Monday, 20th of June

When we woke up this morning the weather was absolutely perfect. But I know now that you shouldn't keep your hopes up too high because the weather in Ireland is never stable. The sky can be blue and the next moment it's turning against you with a hail and rain. Anyway, we decided to visit two cities today, Dun Laoghaire and Bray. Around eleven we got on the Dart and we had a wonderful time in Dun Laoghaire. The sun was shining the whole time and we made a great walk on the pier.   

After two hours or so we wanted to go to Bray and that's when the weather turned against us. The sky turned grey with clouds and the sun was buried in them. There's a big mountain in Bray and it would've been absolutely astonishing to stand on the top and enjoy the view, but we never got the chance. Rain started to pour down on us. We looked at each other and decided at once to go back to Dublin.

After a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, where all the employees speak Italian only, we headed back to the hostel and watched a film while drinking Bulmers... :)

Sunday, 19th of June

Today was absolutely great! Mum and I first went to the Christ Church Cathedral for a nice sermon. After that we had a quick bite to eat and went to the Streetperformance World Championship in Merrion Square. It was absolutely great again! I watched the Space Cowboy again and was flabbergasted for the second time. Mum was terrified when he swallowed the sword and I couldn't suppress a gasp when he was on his nine meter unicycle and dropped his running chainsaw by accident. There was another nerve breaking moment when his assistant threw a knife up to the top of the unicycle and it almost ended up between his ribs. All and all, a great performance again. After that I decided that I would vote for him. (he won the Streetperformance World Championship in the end, so I voted for the right guy!)

Tonight I wanted to show mum the place I go to on most Sunday nights: The Sin É! With a small group of friends from the Four Courts Hostel we listened to the amazing live Irish music.It was so nice to share this experience with my mother. 

Saturday, 18th of June

Embarrassed, sad and stupid. That's what I felt like this afternoon. After weeks of looking forward to this day I totally blew it... Full of adrenaline and energy I went to the airport at 3.30pm to pick up my mum. I arrived way too early at the airport, but I didn't mind. I just waited until 5.40pm. I waited - and waited - and waited. Nothing. My mum called to ask me where I was, she just arrived. Frantically searching the airport I still couldn't find her...

Did she slipped past me? Is she at the right airport? Are there two airports in Dublin? Those questions raved through my head while I was running from terminal 2 to terminal 1 and back again. It turned out that she was in a different arrivals hall in Dublin Airport. I, stupid blond girl, thought there was only one arrivals hall. It turned out there were two arrivals halls and I happened to be in the wrong one! I was extremely happy when I finally hugged my mum, after three quaters of seemingly endless searching.

The rest of the day was absolutely great! I showed her off to all of my colleagues and we went to the oldest pub in Dublin (The Brazen Head) for a nice diner. I introduced her to the best cider in the world: Bulmers! And --- she --- loved --- it! After the very needed diner I showed her around Dublin. Tomorrow I've got a nice planning as well, looking forward to it!

Thursday, 16th of June

I love Thursday, bbq-day!!=D Every Thursday I leave the desk for an hour to escort a couple of guests to Darkey Kelly's, a nice pub which hosts a free bbq every Thursday! The good thing about that is that people actually talk to each other. Most of the time people spend their time behind their laptop in the hostel. It's a good thing to socialize, but people seem to forget how to do that nowadays. That's why the free bbq is an excellent way to meet new people who are also staying in the hostel! So that's where I was for an hour today.

Before that I went to an awsome event: Streetperformance World Championship 2011! The best streetperformers from all over the world are invited to perform in Dublin and everybody can watch their acts for free:)! It was absolutely amazing, I saw a guy swallowing double edged sword, a guy riding a three feet unicycle while juggling blindfolded with three razorsharp blades... I'll post a film of that soon, I promise!

The weather was even more unpredictable as normal today. A normal day in Dublin is as followed: Showers, a lot of sun and heavy wind all in ONE day! Irish people use to say that you've got four seasons in one day. Well, today was even more crazy. When we left to the Streetperformance World Championship it was very, very sunny. But when we arrived at Merrion Square it was 'pissing rain', as the Dubliners like to say. The weather switched a thousand times from cold an rainy to hot and sunny. After a while we were wet to the bone because the wind destroyed my umbrella...

Tuesday, 14th of June

It's all going to happen next Saturday: My mum comes to Dublin!! She'll be arriving at 5.40pm and she'll stay until early Wednesday morning. It's gonna be legendary! That's what I'm looking forward to now on my very quiet shift as a desk-monkey at the Four Courts Hostel. The last couple of days went on very quietly, that's why I didn't put anything on my blog.

It might sound weird to people who know me for a long time, but I try to stay away from alcohol for a couple of days. It's not that I've turned alcoholic or something, but it's hard to stay away from alcohol if you're in a hostel and especially when that hostel is in Dublin. Don't worry by the way, I don't drink much, but a pint of Bulmers while playing card-games or watching a movie is great.

That's why I set myself a new goal, it's easy and simple: Don't drink alcohol for the next couple of days:) I'll let you know if I can keep my goal;)

Tuesday, 7th of June

At breakfast this morning I talked to Jaan, an Australian guy. He works at a hostel and a tourist office in Dublin and because of that he can go on tours for free, just like me. He told me that he was planning to go on a city tour through Dublin and asked me to go with him:)! I didn't have any plan for today, so I immediately said yes.

It was a great tour. The bus-driver was extremely funny and told us a lot about the history of Dublin.

Monday, 6th of May

The inevitable happened... I had to go to the airport to say goodbye to my boyfriend again... Fortunately it's not for a long time, I'll be back in the Netherlands in only three weeks! Time really flies. At the beginning of this trip I can remember several times that I wished I could take the next plane back. Right now I want to stay longer than three weeks... I met so many interesting, friendly people and made some true friends here... I'm definitely going to miss them... When I'm back I'm not going to be homesick but hostelsick, I'm afraid.

