So today was my first "free day" as I had my last lecture yesterday from 10 to 12. I have to say I liked this day a lot for several reasons :-).
At first it was business and I handed in my essay :-) Still can't believe I actually managed to write two essays... we won't talk about the quality now as I really have no clue how they turned out... Probably acceptable, but certainly not brilliant.
I left the house at around 11 and went to town. Already the ride on the Luas (haha, yeah I know, I wrote it and then I realised what I wrote and I just left it so you can have a laugh as well) was quite eventful... Talked to two people and my ticket got checked... I had one - obviously - while others didn't and made an entertaining scene, at least I thought so... The Luas stopped and continued once those 4 people without a ticket were outside. I could describe the type now... you meet them sometimes in Dublin, always the same, but I'm not sure if this is going to be politically or whatever correct.
There's these people, you see and - ehm yeah you smell - that they do not look after themselves... Often they come in couples, both half drunk in the middle of the day and quite frequently you can observe them fighting with each other... usually about something involving money. The other day I was in the pharmacy getting some cough syrup and this couple (of the mentioned "type") wanted to purchase some baby food or something like that and lots of it... It must have cost over 50 Euro and the woman was telling the man to get out the money.... The man with his pretty drunk sounding slang said that he didn't have it... Then she said to him that he put it in his shoe or sock... So the guy starts taking off his shoes and socks and being in the state he was that proved quite difficult... The security guard was standing close-by and I eventually decided to leave and not be one of those horrible spectators ;-). And guess what? Because of all the drama I completely forgot to take my syrup with me...Bummer :-(.
Ok, back to the topic... So I was walking down Grafton Street and I decided to go into that really POSH shop Brown Thomas... Wow, I tell you, it was crazy! They have all the really posh brands in there and I saw something crazily funny... Earphone-covers with lots of bling-bling for 100.99 Euro! It was a bit after the motto "if you don't know what to do with your money anymore"... For a taste of it: http://www.brownthomas.com/ even their website is posh! LOL
So after that experience I finally went into Stephen's Green Park and it's really nice... Pictures on facebook.
After that I went for lunch at Wagamamas and then I went into the shopping center. Later on I went for a coffee and met this lady who invited me to a tea and a cake :-). We talked for at least half an hour and it was REALLY funny... Haha, she told me what she thinks about Switzerland and I have honestly never heard anything further away from the truth... She said only millionaires live in Switzerland and she'd like to see it but she could never afford it and so on :-). Well, I sure wouldn't mind being a millionaire, but well REALITY check ;). Anyway, I had a good time.
When I was walking back to the Luas after six I was really cold... And I was wearing thermal underwear, jeans, warm socks, sneakers and a very warm winter jacket with a thick hat and a scarf and gloves. I could still feel the cold everywhere ;-)... and guess what I see?! These Irish are NUTS, honestly... I saw two girls on the way back with high-heel sandals and a mini-skirt... not even tights! I saw their bare legs and feet and I saw a man with shorts and flip-flops! It's crazy! It was below zero degrees and they walk around as if it were summer!
Ok, I think there was more to say... Ah yeah right... Haha, when going back I wanted to withdraw some cash, but on every ATM on the way back from Grafton Street you have a beggar sitting next to the ATM!? I mean honestly, wtf? Why doesn't the police or anyone do anything against that, it is sooo annoying when you get money from the ATM and you are constantly being asked "any tschääinsch pleeeeeez". And they honestly are like a plague in the city, they are everywhere! Most of them are just quiet and sit there with their cardboard signs.... But this morning I saw a mother with a baby in her arm, I didn't give anything to her, it just makes me angry to see that someone could be so irresponsible and try to get more money by putting a real baby in their arms! Oh and there was this other beggar in Grafton strees, wearing a t-shirt and shorts and nothing else... barefoot and he was freezing like crazy. So I actually took pity on him and went to buy a hot tea at the shop and gave it to him :-) I seem to have a heart after all *grin*.
Ok... with this I'll say goodnight. 2.5 more days in Dublin, but with the weather and all I'll be glad if my flight will make it on Monday, today's flight was 1.5 hours late already...
Everyone at home, cu soon!!!!
Freitag, 17. Dezember 2010
Montag, 13. Dezember 2010
Snow... lots and lots of it
So I wanted to write about the snow since it started and I am finally getting aroudn to doing this :-).
For a start... Ireland and Snow just does NOT match at all! The Irish have no clue what to do with snow and there's absolutely no way of dealing with it... with enough snow, everything would just break down completely.
So where to start with this long and painful, hopefully amusing story about snow??? I guess I'll just sort of highlight some of the funny stories that happened, because I honestly can't remember everything anymore...
The first snow fell, I think, on Sunday the 28th of November or maybe it was Saturday, who knows. It was cute at first, not a lot, but during the night it just kept snowing and so the snow stayed. The Irish were completely taken aback, I mean, it does NEVER snow here in late November, NEVER :-). And so why get rid of the snow if it anyway never snows and it'll be over soon and there won't be any more of it.. Yeah right. So the snow kept on falling and falling, there were thunderstorms (yes, really), maybe even the occasional blizzard... The weather had gone completely nuts and the Irish were still too much in shock to do anything about it...
But hmm... what should they have done about it? Apparently Ireland doesn't own any snow plows and people with houses don't have snow shovels and you get it... they just had no clue how to deal with the snow. Luckily I lived on the Luas line and got to town and back faily easy, the walking was just a bit of a dangerous task, as the snow became ice.
