So much fun – Apocalyptica in Dublin

Another brilliant weekend! We went to see the long anticipated Apocalyptica gig at the Ambassador. It does not happen every day that a Finnish band makes it all the way to Dublin and seeing as Apocalyptica is one if our favourite bands for quite some time already; we were really looking forward to this evening.
On another note, I have to say that I am still coming to terms with the style of Irish men (at least here in Dublin): short hair (very short actually) and a hoody. I do sometimes miss the lovely hairy men that Tampere and Helsinki has to offer.
It was really great to see that there were so many men (and boys) with long hair at the gig on Saturday, clearly having a good time. Where are they all hiding during the week I wonder?
The band was superb. The set list was varied including many of the new tracks from the “Worlds Collide” album as well as older tracks and a good few cover songs. The boys had the crowd in their palm from the very beginning of the gig.
Well done!!!

The rest of the weekend went for Christmas shopping (thankfully only the final touches) and the company Christmas party, which was really fun and enjoyable (I did not know my fellow workmates could look that handsome).

Fairies in the shop & at the ballet

I had the most beautiful weekend. We actually did our Christmas shopping on Saturday and it was surprisingly pain-free. It was probably because we had not really planned on going to the shops at all and just thought we would jump quickly into the Dundrum shopping centre to look for something completely different (and non X-massy). The shopping centre was of course crowded, but somehow it did not bother us at all. I almost accidentally found some lovely presents for my family. As I stood there in the shop, queuing to pay for my things I was amazed about how much people are buying this Christmas. One woman in front of me seemed to buy friendship books for the entire school class of her daughter. The daughter hovered around nearby ready to take her mother constant orders: “Get me another one of these friendship books now. Quick, quick!!! And now another one of those albums. Quick, it’s almost my turn. Not these ones, the pink ones with the little fairies.”
It was hilarious to watch. They did choose nice things. The school class should be delighted.

In the evening we went to see the ST Petersburg Ballet Theatre (SPBT). I am happy to report that there was a lot less eating in the audience this year. We almost did not make the show as our taxi was stuck in the city centre for 45 minutes and under heavy attack from the Christmas partying crowd. Luckily we just got there in time and enjoyed a wonderful evening. This time we were seated with a group of elderly ladies. Unfortunately they could not hear and see so well anymore. We just enjoyed a beautiful solo by one of the fairies when one of the women screamed: “What was that one doing again? This is not the fairy of goodness, is it?” “No, its not. I did tell you the story earlier.” Well, I forgot. I don’t like the look of this fairy. The other one was a lot nicer, but beautiful costumes.” “Yes the costumes are really great. I agree the other fairy was a lot better.”

Well we liked all the fairies. Aurora looked a bit like she had visited the dentist earlier in the day. Her smile seemed shock frozen on her face. Otherwise the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre was fantastic again.

Elizabeth - The Golden Age

Another post very much not about being new in Ireland, but about one of the most amazing actresses on the planet.

I went to see Elizabeth - The Golden Age - at the movies yesterday and I can really recommend the film to everyone. I was a bit skeptical after reading a rather lukewarm review in the Irish Metro claiming that the film was historically inaccurate (sadly without giving any examples) and mainly elaborating on the absence of war scenes, even though (to my mind historically correct) the featured war was rather short and that was probably why it did not get as much screen time as for instance the relationship between the queen and Mary Stuart. (Those of you who know me of course realize that I would never miss a Cate Blanchett film, no matter how many bad reviews there could possibly be - not that there are many of course).

Back to the film; the ageing Queen Elizabeth is beautifully portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who really gets to show off her versatility and acting talent in the role. She is strong, witty, superhuman and at the same time fragile and eaten up by doubt and the desire to be loved as a woman rather than a queen.
I was glued to the screen and think I will go and see the film again sometime soon.

Its the perfect time to see movies here at the moment. This country seems to have established a pattern now; beautiful sunny autumn weekdays and dreary grey and rainy weekends. Just a pity I work Mondays to Fridays;)

KT Tunstall & the smell of sausages

I enjoyed a fantastic gig last night. KT Tunstall played in Dublin in the national stadium.