Back to today. The saying goodbye part wasn't easy, but it was easier as the first time for me. I knew that when I left the airport I would come 'home' to a whole bunch of people I care about. And I had something planned for tonight to keep myself occupied. The plan was to go to a comedy night in a pub. Regrettably this stayed a plan, because the pub didn't do comedy night because it was Monday and a bank-holiday... So we went to Sin É instead.

Sunday, 5th of June

Waking up in another city as Dublin, that's nice for a change! Galway is a nice city, it's very small if you compare it to Dublin. We started our day with a nice breakfast at the hostel, we dropped our luggage and made a nice, long walk along the coastline of Galway. Halfway through our walk we encountered something strange. A peculiar thing was happening in the water. "It looks like water polo", was Dirk's first reaction. It did look like water polo, except for one thing... The players were  in canoes!

It was hilarious to watch. The players were fanatic and over-enthusiastic, which resulted in clashing, toppling and crashing canoes. It's quite friendly though! We asked one of the referees what the sport's called and he said: Canoe-polo.Hmm, we could have figured that out...;) It turned out that the Dutch canoe polo team is pretty good. The actually won the World Championship a couple of times! I'm amazed....

After this spectaculair experience we ate fish and chips and went back to Dublin. Back at the hostel I wanted to show Dirk the amazing Irish music in the Sin É. He loved it. It is something you won't easily forget!

Saturday, 4th of June

5.45am, that's the time that my alarm went of this morning. It was for a good cause though, we went on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher today! We met up with the owner of the tour company at the Tourist Office in Dublin and after a quick explanation of the day we jumped on the bus to Galway. After 2,5 hours we arrived in Galway and hopped on the next bus in the direction of the Cliffs.

"You'll see real cows and sheep and maybe even a couple of baby-sheep", the busdriver announced. In Barneveld Dirk and I practically live on a farm, so no surprises there;) So the first stop on the way was a farm. We looked at the feeding of the baby-sheeps and baby-cow. Two of the guys on the farm gave us a walking tour in the Burren mountains. We had a spectaculair view of the landscape of Ireland when we were on the top of the mountains. The sun was out all day which made it amazing.

We enjoyed a cup of tea/coffee at the farm and waited for the bus to bring us to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are astonishing. I've never seen anything like it. I'll upload pictures of it soon, I promise!:) We walked along the pathway of the cliffs until a huge sign told us that we couldn't walk any further because there was danger ahead of us. This sign didn't impress some people and they climbed over the barrier and strolled along. The dangerous part of it was that there was no barrier to the edge of the cliff...

After 1,5 hours we headed back to Galway with the bus. My manager arranged it for us to stay in a hostel in Galway that night. The hostel was not impressive. The shower was hardly working, or as Dirk stated it: "It was like an old man peeing on your head". Besides that there is a pub right next to the hostel and a band started playing exactly when we tried to sleep... Fortunately we were both too tired to care and we fell asleep anyway.

Friday, 3rd of June

My heart beats frantically against my chest and it feels like I'm wired from head till toe. That's how it feels when the one you missed for the last 3,5 weeks comes to visit you and you're waiting on him. It's 11.30 now and I have to wait another 3 hours to pick up Dirk from the airport.

Unlike the first time that he was about to visit, I slept well last night. I don't know what to do with this time on my hands though. Hmmm, I will go to the park and read a book, I guess.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Airlink Express Bus: Improved Route!" "Journey Time to Dublin Airport 60 mins approx from Heuston station and 30-40 minutes from City Centre." Yeah, right... Well it didn't take 30-40 minutes to get to the airport, it took me at least 60 minutes to get there and that's when I don't count the fact that the bus was 15 minutes late! This resulted in disaster... (I know I'm exaggerating) I was too late at the airport to pick up Dirk... He called me when I was almost at the airport, he was looking for me;)

Fortunately the rest of the afternoon and evening went quite well. We picked up some groceries and made a perfect diner. I bought tickets to Pirates 4: On stranger tides yesterday. We went to see it tonight at 9.10pm. It was superb! I looooove the Pirates films, I watched them all several times.

Tuesday, 31st of May

Jamming with a band, the ultimate dream... And --- I --- did --- it!! I can't play a musical instument, at least, that's what I thought. A couple of nights ago I went with the Four-Courts-Hostel-gang to the Sin é (which has nothing to do with sin, but it's Irish for 'that's it'). On a couple of nights this pub has a live band which plays typical Irish music. It's absolutely astonishing, those musicians are extremely talented. If I say band I don't mean electric guitars and a whole drumset. This is all acoustic, no microphones and with just one drum.

That particular night we went with a whole group of about 30 people from the hostel. The bartender (Milo) knows us and because of that he locked us in. What I mean with 'locked us in' is that the Sin é stops serving at 11.30pm. After that Milo kicks everybody out except for the FCH-crew. He locks us in as they say in Dublin. We can stay as long as we want, it's a lot of fun! This time Milo locked us in WITH the band and they kept playing their lovely tunes.

