Exciting Times

Exciting times ahead 🙂 In less than an hour I should be off to pick up my mum and Bernard from the airport (thank you Ross: Big Hug) and then the Easter adventure begins. My whole family will be descending on Ireland slowly for our Easter trip 🙂 I cannot wait. It will be chaotic…definitely, but hopefully fun.

My First Visitor…Day 3

Day 3 came about. Another sunny day. But today was certainly not as cold as the day before. Today we again made our way to the centre of town, where we went on the Free Walking Tour organised to Sandemans New Europe. We were informed that due to the Dublin Marathon, parts of the city would be closed off, so we would have an abridged version.

I had already been on the walking tour before on my first visit to Dublin with my mum to visit the University. The tour took pretty much the same route as the last time, but at the end it was shortened. Instead he took us to the Irish Famine memorial and he discussed aspects of this famine.

At this point we made our way to the bus stop as we had another important stop…IKEA. We made our way to IKEA on the bus, and passed through Ballymun. Ballymun is an area in Dublin, not far from where I am living, about which I have heard a lot. Basically that I should avoid going there. The place is decidedly scary, and I would not want to go there ever :S .

We made it to IKEA and it was open :). It was full of people. First stop was the IKEA restaurant, where I had some Swedish meat balls and Bernard had rice with some sauce. For dessert I had carrot and walnut cake and Bernard chocolate cake mmmmmmm. We then went around the displays and throughout the evening I had a little child in a candy store with me. Bernard always likes this kind of stuff and therefore he was a happy boy :).

We did some shopping, dropped everything back home, went to the Omni Park to buy some stuff we had seen before, before it closes, and then came back home. At this point Bernard packed his luggage before we went out to dinner. This time was again Eddie Rockets since we did not feel like Chinese or any of the other fast food outlets.

At this point we went home and had an early night, since the next morning we had to be up at 4am so that Bernard catches the 5am bus to the airport. After a short sleep we both woke up and left for the airport after a quick good bye he went through security. I made my way back home and crawled back into bed for a further 2 hours or so before I had to make my way to Uni 🙂

My first visitor to Dublin has come and gone…Who will be next?…Ann? Bernard again? Maybe Christabelle? Or maybe someone else completely 🙂

My First Visitor…Day 1

Sorry for not posting much lately, but I have been kept quite busy over the weekend. The first visitor to my humble abode came on Saturday afternoon and left early this morning (too early might I say but anyways). And this was no ordinary visitor…weeee I got a visit from my dear bf Bernard. Luckily Monday (yesterday) was a bank holiday here in Ireland. Therefore I got the whole day to spend with him :). We had figured that out after he had already bought the ticket, so it was a pleasant surprise.

After picking him up at the airport, we immediately made our way to my residence. Luckily I do not live far away from the airport (10minute bus ride), and so we were soon there. We dropped everything off and we left to go to the Omni Park nearby, here I generally do all my shopping. We went round for a bit since it was soon closing time (yes shops in Ireland have quite short opening times, especially at weekends and public holidays) and then went to search for someplace to eat. I do not get round much, and the area I live in is quite residential. So restaurants are not that plentiful. However at the omni park we found Eddie Rockets store and we decided on that (we also had McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut and a Chinese restaurant to choose from…it is surprising that in such a small place you would get all the main fast food restaurants within less than a minute’s walk from each other…generally these are joined by Subway as well…but this is a recurring theme in Dublin).

I had a Grilled Pineapple Hamburger whilst Bernard had a Smokestack. After dinner we opted for an apple pie with ice cream and a milkshake. The food was really delicious  and the portions quite big MMMMMMM. We have nothing to complain about that. Any complaints are regarding the service, if there was any. After around 10minutes of having sat down we had to ask for a menu to be brought to us. Then we had to flag down a waiter to get our order taken (although she did excuse herself). However once we were successful at ordering, the food did not take too long to arrive and it was mouth-watering. Another complaint I would make would be that we ordered a combo. However on the receipt they place on the table, the price of the separate items is shown. Then when we ordered dessert, we got another receipt showing just the deserts we had ordered, however we got a price of around 30Eur. We ate everything and went to pay. We were told that the receipts always come out like that. Then they will discount the combo meal and the total price would show on each additional receipt even though nothing shows this.

At this point we were full and tired. We went back to the residence, I watched some Grey’s Anatomy whilst Bernard set up my Irish mobile. Then we had a good night’s sleep 🙂

Greets from Dublin!

Greetings blog readers from my room in Dublin. Today was the day I left my life in Malta to start my life here in Dublin. This morning I woke up feeling OK…but then it quickly went downhill from there, and then the mood lifted again…by the time I arrived at the airport I was feeling better. I started chatting with the Irish lady who happened to be behind me in the queue. She was sooo nice :D…She came to Malta for a wedding, and one of the ladies with her had a son who is coming to DCU this year too…and he will be staying at Shanowen too (however she is not sure if it is Shanowen hall or Shanowen square).

Then went for check in…obviously I was overweight haha…17.5kg…so I removed some things (placed in the hand luggage), and managed to bring it down to the required weight (my hand luggage was that much heavier however :D)…and I removed some things to give to mum.

I said my goodbyes and up to the queue I went. I happened to be just behind the same lady in the queue…then went on the plane, and a friend of the same lady was sitting next to me…we chatted a bit and relaxed a bit. After 2.5hours on the plane, apprehension started to set in (probably as we encountered some turbulence). I landed, got my luggage, and proceeded to go to the bus. I made it to the bus stop I had to stop at (thank you bus driver and nice lady 😀 ).

I then walked to the residence. I was a funny sight…I am sure some people thought I was crazy!!…But made it whole, settled into the room, went to Tesco to buy some things, came home, ate (pizza in the microwave hihi). I also chatted with my mum, Ann, and Bernard and gave them a web cam tour of my place. I am currently talking to Bernard on Skype whilst he searches for master’s courses he might follow next year, whilst I am writing my blog :D.

The room is quite nice…and I think it is suitable for my needs…I only wish I had a pillow…but I thought I would not have one…so tomorrow or this weekend I will go buy a pillow…and a Duvet…cos it is getting a bit cold now the night is setting in. However I will survive tonight.

I am glad I am now here in Dublin…it was so stressful with not knowing. Now tomorrow it is off to Uni. I have already met my supervisor and she seemed super nice. I however look forward to meeting up with the new students and starting my new adventure…BRING IT ON I say.