which was 1/30th of the entire population of Dublin. We were stunned to hear that the founder of Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease.
We went into a suburb of Dublin called Killbarick on "The Dart" train. This was cool because it was interesting seeing how their surrounding areas looked. Most of the guys from the NYC area thought it reminded them of "Queens without the stoops." To make a long story short I got bad directions to the gym so we took a LONG walking tour of Killbarick and the surrounding area.
We did finally make it to the gym, which is an old community college that has been transformed into a basketball facility for the local club team the "Kubs." We ran a 45-minute clinic for some younger kids from the "Kubs" which was awesome. We did a ton of fun games, Yonah (
Yonah Greenstein)
ran them through some ball-handling, and I think it was very well received. From there we practiced for two hours and everyone's legs were dead! The energy level was great given the circumstance thought and we had a great practice in preparation for tomorrow. We are all pumped for the game. The team we are playing the Dublin Thunder have three Americans who are good players along with a ton of size, which will give us some problems but we will play through it. The people at the club were amazing. Such friendly, helpful people here have made the whole trip awesome. If we could fully understand their sentences it would make it even easier!
After practice we had some free time in downtown Dublin for guys to see different places they wanted to see. Most of us went to Trinity College (founded in the 1500's) and the site of the Book of Kells, the oldest book in existence (written in something like 800 AD).
We all came back fairly early to the hotel to get rest for tomorrow. We will sleep in and spend some more time shopping and hanging in the city center tomorrow before heading out for the game.
Yonah said on the train home today how incredible it has been to not have a phone and to not constantly be checking it. Everyone agreed fully and it has been amazing being completely detached and getting to really just spend quality time having a lot of fun as a group. It has forced them to interact more, joke more, and just look around them more. Literally no one has even really missed their phones or the ability to constantly text/be on Internet ... I am glad I get to spend this "phoneless" time with this group of guys.
DAY 3
Day 3 was fairly relaxed as everyone slept in late to rest up for the game. We went into town around noon to do some shopping. Some of us saw a movie while other walked around more. It was a great to get a last chance to see Dublin. Even the little things are interesting and cool to see, such as the fact that their movies have no previews.
We also visited the fruit market right off of Henry St. (Main Shopping District). They were selling fresh fruit from farms at ridiculously low prices - 6 apples for 1 euro - 15 Mandarins for 1 euro - 6 oranges or 6 bananas for 1 euro - 10 kiwi for one euro. I few of us stocked up on fruit as the Irish Cuisine is doing a number to a few stomachs.
For a team pre-game dinner we did Hard Rock Cafe (I wanted something we could be sure wouldn't wreck our stomachs pre-game). We got a huge table downstairs and happened to be eating at exactly the same time the Ireland vs France Rugby match was going on. We got to watch the game and although none of us knew what was really going on it was fun! Everyone was walking around all day with the green Ireland Rugby jerseys. Through some research (talking to locals) I figured out the biggest sports in order are as follows:
1- Gaelic Football -an intense Irish only sport that combined Rugby and Soccer
2- Hurling (Physical version of field hockey from all I can tell)
3- Soccer
4- Cricket
5- Basketball
So that being said there weren't a ton of people at our game. The guys we played against and host club were so nice and hospitable. Unfortunately THEY WERE HUGE! They had a 6-foot-10 Irish center that was a monster. Besides him they had an American who played at North Dakota State that was 6'6, extremely athletic and skilled. They also had a few European players that were over 6'5 and skilled. We were the better in-shape team and outplayed them for much of the first half, but the rebounding advantage and size difference was too much. They ran away with it in the second half and ended up winning 96-45. It was a great experience playing a pro team.
It would seem like that would make it a rough day, but the guys took it in stride. Fortunately, we have some big guys waiting back home that will help this group of guards significantly with the problem of rebounding and guarding bigs. It was a fun event. We exchanged gifts with the other team and got to hang out for the rest of the night in a different area of Dublin that was around the coach's house. It was our team and their team at a post-game party and meal at the coach's house.
We slept most of the bus ride from Dublin to Cork (about 2 1/2 hours ) ... This was our first chance to see the rural area and it was breathtaking. The air was so fresh and the land so incredibly green.
DAYS 4 & 5
We played Neptune, a team out of Cork that is the traditional powerhouse of Irish basketball. Their team wasn't as strong as the first team we played, and we competed through the first half into the second half with them. Unfortunately, they did have 15 guys they were throwing at us, and they pressed us the whole time ... and we lost, 88-58, but felt a lot better about the perfomance.
It is incredible to get these 3 games to improve as a group and individually. Guys are all getting a lot of playing time and experience they would not be getting on court without this trip. Even though we have had two rough losses the basketball benefits and experience have been incredible. We played in one of the most famous basketball arenas in Ireland. It is pretty small but famous because it is the sole "basketball-only" gym in the country.
I was proud of us for keeping our composure in a game that was supposed to be a "friendly." Their coach got kicked out of the game and their players had a total of around 30 fouls.
We got to see one of the biggest cathedrals in Cork and the "four face liar" tower which is a four-sided tower with a clock on each face that is famous for never reading the same time, hence the name. The clock is right next to our hotel and on the hour each hour it plays tunes with its bell that have been waking some of us up at night. Featured tunes are "Don't Cry for me Argentina," "Mary had a Little Lamb," and some other classics.
We had a team dinner at a place called "Captain Americas." I once against wanted to be safe before the game. We have all had a chance to eat plenty of fish and chips, bangers and mash, and try out a lot of other things like Irish Chinese places and Italian places. Everything is different and I believe we have all come to a consensus that we miss American food.
Today's highlight was going out to the world famous Blarney Castle to "Kiss the Blarney Stone." We had to climb to the top of the castle which overlooked the countryside to get to it. To kiss the stone you have to lay on your back over a ledge of the castle and hanging backwards with a guy holding you up you kiss a rock wall. As someone in Cork said to us last night, "It isn't very sanitary." But it is tradition and luck so most of us followed through. The grounds and little village were unique and it was a great trip.
We play the best team we will play here tonight. They are not huge but will be the most skilled team overall that we will face. This team is coached by my good friend, Paul, who helped us put this trip together so I am looking forward to it.
DAY 6
We played the UCC Blue Demons last night, who were by far the best team we have played since we have been here. They are one of the up-and-coming teams in the top Irish professional league, the SuperLeague. We played the best basketball of the trip on both ends of the court. From one to eight we scrapped for every rebound, executed on offense, made them work for everything on defense and showed all of the reasons why we are going to take huge steps this year.
We were down six at halftime and in the second half could never quite cut the score to under five. We were led by Matt (Matt Shubert) with 29 points as he consistently found ways to score from inside and out. Jeremy (Jeremy Arnstein) pitched in with 17 and Christian (Christian Marghella) played his final game in a Bard uniform and racked up 15 points and 15 rebounds. The final score was 82-67.
We really enjoyed this game as this team had a lot of class and were well-coached. The last few games had been ugly basketball in terms of fouls and style of play. This game was much cleaner and we stepped up to the plate to make it competitive. It would have been easy to back down and give in after getting blown out in two games, but our guys came back on the second night of a back-to-back and brought the spirit, energy, and approach that is going to lead to big things happening for us this season.
When Turner and the Raptors return, check back here for a photo gallery from the trip.