After a while the band asked everybody to join them and since I was sitting next to the one with the drum he asked me to play it. I didn't know how to play it, but he helped me and within no time I was part of the band:)

Friday, 27th of May

Yesterday was one of the best evenings I've had so far (apart from the evenings I had with Dirk of course). During my night-shift a group of Dutch guys walked in, they were absolutely hilarious. First I had to go to the Thursday-bbq (I know, my job is great) and after my shift I had a drink with the guys in the common area. Marilou came back from work and Cathal was also done with his shift, so we decided to go to the Czech Inn and have some fun with the whole Four Courts Hostel gang:)

It was amazing! We had some drinks, lots of laughs, in short: A good night out!:)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now we're back at today, and, well, I didn't feel thát great today;) I've got myself to blame, I know! I slept in and had a wonderful brunch at the Brazen Head (the oldest pub in Ireland). It's so weird for me that people start to drink in the morning. I had breakfast/lunch at 12 and I was the only one who had a coke, the rest of the people were drinking Guinness, Bulmers or Heineken. It's just part of the culture of Ireland to drink and not only for young people, you'll see people from every age in the pub drinking beer.

Monday, 23rd of May

"Hello Dublin. Hello Ireland. My name is Barack Obama." That's how Obama started his speech in College Green in the centre of Dublin. The best thing about that was... I was there! I was one of the 25,000 people listening at College Green. But before that, let me take you back to where it all started....

When Dirk was in Dublin we went to Dublin Castle and we were told that Obama would be coming over in a couple of weeks. He would visit the Dublin Castle and visit some of the places his ancestors lived hundreds of years ago. Besides his visit he would also give a speech.

Because of the huge chaos that overcame Dublin, called Queen Elizabeth, I never thought about the visit of Obama again. Until a couple of days ago when one of the guests brought it up. We immediately decided to go to College Green with a group from the hostel. The gates to College Green would open at 2 o'clock and the speech would be at five. So we thought that leaving from the hostel at two would definitely be early enough to be on time for the speech.

Well, we were on time, but just on time. The security measures were extreme and everybody who wanted to enter College Green needed to be searched individually. Before we came to the checkpoint for this search it was 2,5 hours later... We needed to empty our pockets, go through a walk-through metal detector and last but not least another metal detector for an individual search by a cop.

After collection the stuff from my pockets the road to College Green was finally clear. We were at the College Green square at half past four and enjoyed a couple of performances by Jedward (participants of Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland) and Westlife. The atmosphere on College Green were excellent, but my legs started to collapse after three hours of hobbling through the streets of Dublin. I stayed put despite that and I was definitely happy when I saw the President of the United States enter the stage. It was memorable...

I was happy when it was over, I really wanted to sit down and eat something. We went back to the hostel and someone had the amazing idea to start a Harry Potter Marathon in our jammies! It was the absolute best way to end this absolutely perfect day... :)

If you want to read the whole speech, click HERE.

Sunday, 22nd of May

It's not smart, I know, but as I told you I went to bed way too late yesterday. It was a huge challenge this morning to wake up. I managed to drag myself out of bed and into the church. I planned to go to another church for a change, but I slept too long. The only option was Christ Church Cathedral. It was a nice service, but as always I missed depth in the service. When I got 'home' I decided to solve that by listening to the service held in the 'Oude Kerk' in Barneveld.

It was very curious to listen to the sermon. I really felt like I was in the building, especially in the beginning when everybody is talking and coughing! I felt oddly at home while I was listening to the sermon and I felt a little home-sick.

Saturday, 21st of April

This was one of the most exhausting days behind the reception of Four Courts Hostel. People kept coming and going and kept bothering me with questions. The upside of that was that my shift was quickly done! There was a plan to go to the Porterhouse. A pub which brews his own beer:) They've got four floors (and no, It's not big enough to get lost, that's even impossible for me) and between the third and fourth floor there's a tiny space for a band. This results in the best live experience you can get:)!

The night started there and after a while Marilou, a couple of Quebec guys and me went to the Czech Inn and after that to a Reggae-pub. It was one of the best nights I've had in Dublin. We didn't drink too much, we heard some amazing live music and we had excellent company! The only downside of it was that the Quebec-guys and Marilou all speak fluent French and they tend to forget that I don't understand it;)

We were back at the hostel a 'little' later than I had in mind, but it was definitely worth it!

Thursday, 19th of May

Glasses on, wet hair and my sweat-pants. That's what I looked like this morning at 7am. I'll repeat it: 7am! No you're eyes aren't playing a trick on you, you've read it right: 7am. The first time that I woke up at the crack of dawn, it's flabbergasting I know! But I've got a very good reason for doing so. I met a couple of great Canadian guys on Monday and they left this morning. We had some nice conversations and when they mentioned yesterday that they were going to leave this morning I, enthusiastic as always, immidiately volunteered to get up at the same time as them to wave them goodbye. Hmm, it might have sounded great yesterday, but when my alarm rang at 6.30 this morning...

The rest of the day passed by in a rush. I got to bed again after my breakfast with the Canadians, called my mum and made a wonderfull big lunch/dinner:) I'm getting better behind the cooking plates, feeling more comfortable every day.

This night there was the Thursday-free-bbq again and I had to walk a group of the hostel up there. On my way back, one hour later, I saw the Queen again. I'm getting kind of bored of her. She keeps blocking up roads and the atmosphere of Dublin changed because of her. I wouldn't shed a tear if she leaves.

Wednesday, 18th of May

Crazy with a capital 'c', that's what the city is like today. Thousands of policeofficers marching the streets for the Queen, the busses stop at different busstops during the day and on top of that we've got the Europe League Final. This resulted into a crazy, buzy and energetic city.

I didn't know about the match, at least I did know, but I didn't remember --- until I decided that I wanted to walk to the Temple Bar District... It felt like I walked into another world... The smell of sweat and beer of excited football-fans hit me in the face when the first pub came into sight. Within seconds I was surrounded by a crowd of chanting guys. I have to admit, I felt a 'little' out of place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazing that they close down the road every time the Queen crosses it. The yellow-jackets even wanted us to close the windows tonight, just in case people wanted to throw things at the Queen from the second floor of the hostel. Due to the enormous enthusiasm of Shane who kept bragging about prince Philip waving at him, I wanted to see the Queen too. For the first time since the Queen landed ground in Ireland, I actually saw her and waved at her:)

Tuesday, 17th of May

Okay guys, I'm gonna be honest with you. The reason why I didn't post any blog the last week is that I feel miserable. Especially when Dirk left on Monday I just didn't want to do anything. I stayed inside the hostel for two days, just watching TV-shows. I have to admit that I didn't enjoy the occasionally phone-call home either. Just hearing the voices of the people I love made me realize how lonely I felt.

