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 --->

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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!

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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:)

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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!