It started slow after the last days party and festival. Some had only a few hours of sleep, but many celebrated the amazing dancing night everyone had had, and the fantastic festival that was held. When everyone had breakfast it was time for the much anticipated group photo. A yearly crowd pleaser, since here we all are involved at the same time. Often many are cooking or doing other responsibilities. But here we were together, the human rainforest. A picture for the ages. Th

From the moment the y-toppians woke up today, there was an exciting buzzing going around the place. Today was a day of new events and experiments; a day of doing things that had never been done before in the Y-top history. The first Y-top Festival ever had been an event that a lot of people had been looking forward to and had been working very hard on. The event had even reached some local newspapers, magazines and (so we heard) a radio station. Clearly, this meant that a lot

Most y-toppians didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into when they stepped out of the coaches onto one of the beaches in Killarney’s region this morning. In contrast with the sunny, warm weather that had been forecast for this day, the sky was grey and it wasn’t exactly surfing temperature, so to speak. Nevertheless, thanks to some crazy, goodhearted spirits among us, we still headed out onto the sand to see the first group of the day start their surfing lessons. Whil

Today was one of the most spectacular days at this years camp and possibly ever. We started the day bright and early in the morning. Breakfast was delicious as always, and afterwards we went to our daily morning treehouse gathering. From there, we split into our color groups for in whitch we would work on diffrent projects. Each color represented different aspects of certain projects. Though we worked in separate groups, we also worked as a whole. It was so surprising, and aw

Today was fun and had a relaxed kind of rhythm over it. We had four different volunteering projects: picking rhododendrons in the national nature reserve of Killarney, making art and planting flowers at the youth centre of Killarney, work at the music school of Killarney and finishing up the solar trail that was built on day 4 The solar trail posts were made stronger by putting cement in the holes. And every planet was decorated according to its characteristics. A river by Ne

Ireland. A land of mystery, a land of magic, beautiful, rugged, full of power. Our tasking for the day: how can we discover the hidden secrets of this leprochaun-abounding land? Our search for the Mystery of Ireland begins. This day we divided up into two groups, one going on a beautiful hike though the gap of Dunloe, and the other one spending a long morning in the wonderful city center of Killarney. The story of the first group: Starting the day at Ross Castle, we donned ou

Was amazing even though the weather was everything but ideal for the activities we were doing it could not get down our good spirits. We did high ropes, paintball and bushcraft. It was so much fun. And somehow the persistent rain only made it better. It made it more memorable in a way. The high ropes was quite a challenge with the rain and a lot of people with fear of heights faced and conquered their fears on the course. The instructors were very encouraging and helpful. Pai

In the Ytop a lot of attention is focused on our direct environment. Where we live, where we grow and where we feel. Today we extended our vision and focused ourselves on everything outside of our known planet; today was the day of the Solar Trail. For the first time in Ireland a solar trail would be built, here on the property of our temporary home. With the help of all the Y-Toppians we put out an entire route where the different planets of our solar system would be placed

Having a lot of sleep is not a given in the lively, full programs of the Y-top Gatherings. Today, no later than 06.30 am the y-toppians had to rise and shine and be ready for breakfast, to leave for the Killarney National Park at 7.30 am. At least, that was the time that was aimed for; reality had a different plan. So, around 08.15 am we headed out to start a walk through the beautiful Irish landscape. It took us around nine hours to complete the track of 20 kilometers during