Later on in the week I started to feel even worse. My throat didn't feel good and I started to get a cold. And believe me, feeling ill when you're 800 kilometers away from home doesn't feel that good. All I wanted to do was go to my own bed and let my mother take care of me. I know, this isn't something you will expect from me, whining about going home. So, now I'm only going to write about happy things:)

The first good thing that happened is that my mum is coming over to the hostel!!!! I' m soooooo excited!! She's going to stay in the same dorm as me, so we will be roomies:) She's coming in the last week that I'll be in Dublin, secretly to make sure that I'll stay in Dublin for the full 10 weeks;). It makes me really happy to know that my mom will be here and see how it's like for me to live here.

The second good thing is that I've met a reeeeeaaaaally nice girl form Quebec (Canada), Marilou. She's going to stay here for a long time, so this time I won't have to say goodbye to her in a couple of days. Actually I met Marilou earlier, but now we found out that we've got a great connection. I told her how I felt and she said that she would help me get through with it. She's been through the same stuff as me, so it felt good to talk about it with her.

The third wonderfull thing that happened today: The QUEEN visited Dublin today. And she even popped in for a quick visit in our hostel ^^!! Look at the amazing picture above, made by me:) (And no folks, photoshop had nothing to do with it;))

The crazy thing about the queens visit is the enormous amount of Garda marching the street today. There were more 'yellow-jackets' than normal people. The atmosphere was also different. With cops on the rooftops and a helicopter circling above your head the whole ambiance of the city changes. There were a couple of quarrels in Dublin, but nothing serious happened so far. Keep your fingers crossed.

I don't know if you've heard about the security measures they provided for the Queen's visit. The police checked every man-hole and lampposts for hidden bombs. After they checked all the holes they sealed and marked them as checked. The Irish government spent an awful lot of money on security for the 85-year-old Queen.

Most of the Irish people are oblivious of the fact that the Queen arrived today. The only people I spotted cheering on the sidewalk were tourists. The reason behind that is that most Irish people don't care about the Queen. The ones who care though hate the Queen of England. They protested against her visit and were on the street, not cheering but booing at her.

Sunday, 8th of May

The first time since I arrived in Ireland and had a boy sitting next to me during the church service. And let me tell you, that feels goooood:) After the service we decided to go to Howth. If you're a dedicated reader of this blog you know that I've been there before and that it is a little paradise on earth! We went with the Dart (electric train of Dublin) to Howth. It was absolutely wonderful. We sunbathed in the sun while lying on the rocky beach, had a nice walk through the town of Howth and enjoyed a splendid ice cream.

We finished the day off with a gorgeous pizza and a pint of Bulmers/Carlsberg.

Saturday, 7th of May

Today was absolutely magical. I planned to go on a tour to Wicklow, Glendalough. The weather was not working in our advantage though... Especially in the morning it was really cloudy and we couldn't see everything the guide wanted us to see. Later in the afternoon it all cleared up a little and we saw an amazing waterfall, lakes and old monastries.

Funny story; we had lunch and we got sandwiches with fries. Dirk can't live without mayonaise, and they come in a really 'handy' wrapping. The 5th attempt to open this wrapping resulted into a disaster. A disaster which spilled all over my clothes and my freshly washed hair...:) Yeah, you got it right, I was covered in mayonaise from top to toe. Ok, I might be a bit exaggerating.

The rest of the day was absolutely wonderful. My hair looked like I tried to wash it with olive oil, but other than that it was marvelous. We decided that we didn't want to cook today, so we went to the oldest pub in Ireland (at least they're one of the 100 pubs who claim to be the oldest pub in Ireland). We ate a traditional Irish dish: Traditional Irish Stew. It was a mix of vegetable-soup, mashed patatoes and meat. It was absolutely delicious!

Friday, 6th of May

3:00, 3:01, 3:02, 3:03, 3:04, ..... I've seen every minute pass on the clock last night. It was insane.. I couldn't sleep but didn't want to get up either. Because I knew today would be the best day that I would have at my stay here in Dublin. And that is because... My wonderful boyfriend came over to see me:) But first I needed to get through the morning, eat breakfast and pretending to be relaxed while my mind was at the airport. At 9:05 I took the Airlink bus to the airport. I had to wait for half an hour until his plane would touch the Irish ground. Those last minutes were dreadful. It took forever... I watched the gate expectantly and every time the doors opened I hoped for HIM to walk through them. Finally a cloud of blond hair announced his arrival...:)

I asked a colleague about the transport from the airport to the hostel. He said to me that I could take a 'normal' bus from a stop just a little walk from the airport. It would be cheap and easy to find. I had to hop off at Dame Street, which is just around the corner of the Four Courts Hostel. Well the first part went pretty well. The second part on the other hand... We had to hop off at Dame Street but I didn't pay enough attention... I've got a good reason for this: I was distracted by my wonderful company.

We finally managed to get to the hostel and got a warm welcome from my colleagues. They were absolutely fantastic, they didn't even want Dirk to pay for his stay in the hostel! When I left this morning they threatened that they would behave very silly upon his arrival. Fortunately they didn't dare to do that;)

I didn't make a plan for the rest of the day beforehand. I knew a couple of places I still wanted to see, but I wanted Dirk to decide which sights he would like to see. Eventually we went to Dublin Castle. It was really nice, the guide was rather enthusiastic about it which made it interesting.

