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.