I do like her records and expected a nice, entertaining evening, but the concert yesterday evening surpassed all my expectations. It was so full of energy and life that even though I could barely walk to the gig feeling desperately exhausted and tired from this week's happenings (work and I think I am getting too old for drinks during the week;)), I woke up instantly when KT came on stage.

This small (and very beautiful) woman managed to wake up every last person in the room and had everyone on their feet clapping, dancing and whistling when she performed black horse and the cherry tree.

It was also nice to see people of all ages in the audience happily chewing away on crisps and sausages and singing along with KT. One thing though; What is it with the eating at any kind of performance in Dublin? I went to see a classical ballet in the Helix last year and felt slightly disturbed when the romantic midnight love scene in swan lake was accompanied by strange smacking sounds coming from my right featuring a fairly strong-built man chewing away on chocolate éclairs.

Back to KT. I loved every minute of the concert and will definitely go to see her again and again. The only bizarre thing for me was the strong smell of sausages (I sat very close to one of the kiosks) and I do hope that I will not forever connect KT's beautiful music with the smell of sausages.

Beautiful Dublin

This month is just crazy. I just cannot find 5 minutes to write up a proper post for my beautiful blog. But let me assure you that all is well and there are loads of interesting topics going through my head.
I could of course write endless stories about the traffic, the weather, house prices (They are incredibly high. For a million euros I would want a house with a pool and not a smelly two bedroom flat that is a 1 hours drive away from the outskirts of Dublin), Irelands bad performance at the Rugby world championship (They were very bad, but I would not want to talk about it as it really did upset the whole country).
Then there are all these new exciting words that I have learned about:

Muffin tops (There are lots of them around here. They tend to go out in groups and make themselves heard before you get time to even spot them).

Yummy drummies – A fantastic word. If you have ever been in the Dundrum shopping centre there is no way that you will miss them. There are loads more. I hope I get a moment soon to write all this down. I wonder which subject you would like to read about the most? I am open to everything

Enjoy the weekend!

Sunny September

Summer has finally reached this country. Well, sort of. Its not like you could walk around wearing sandals, but its nice enough to leave the umbrella home for a few days (or just carry a very small one in your hand bag).

Dublin is in the grip of all kinds of important sport events (unfortunately no ice hockey;() The city is filled with people wearing colourful jerseys every weekend to celebrate and enjoy a few drinks.

I am actually still quite lost when it comes to sports over here. There almost never seems to be a break. Almost every weekend there is an All Ireland final in hurling or Gaelic football and now with the start of the rugby world championship there is no escaping the endless hours of blissful sports entertainment.
You won’t find much else on TV these days. If they are not showing any live games, you will have to sit through a re-run or watch a sport program with endless discussions and analysis of the games and the Irish teams (I understand that they are not doing too well at the moment).

I tried watching a rugby game this weekend, but I think it will take some time to understand the rules of this funny looking game. I will definitely try again. Of course this also has a very bright side to it. On sport weekends you usually have the beautiful pier in Dun Laoghaire all to yourself;)

Helsinki in the sun

I went for a quick trip to Hanover and then Helsinki and Tampere.

Germany was interesting. Already on the train everyone started complaining about absolutely everything and I felt right at home. It was great to see friends and family and I finally got to enjoy some spaghetti ice again.

Then I got to wander around in Helsinki. I haven’t seen Helsinki for 1.5 years and I was really excited; I immediately went and bought a Karelian pie, which I tried eating by the market square. I just sat down peacefully with my pie trying to enjoy the view when a huge seagull landed on my head. It was quite painful and also quite embarrassing as people started to point and laugh at me. I shook the nasty bird off and hid my pie quickly in my handbag. Then I dived into the crowd to lose the gang of seagulls that still seemed to follow me, giving me dirty looks. Later in front of one of the market tents I felt safe enough to quickly take out my pie and try another bite. When I lifted the pie I just heard a squeak and then felt a sharp pain in my hand. The pie was gone ! A seagull had attacked me from behind. These birds have really gotten much worse during my absence.