The rest of the day we just walked around, made pasta and chilled out:) Wonderful first day!

Wednesday, 4th of May

I can still taste it in my mouth... The most perfect, --- the best --- taste in the world... Melted cheese, warm ham and white bread... Yeah, I just made the most perfect sandwich and I melted it in a pan:) I can't stop thinking about it... Well, that basically described my day so far. Right now I'm at the reception desk, trying to look busy;) I'm about to sell loads of pub crawls, so I get a little extra pocket-money.

Everytime we sell a tour or a pubcrawl we get a little commision. Which is nice, since I don't get paid here. That's why I'm really persuasive towards the guests to buy tickets for the pubcrawl or a tour:)

Wow, imagine this... My work consist of watching football right now:)

Tuesday, 3rd of May

I didn't plan to do something today, I suddenly stumbled upon it. I had a nice chat at the reception with my colleague Ray and Shannon, an American girl. She said that she wanted to go to the Leprechaun Museum. I didn't even know that existed, but the moment I heard the word leprechaun I was all ears. She noticed that and asked me if I wanted to come with her to that famous museum:)

It was soooooo much fun. The guides tell a couple of amazing fairy-tales about leprechauns and fairies and they tell it in such a way that it looks like they actually believe in them. The guide we had was an extremely talented storyteller and she kept us agitated the whole time. Besides the nice storytelling they had a room which made you feel like a leprechaun yourself. It had extremely large furniture, you actually had to CLIMB the chair to get on it. I have to say that that takes some practise...

Sunday, 1st of May

It got pretty late last night. We went home from the pub at a reasonable time, but Margot and I were hungry, so we stayed in the common-room for a long time after we were back from the pub. Margot had to work this morning and we decided to get up at 7.30 so we could have a quite breakfast and start our day slowly. I wanted to go to the church anyway this morning. The first service on Sunday starts at eleven, which is a perfect time:)

The service was great, although I missed the choir that they had last Sunday. Last Sunday there were loads of people attending because it was Easter. Today it was only half full. The services are totally different from what I'm used to. In Dublin there are no 'real' protestant services, but they have Roman-Catholic services or Anglican services. I always go to the Anglican service in the Christ Church Cathedral. But Anglican is a lot like Roman-Catholic, they don't have the pope as church leader and they don't have confessions. Other than that the services look a lot like Roman-Catholic services. They have bishops and they wear those fancy Roman-Catholic dresses. They even have women who are bishops! Amazing...

During the service they always perform the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is 'Avondmaal' in Dutch. It is different than we are used to in the PKN in Barneveld. Everybody can attend, old and young. The priests encourage everybody to come forward and attend the feast of bread and wine. Almost everybody hurries forward to join the feast. A few people, including me, stay put.

I had made plans go to Croke Park and watch a game of Hurling (look it up on youtube!) in the afternoon. I thought Croke Park would be a nice park and that a couple of amateurs would play a game of Hurling. Turned out that that I was a little misinformed. Croke Park is not a park but a very big stadium with a capacity for 82,300 people. Besides that it wouldn't be a game played by amateurs, but the FINAL between Dublin and Kilkenny. Hmmm, just a 'little' misinformed, I blame it on my blond hair...

The game was LEGENDARY! Dublin won spectacularly from Kilkenny with a score of 22-10. According to the Irish Independent it is the first time in 72 years that a national hurling crown is in Dublin's possession. I've never seen such a crazy sport. Hurling is a combination of Hockey, Rugby and Football. The men behave like cave-people with clubs. Only the toughest boys make it through and even they endure serious injuries. I LOOOOOOVE IT:) If you ever get the chance of attending a match of Hurling, don't hesitate!

If you want to read an article about the match CLICK HERE:)

Saturday, 30th of April

It turned out that Margot's bed was double booked at Barnacles and that she had to get a bed at the Four Courts Hostel! So we decided to go out to the pub on Saturday night with some friends she made at Barnacles. The pub had fantastic live music, a guy on a guitar played covers. I made one big mistake though...

Halfway there I had to go to the ladies room. The pub was pretty big, but I found the toilets eventually. I had to walk a couple of stairs down, but when I went back to find Margot I wasn't paying attention at how many stairs I took...

When I found door which leaded to the bar I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a band playing lame songs and the bar was on the other side of the room. It looked like I was in a totally different pub! I tried the stairs again and once again I was in a totally different room. "Did I drink too much?", I thought. I only had one pint, that couldn't be it... I walked across the room and saw more stairs. There was some kind of balcony and I could not believe my eyes for the second time that night. There were stairs leading to at least five floors... I was lost in a pub...

I know I have the sense of direction of a potato, but that I was able to get lost in a pub was beyond my expectations. A man pulled me out of my reverie. "You don't look Irish, where are you from?" I politely answered his question and told him that I got lost and that I couldn't find my friends any more. I told him I needed to find the ground floor. Fortunately the man showed me the ground floor and asked me if I could bring my friends over to where he was. I thanked him and said I would think about it. I found Margot and her Barnacles friends soon enough and I never got back to the nice man who helped me find my way.

Wednesday, 27th of April

I'm working right now. Well, working.... I just check people in and do the laundry every hour or so. It's pretty nice actually! Today was a wonderful day, the weather is superb and I went to the park with Margot. It's amazing how different parks are if you compare it to the Netherlands. It's normal in Dublin to have lunch in the park, even if you're a bussinessman. I saw loads of ties comming into the park with their packed lunch. I never would have thought that was possible!