So on Tuesday finally Johann and Jan arrived :-) Due to the snow there were many delays at Dublin Airport and it was occasionally even closed I think. The poor guys arrived into a city full of slush and snow and ice and there was no stopping it... The snow kept falling, harder than ever. Bus service broke down at certain times, Siofra's school closed because teacher living in the country couldn't get into Dublin anymore and so on. Trinity's open day on Wednesday got cancelled as it was too dangerous... a threat to the health of the visitors. I tell you... snow and slush on "polished" cobblestones is bloody dangerous.
On Thursday College was closed to all but students, staff and residents... It remained closed until Monday morning!!!
At this point (still Thursday) I still wasn't able to observe a lot of effort with regard to getting rid of the snow... And still more was falling from the sky... The funny thing... All the Irish kept saying it's a once off thing, it'll not happen again, there's no need to get winter tires for the car, no need for the city to get snow plows,... Well, I guess we'll see about that next year.
On Thursday the situation got completely out of control... At first the green Luas line stopped running because some stupid kids has apparently built a snowman on the tracks... and the police didn't seem to do anything about it, guess they were busy. Later on also the Red Luas line stopped running, there was SO much snow! So yeah, I walked a bit along the Luas tracks, only 2 stops, with a lot of other people... Some of them had to go MUCH further, basically a 1.5 hour walk with normal conditions. And while walking around in Dundrum I saw a Dublin SNOWPLOW!!! Yes honestly, there is at least 1 - probably only 1 ;-) - snowplow!!!
So after that at least the Luas kept running and because it got a bit warmer the streets weren't covered in ice during the day... But you imagine, as soon as the sun went down the slush and water turned to ice... Ice-skating with normal shoes on the Rialto Roundabout at midnight is fun :-).
At this point, I guess it was Monday last week, an effort was being made by staff to clear the college pathways... The methods implemented to get rid of the about 15cm - 20cm thick ice and snow were quite funny...
So... now all the snow has pretty much melted and the city is back to normal :-).
Only 7 more days until I am back in Switzerland :-)...
For a start... Ireland and Snow just does NOT match at all! The Irish have no clue what to do with snow and there's absolutely no way of dealing with it... with enough snow, everything would just break down completely.
So where to start with this long and painful, hopefully amusing story about snow??? I guess I'll just sort of highlight some of the funny stories that happened, because I honestly can't remember everything anymore...
The first snow fell, I think, on Sunday the 28th of November or maybe it was Saturday, who knows. It was cute at first, not a lot, but during the night it just kept snowing and so the snow stayed. The Irish were completely taken aback, I mean, it does NEVER snow here in late November, NEVER :-). And so why get rid of the snow if it anyway never snows and it'll be over soon and there won't be any more of it.. Yeah right. So the snow kept on falling and falling, there were thunderstorms (yes, really), maybe even the occasional blizzard... The weather had gone completely nuts and the Irish were still too much in shock to do anything about it...
But hmm... what should they have done about it? Apparently Ireland doesn't own any snow plows and people with houses don't have snow shovels and you get it... they just had no clue how to deal with the snow. Luckily I lived on the Luas line and got to town and back faily easy, the walking was just a bit of a dangerous task, as the snow became ice.
So on Tuesday finally Johann and Jan arrived :-) Due to the snow there were many delays at Dublin Airport and it was occasionally even closed I think. The poor guys arrived into a city full of slush and snow and ice and there was no stopping it... The snow kept falling, harder than ever. Bus service broke down at certain times, Siofra's school closed because teacher living in the country couldn't get into Dublin anymore and so on. Trinity's open day on Wednesday got cancelled as it was too dangerous... a threat to the health of the visitors. I tell you... snow and slush on "polished" cobblestones is bloody dangerous.
On Thursday College was closed to all but students, staff and residents... It remained closed until Monday morning!!!
At this point (still Thursday) I still wasn't able to observe a lot of effort with regard to getting rid of the snow... And still more was falling from the sky... The funny thing... All the Irish kept saying it's a once off thing, it'll not happen again, there's no need to get winter tires for the car, no need for the city to get snow plows,... Well, I guess we'll see about that next year.
On Thursday the situation got completely out of control... At first the green Luas line stopped running because some stupid kids has apparently built a snowman on the tracks... and the police didn't seem to do anything about it, guess they were busy. Later on also the Red Luas line stopped running, there was SO much snow! So yeah, I walked a bit along the Luas tracks, only 2 stops, with a lot of other people... Some of them had to go MUCH further, basically a 1.5 hour walk with normal conditions. And while walking around in Dundrum I saw a Dublin SNOWPLOW!!! Yes honestly, there is at least 1 - probably only 1 ;-) - snowplow!!!
So after that at least the Luas kept running and because it got a bit warmer the streets weren't covered in ice during the day... But you imagine, as soon as the sun went down the slush and water turned to ice... Ice-skating with normal shoes on the Rialto Roundabout at midnight is fun :-).
At this point, I guess it was Monday last week, an effort was being made by staff to clear the college pathways... The methods implemented to get rid of the about 15cm - 20cm thick ice and snow were quite funny...
So... now all the snow has pretty much melted and the city is back to normal :-).
Only 7 more days until I am back in Switzerland :-)...
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)