It was amazing how big and empty the streets in Helsinki felt. The space was enormous. There were just a few tourists and middle-aged people clad in the latest marimekko floral patterns and despite the space still managing to bump into each other. The weather was hot and dry and actually very sunny, another big difference to Ireland. I got to wear sandals for a whole day and happily walked along the shore until I got blisters.

I miss a lot of good things about Finland such as the public transport, good quality streets and the reliability and sincerity of people, but I was also very happy to come back to Dublin and once again be part of a much more international, chaotic crowd with a lot more attractive shop windows (I forgot how bad Finnish shop windows used to look) and more smiling faces on the street.

Umbrella etiquette

You might have already guessed it, the sun continued to stay well hidden in this part of the world; that was until this weekend!
Finally we are able to spend several hours outside without getting wet (of course yesterday I did find the only water puddle left in this city and just had to step into it as to not lose the feeling of walking around in wet shoes completely). I however did this with a smile on my face, stretching myself against the gorgeous sunlight.

The last weeks were quite dreadful and did affect my creative blogging abilities in a bad way. When I woke up in the morning all I saw was grey clouds and rain. Sometimes it was just the slightest drizzle as if to make sure that we would not get too excited about starting the new day. On other days whole streams of rain would fall from the sky making you (or at least me) afraid that this whole island would finally drown completely.

On these rainy days it became more and more difficult to navigate my way through town. Have I mentioned that the footpaths here are not exactly spacious? Well you can imagine how it feels to run through town in the morning balancing my tiny umbrella (which is actually completely useless because most of the time its so windy that the umbrella is more of a hindrance than protection from the rain that seems to come from almost any direction).
I noticed on one of these mornings that most Irish men carry enormous umbrellas with them. I have to admit I can see the point, as these umbrellas won’t be destroyed by the wind, but they take up so much space that I feel continuously afraid that they will scratch off my face the moment I don’t pay attention (here I should probably mention that most Irish men are shorter than me and hold their umbrellas conveniently at my face level).

I wish someone would invent some kind of etiquette with regards to umbrellas (or would build bigger footpaths). People mostly walk around with their umbrellas as if they are the only people on the street completely ignoring oncoming pedestrians who jump out of the way, afraid of being scratched or being hit by the puddles of water pouring from one of these enormous umbrellas. It would be hilarious to watch if I would not be part of the crowd that does all the jumping.

Well these days are hopefully over for the moment as we are all hoping that the sunny spell will last and we will get to enjoy at least a few days of sun, and who knows, maybe I will even get to wear sandals for a whole day☺

Irish Summer

This is the second summer for me in this beautiful country and I am not sure how to put this, but this one has been quite cold and rainy so far. It’s almost as if this country would like to live up to all its stereotypes and rectify the fantastic impression of last year’s summer; loads of sunny days, but without me breaking out in sweat all the time – just perfect.

However this Tuesday was a beautiful, sunny day and lucky me got the day off to finally do some long overdue touring of Dublin's beautiful surroundings.
We started off with a drive to the Powerscourt waterfalls. (I will omit details of the drive, as it was absolutely frightening to just watch my partner maneuver on the narrow roads managing to avoid busses and large trucks who seemed to know where they were going and would let nothing stand in their way to reach the target. We on the other hand had no clue where to go and surprisingly enough we only found signs on every second crossroad, so there were a lot of wrong turns made during the course of the day.)
The waterfall was beautiful with loads of forest to discover. We had a nice walk and then continued to Glendalough. On a Tuesday the grounds were nicely empty and we could secure the most gorgeous picnic spot at one of the lakes. Its so peaceful and quiet at Glendalough, I am sure we will pay another visit to the place.

We saved dessert for Brittas bay. Ireland has a sandy beach! I was amazed, as I had so far only seen beaches full of pebbles (not that there is anything wrong with those, but still, a nice surprise).