I wanted to surprise Dirk with a very nice birthdaycard (his birthday is Friday) and I went to the postoffice. I thought it would take two or three days at the most to get it delivered, but the dude at the postoffice told me that it would be delivered next Tuesday! I thought he made a joke, but he looked pretty serious..

Tuesday, 26th of April

I had an amazing day yesterday. Those girls fromNorway, Nina and Liv, are absolutely wonderful. We went with the train to Howth and it was the most wonderful village I've ever seen. Ok, that's not entirely true, but it's definitely one of the most interesting villages that I've seen. The weather was not perfect, it shifted from cloudy to sunny so fast I couldn't keep track.

We first went to the market they held there, which was superb. Liv and Nina both bought a necklace. We had fish & chips and fudge. It was legendary. I only missed one thing. When I was sitting on the beach and I looked at the sea I only wished for one thing: That I could share that moment with the most important person in my life: Dirk. I'm definitely going back to Howth with him when he comes here.

Last night was also legendary, we ate at The Brazen Head, which is the oldest

pub in Dublin and after that we went out. We went to Temple Bar (www.thetemplebarpub.com), which is a pub with live music every day. There was a guy with a guitar who was amazing, he played wonderful songs from Ronan Keating and Bob Dylan. On the other side of the pub there was a typical Irish band playing Irish folk music. We had the time of our lives in those pubs.

In the end we did something kind of bad... Nina and I had a couple of Bulmers (which is an Irish cider) and I mentioned that I would loooooove to take a pint of Bulmers home. And so we did... <--

Monday, 25th of April

The first time that I overslept in Dublin. Woke up at 10, I must've been very tired... A couple of Norwegian girls asked me if I wanted to come with them to Howth which is a harbour and beach near Dublin. I immediately said yes and right now I'm waiting until 12 to get some food and walk to Tara Station to take the Dart with them to Howth. I'm really looking forward to it! Amazing how fast you make friends in a hostel, it's the best place to be on your own:) I'll let you know how it turns out!

Sunday, 24th of April

Happy Easter everybody!

I started today with a service at 11 in the Christ Church Cathedral just around the corner of the hostel. I couldn't find a 'normal' protestant service in Dublin, so I went for the Anglican service in Christ Church Cathedral. It was a very nice experience. The building alone got me goosebumps all over. They had a choir which was absolutely amazing. They sung parts of the Messiah of Händel so beautifully, it sent chills down my spine... The only thing that was a bummer was the sermon itself. The whole service took over 1,5 hour and the sermon itself only took ten minutes. This wouldn't be a problem, if it would have been a really captivating and interesting 10 minutes. But unfortunately, it wasn't.

The rest of the day passed by with doing nothing basically. I walked around Dublin with a Swedish guy named Diderick (or however you spell that). He is a eccentric lad, I mean I've never met a guy who would dress the same every single day. He wears a fancy jacket with elbow patches (see picture--->) and a red pair of trousers, I repeat, EVERY day... Quite attached to it I guess.

I spent the afternoon just hanging around in the hostel. At six I decided to make some pasta, which was absolutely delicious! I'm getting the hang of it, bring it on! When I was eating my delicious dinner, a couple of Australian lads started to talk to me and asked if I wanted to play cards with them. They thought that they had an easy victim, but they guessed wrong. I totally dominated:)

Well, I'm sorry I don't have something really awesome going on here right now. Just hanging out. If you've got any suggestions about what I should do the following days, let me know;) I've got two days off, so plenty of free time on my hands!

Saturday, 23rd of April

Ok, ok, ok... What can I do to make it all up with you? I know it's no good to skip one day, but I've got the perfect excuse! Lets start at the beginning...

Yesterday was a really busy day, wait-up, I know that's a lame excuse but it gets better, just keep on reading ok? Well, I'll start again: Yesterday was a really busy day because it was Good Friday. This means that NO PUB is open in Dublin ALL day long! The mayor tourist attractions were closed too. This meant that everybody in Dublin bought a shit-load of beers on Thursday to get through Good Friday.

The fact that there were no pubs and touristy things open yesterday meant that most guests

stayed at the hostel all day, I mean INSIDE the hostel. We expected that some guests would

forget to buy beer and we bought a gazillion beers which we sold for 3euros each. Great business:)

During my shift from 5 till 10 I sold like a THOUSAND beers (as Cathal would put it). When my shift was over it was very crowded and noisy everywhere. I couldn't find a quite spot to sit down and write my blog. So there, I know it's a long explanation, but you'll have to agree with me: It's good right? I've got actual proof of this, look at the picture --->

--------------------------------------------------

Today its Saturday and I planned to go to some touristy things with Margot

today. She had a day off and my shift would start at 5pm. I started with a nice, proper breakfast and I did my laundry. Ok, I'll tell you the truth: I dropped my laundry at the reception desk they were more than happy to do it, so why bother?

After that I walked to the Temple Bar district and to the hostel where Margot works: Barnacles

. We visited Christ Church Cathedral today which is a huge and beautiful cathedral just around the corner of my hostel. I wanted to check when they have services tomorrow anyway, so we

decided to look at the inside as well. The inside was absolutely stunning! Look at the amazing building --->

After that we wanted to go to the Kalmainham Gaol, this is a very old jail. Those who know me well know that I've got the sense of direction of a potato. That's why I use a very convenient map everywhere everywhere I go in Dublin. But not even this very convenient, very detailed map could help me find the jail. Street-signs don't provide you with some help as well, they're just a pain in the ass. Irish people think that everybody's got x-ray eyes or something, they put street-signs BEHIND a lamppost or tree...

After asking a very old, but nice looking Irish bloke where to go, we found the jail. It was worth it. There is a rich and interesting history behind that building. The woman who guided us was friendly and we enjoyed our time there. On our way back to the hostel we bought our groceries for Easter. I'll just keep it simple: Pasta:)

Well, I'm off to bed now! See ya, no worries;)

Thursday, 21st of April

I've worked today. Yes, you've heard me correctly: I've worked today! I started this morning around eleven and I finished at 5. It was totally awesome. I love my colleague Pearse who let me do everything and was a great help to me today. And.... I've found a way to make money! Well, Pearse found me a way to make money. And no, sigh, it has nothing to do with what you're thinking right now, dirty mind... If we sell a tour to our costumers we receive five bucks which goes straight into the pocket, isn't that great? I've earned 25 bucks today, fantastic isn't it?

Well, the job isn't that hard. I have to check people in, just follow a program to do so. Once you figure out how the program is working it's fairy easy. We also sell things like adapters and lockers for the cages under the bed. But once you know how that works it's pretty easy as well. Made a few tiny mistakes, but since it's my first day I'm allowed to do that:)

I'm going to make dinner now, I'll keep you up to date!

---------------------------------------------

Told you I was going to make dinner, well, I'm a lazy bastard, I'm sorry... Just made some toasts with Chocolate-paste on it. Mario, Spanish guy, gave me that idea. So I can blame him:) Maybe I'm going to make the left-over Chickentonight later this evening.

Just got my working-schedule. Looks pretty nice, I'll have to work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5 till 10PM. Which makes exactly 20 hours a week. Tomorrow it's going to be extremely hectic. It's Good Friday tomorrow which means that all the pubs are closed and all the guests will be in the hostel the whole night. We're throwing a party with loud music, beers for three bucks and Ray playing guitar. Sounds good to me!

What I noticed over the last couple of days is that the Irish are fantastic people. They are very relaxed and chilled out. They don't mind if you make a mistake and they are extremely friendly. Besides that they totally ignore traffic lights. You can see if you're dealing with a tourist or an Irish bloke. If you see someone waiting at the pedestrians traffic light you can be sure that you're dealing with a tourist (or with me of course). Irish people have a fantastic sense of humour. They like to mock themselves and their friends or colleagues. Which is exactly the kind of humour that I'm used to and exactly the humour I like:)

I have to say that I feel more and more at home at the hostel. I feel like I can be myself and I start to enjoy the fact that I'm on my own here. That doesn't mean that I don't miss my boyfriend, friends and family, but I start to feel at home here too. I'm looking forward to meeting Dirk in a couple of weeks. I've arranged that I'll be free those days, they twisted the schedule on my behalf:)

The English language is also starting to be easier. I've talked English all day today and it's the first time that writing this blog is so easy. I have to give you a heads-up though... I starrrrrt to get the Irrrrrrish 'r', at least that's what my colleague Pearse noticed today. He said: "We'rrrrre rrrrruining yourrrrrrr accent alrrrrrready" If you pronounce the 'r' like you're in a pirate-film, you've got it exactly rrrrright.

I'm going to bed pretty early today, I'm feeling kind of ill today unfortunately. It's seven now, so I'll be watching a couple of episodes of 'How I met your mother' and then I'm off to bed.

Wednesday, 20th of April

Wow, busy day today. I got up at eight and had breakfast at nine. I forgot to ask at what time they expected me to work today, so I showed up at the reception desk at 9.30. I still had my bus pass to go around the city and I asked Cathal if I could use that today to visit the Guinness Storehouse. He agreed with that and said: "No worries, come back at twelve, one or two, never mind". The guys here are so unbelievable chill!

On my way back to the hostel I planned to do my groceries. I grabbed everything I wanted, but a great surprise awaited me at the cash register... I had 'insufficient funds' apparently. I million things raced through my mind: Is my bank account drained by criminals? What did I bought the last couple of days? Were did my money go? How much money have I left?

I decided that I would go back to the hostel and check my bank account. It turned out my bank account wasn't drained by criminals and I didn't bought anything crazy. My health insurance ate up a lot of money. Fortunately I've got another bank account, I transferred it and I finally bought my groceries! Wow, I feel grown up now;)

This afternoon I got a lot of information from Cathal about the system they use to check costumers in and out. It was a lot to take in, but I think that in a couple of weeks it will be peanuts. Cathal told me that I could start to work tomorrow. I'll have a shift from eleven till four. Sounds fair enough.

This evening I've cooked my first meal, and yes, it was a real MEAL! How does that sound: Marcella cooked her first meal. Wow, talking about growing up! I asked my loving boyfriend yesterday if he got an idea about what I should cook for myself and he suggested that I could try to make Chicken Tonight. Fair enough, I thought, and I bought the stuff I need for that today. Chicken, rice, sauce, salt and olive oil.

I can hear you think: I hope she made a huge howler while she was cooking. I'm sorry guys... I actually did a great job. I must admit that I asked my mother for help when I started to cook, but I DID it myself. Which counts for something, doesn't it? I'm sorry that I didn't make a picture of it to show to you how good it looked, but I promise to do that tomorrow or the day after;)

Well, after dinner I have to say that I didn't do a lot. I just made myself comfortable on a couch with my laptop. I'm addicted to the series: "How I met your mother". It's legendary! It's ten o'clock now, I'm hitting the sack!

Tuesday, 19th of April

To give you an impression on what my bedroom looks like I've uploaded a photo <---- :) In the cage under my bed you can see my stuff crammed in it. I woke up a couple of times tonight because of people coming in and out of the room. This didn't really bothered me

fortunately.

It's 10.30AM right now and I just took a shower and had breakfast. I had a couple of toasts with jam and a nice warm cup of tea. I start to feel at home a little. I talked to a couple of Spanish guys at my table. It's true what they say about Spanish people and talking English: They suck...;)

I'll start working in about thirty minutes!! I hope it will work out all right and that it won't be extremely difficult. I also hope to get tonight off so I can look around the city a bit more. I wonder what it looks like at night.