All in all a beautiful day! Now I keep my fingers crossed that the sun will strike Dublin soon again :)

A weekend to Paris

I enjoyed the most gorgeous weekend trip to Paris. What a fabulous city. It feels a lot more like Europe than Dublin with all this monumental buildings full of history, the charming cafés and beautiful parks. Needless to say I really enjoyed it.

Back in Dublin I still seem not quite ready to fit in.
I was offered a ride and quickly went into the car and sat down. After a moment I wondered why there were pedals in the legroom and the driver was looking at me a bit surprised through the window. It was about this moment when I noticed the steering wheel in front of me.
I must be the only person who still has not understood that the steering wheel in an Irish car is on the right.

St Patrick's

My first full St Patrick's weekend in Dublin and today we are here exactly 1 year. I remember how we stumbled out of the plane last year, happily surprised that the streets were not covered in snow and breathing the air that felt almost a bit too light and moist and surrounded by a climate that was almost too mild and warm compared to Finland (friends of ours described last St Patrick's weekend as one of the coldest in a long time:)).

This year I of course wanted to do the full touristy thing and woke up on Saturday at 10:00 (!) to make it into town in good time for the much talked about St Patrick's day parade. Experienced as we are these days we completely avoided public transport and walked into the centre, which proved to be the smart thing to do and also very enjoyable, because most of the time it did not rain yesterday.

Very excited, we joined the crowds beside Dame Street expecting the marvellous spectacle to begin. There was just a small problem. Everyone seemed to be moving constantly. A few people joined us to stand and wait, but the majority of people pushed themselves either up or down Dame Street, complete with a large number of offspring trotting behind them equipped with whistles that they used rather frequently, and at least 2 push chairs. I would be lying if I said I feel comfortable in crowds, but this crowd was also rather confusing. We could not really make out why everyone was constantly on the move; had we missed the whole spectacle already?

At some point absolutely everyone started to move around us and we decided to join the movement: moving away from Dame Street and back to where we came from. I was rather disappointed and happy that we were able to snatch a quick glance of the parade hanging from the Trinity college gate later in the afternoon. Luckily they showed the parade in the evening on TV as well so we were able to see what we had missed out on. The whole atmosphere in town is a bit like May Day in Finland, just that everyone is dressed in green and carrying an Irish flag, an inflatable rubber Guinness or huge green rubber hammers (why hammers?).

All in all it was exciting to watch people of all nationalities happily waving shamrocks, flags and the green rubber hammers. The highlight was definitely a group of young pretty girls with ginger full beards and large green hats dressed up as Leprechauns. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home.

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone!

Do you want chips with this?

This will be one of the first questions you will hear moving to Ireland and it will be your constant companion during your time here.
The first time I heard the question was in a restaurant. I ordered the typical Irish dish called lasagne when the waiter asked the seemingly routine question “Do you want chips with this?” I was startled, so far I had only eaten chips in burger joints or as a side dish with sausages, but it really did not seem to fit with lasagne. Now one year later I would almost miss something if I don’t get chips with my lasagne.
Irish people just love anything that is made of potatoes. The other day I had a pub lunch: there was my meat and my veggies, mashed potatoes and of course a bowl of chips. Why would the mash be enough; it seems the perfect meal contains at least 2 dishes made of potatoes.

Pictures of Ireland

Sometimes I wish I would always carry a camera with me. There are some pictures you simply have to see for yourself.
There is for instance the street I walk along every morning: every 5 – 10 metres there are signs telling "engines must be switched off when waiting here". What do you think you will find next to these signs? Usually a bus, engine running, door open and the bus driver having a little chat with some of the other bus drivers who have left their busses behind – of course with the engines still running.
Another picture that still always makes me smile is the enormous "No parking" sign on a wall and the cars piled up all around the foot path right in front of it. Some cars so close to the other that they unfortunately also take up half of the street, but that is fine, because pedestrians are to be ignored in this country.
Then again, you really cannot blame the poor motorists, they have every right to hate pedestrians in all forms and shapes. Pedestrians walk across any red traffic lights. It seems as if they do not even spot them, they just walk past me while I am waiting for my turn to cross the street, constantly afraid of being driven over, and they effortlessly part the traffic and somehow manage not to get hurt. How do they do it? It’s a miracle. I can only watch but I have not learnt how to imitate this yet and I am not sure if I want to. Last week I crossed the street while having a green light and was almost killed by a car. The driver was honking angrily how I dare cross the street when I have a green light. I think at moments like this I still stand out like as a foreigner and maybe that is the safer option.
Oh yes, one last picture I saw last week. Again I was waiting at a red traffic light for my turn to cross when I saw a blind man approaching. I thought surely now I will have some company waiting at the red light with me, but I was wrong; the blind man made it successfully to the other side and he did not even stop once.