You might think: What is she doing there if she's got so much free time on her hands? Well... I haven't figured that out yet. When I left the Netherlands I had the brilliant idea to learn Italian in my spare time, I brought a course for that with me. But... I forgot that my baby-laptop doesn't have a CD-player! I know... Blond;)

Fortunately I have another hobby: Reading. There is a nice reading-room in the hostel with a lot of books. I haven't looked at it closely, but they might have some books I like to read. Besides reading I want to discover Dublin. I'll go on a tour through the city tomorrow, maybe I'll find a couple of places I want to visit then.

It's almost 10.45AM now, going to pack my stuff and I'll be off to the reception desk in fifteen minutes. I'll let you know how it works out:)

--------------------------------------------------------

It's 7.30PM now I've had a long and tiring day. I went to the reception desk this morning, just to find out that there was a slight problem. The computer that I should be working on had a virus and therefore I couldn't work. Cathal gave me a pass to go on the Dublin Bus Tour. This is a tour which has 23 stops on tourist attractions throughout Dublin. You can hop off at every stop and hop on again if you've finished looking there. There are a couple of buses on which the bus driver gives live information about the tourist attractions and there are a couple of buses which have a taped version of the tour. The bus driver I had was hilarious. "On your right you can see a blue door, behind is the smallest pub of Dublin. This pub has place for only eight customers. You have to be careful not to get drunk in that, because they don't have room for you to pass out". And that's even without the extremely funny and catchy Irish accent...

I went to Trinity College, there was a graduation going on there, pretty exciting. Besides that I also went to the National Gallery, they had some very nice paintings. If I write it down like this, it doesn't look like I've seen a lot, but I actually did see a lot today. I've walked miles and miles to the different bus-stops and I saw a lot on the way. I have to say that Dublin has lots and lots of interesting attractions; enormous cathedrals, beautiful parks and nice museums. It's not a very big city though, every place is an approximately 20 minute walk from the hostel. The weather is also very good those first days. I didn't even need a coat or a shawl today, the sky was a perfect shade of blue all day.

Cooked my first meal today, well meal... I'm a lazy person and just made tomato soup, well made... Okay, I confess, I just warmed up soup which I bought at a supermarket... Maybe I'll really cook tomorrow, but don't keep your hopes up too high.

I forgot to put something on my blog yesterday... Before I wrote my blog I opened the present Dirk gave to me before I left. He wrote a little card for every day that I'll be away and a big card for every Sunday that I'll be here. Which means that he took the time to write almost 70 cards for me...:) I'm so happy he is my boyfriend!:)

I'm going downstairs now, going to watch a couple of silly TV-programs on my laptop and maybe read a book.

Monday, 18th of April

Yesterday it all started: The goodbyes. Let me tell you, it's not my thing. With a brave smile, but a lump in my throat, I told my crying sister that it would work out all right. It took me a long time to realize that I was really about to leave the Netherlands and head to Dublin for 10 weeks. After the passport check at the airport I took a last glance back at my parents and my lovely boyfriend, Dirk, and I headed off to the security check.

In the plane it finally dawned to me, I was heading off to Ireland and I wouldn't see the wonderful Dutch cows, chickens, mills and tulips for 10 weeks. But more importantly, I wouldn't see my friends and family for this long period of time.

The flight was very pleasant. No vomiting passengers, massive turbulence or any other disturbing thing. I had a seat at the emergency exit, which made me feel oddly safe. I wasn't allowed to put my luggage at my feet because of the exit, as the stewardess kindly reminded me. I could see the landscape change outside the window and I realized that I was definitely not in the Netherlands anymore...

The arrival in Dublin went smooth. With Margot, one of my classmates, we grabbed our luggage and searched for the Airlink bus which would take us to the centre of Dublin. Margot stays at a hostel in the Temple Bar district, and our ways parted there. I took a walk to the Four Courts Hostel, rang the bell and entered the wonderful entrance of the hostel.

At the reception desk I met Ray, who will be my colleague for the next couple of weeks. He greeted me with a big smile and a warm welcome to Dublin. With his long hair and somewhat shabby clothes he looks like he would dwell way better in the 60s as a hippie. He looks like the perfect colleague with whom you can laugh and chill and never grow bored off.

Ray called Cathal, the manager, that I arrived and they gave me my room-pass and a key to lock the safe under my bed. I stay at the third flour in room 302 on bed number 4. It turns out that the room looks pretty neat. I sleep in a 12 bed dorm with 6 double beds. I sleep in the corner on the lower bed.

When I get down again Cathal gives me a wonderful tour around the hostel and shows me all the different rooms that they offer. It all looks clean and nice. The view is also very pleasant, you can see the beautiful building the Four Courts just outside my window.

I'm free for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I'm going to start at the reception desk at 11 AM and I will get my first instructions there. On Wednesday I will get a tour around the city on a hop-on-hop-off-bus, Cathal tells me.

At 16.30 I contact Margot to grab a bite at a pub or another cheap place. We end up at a diner which looks like the setting of Grease. After a big hamburger, french fries and a coke I felt totally refreshed and Margot and I went to search a supermarket to fetch stuff for tomorrow. Unfortunately most of the supermarkets are closed at 7 PM but after a while we found one. The owners only spoke Polish or something like that, but we got the basics to live another day:)

After that I went back to the hostel and tried to set up my internet connection. This took some time because my Firewall kept blocking the WiFi of the hostel, but with some help from Cathal IT WORKS!! I'm so happy:) Finally connected to the rest of the world.

Right now I'm sitting in the TV room on a great couch and I just called my parents via Skype. One of the greatest inventions ever. I'm going to head off to bed, got a big day tomorrow!