Rain

After this morning I can no longer avoid this subject! There I was happily getting up in the dark listening to the wind and the rain (not really happy anymore when I noticed the rain) and then walked my usual way to work trying to avoid the big puddles of dirty rainwater on the side of the streets (there are loads of them and with hardly any space its really hard to avoid them).
I almost made it, always carefully avoiding other pedestrians, cars and well loads of water, but then I made a big mistake: I crossed the street in front of my office turning my back on the traffic behind me for a moment. I had not noticed the biggest puddle of rainwater just on the other side and one minivan concentrated all its effort on really targeting the water.
It was the biggest splash with at least 10 meters of dirty waves all over me.
This was my worst start to the day ever! Water was dripping from my glasses; my coat and my shoes were drenched and squeaked when I walked away.
My bag was luckily waterproof (I am here now 8 months and yes there is at least something I learned already).

Against a stream of penguins

So far I was able to avoid the favourite, or shall I say most hated subject of Dubliners: the traffic. Its bad, I knew that, I have seen it but so far I was lucky enough to avoid the it.

I started a new job this week and now instead of travelling from my little southern suburb even further south (not the most popular direction and therefore completely bearable plus also equipped with a new tram system); I now have to cross town and head North.
I still take the nice new modern tram, but now unfortunately into town, which proves to be the far more popular direction. In fact it’s so popular that instead of jumping right onto the tram and occupying a decent standing place I will need to let a good few trams go past before I get to squeeze myself into one of the most overcrowded cabins. Soon they will need to employ someone to push people into the trams. I guess I should travel to China before complaining to much.

After this free slimming treatment my journey continues in an exciting manner. Now I need to walk through town to catch the local train. Again everyone seems to prefer the opposite direction and I have to fight my way against a stream of penguin suited men and women in nice costumes and chunky trainers on the slimmest of all sidewalks. On my first day it was raining on top of that: imagine managing thousand of people walking your way with umbrellas and then of course you also need to avoid the occasional obstacle such as a beer delivery for some bar or a heap of trash.
It proves to be a challenge.

From then on its actually fairly easy, because I seem to take the local train into the unpopular direction, once I have managed to walk up the stairs against the stream of people leaving the train I get a fairly decent standing place.

Just when I left work I thought that surely now I would be heading into the right direction…little did I know.

Merry Christmas

My first Christmas in Dublin; it was very interesting. Christmas started a lot earlier here.
In mid October Christmas decoration was already competing heavily with the Halloween decoration in the shops. It looked rather funny: windows decorated with witches and spider webs and then in the entrance area of the shops the big gift packs of chocolate and shower gels all nicely decorated with golden ribbons, angels and of course Santa. It was a really amusing sight.
Things got even more exciting after Halloween. Friends had warned me that from now on most ATMs in the centre would always be out of cash and the city would be unbearably crowded. Did I believe them? Of course not; I thought it would be crowded alright, but not THAT crowded.
Well it was an experience and I surely learnt now where and when to shop for Christmas.
To be honest it almost feels a bit empty now. For months the ads on radio and TV were reminding us to get all this Christmas shopping done and the voices started to talk faster and faster coming closer to Christmas and now its all over. Of course there are the sales, but I am still recovering and won’t venture back into the centre just yet.
Otherwise Christmas was lovely. People send loads of cards here, even more than in Finland; they eat, drink and party like everywhere else! It was a great holiday!