Dia dhuit!
Today I’m gonna tell you what I love and what I hate about Ireland.
Let’s talk about what I hate first, so we can end this post with the nice things.
- Everything is so expensive! You want to have an ice cream? 2.20€ is cheap (whereas in Germany I pay 70ct per scoop) You want to buy ham? Ok, 3€ please. You want a coke? That’s 2€. It’s not too expensive so everyone can afford it, but it will affect your purse after a while.
- Showers. If you can call them that way. Ok, I might be spoilt with my waterfall shower, but in the showers here in Ireland you’re lucky if you get wet at all. So remember to schedule enough time for having a shower 🙂
- There’s only a small variety of food. Unless you are talking about meat. The meat selection in the supermarket is HUGE! But the rest is just ridiculous. Although they do have i.e. mangos in here, but you cannot find anything else bar apples, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, some kind of cabbage and potatoes in the vegetable section ( mentioning kohlrabi and quark…)
- Irish people seem to love mayonnaise. It’s everywhere. On your sandwich, your pasta, salad, EVERYWHERE. We don’t even have mayonnaise in my german home but here people seem to cannot live without it.
- White bread, pasta, rice, everything. Yes, you are able to buy the wholegrain versions of it, but nobody does. And I don’t know why. In my opinion, the wholegrain versions actually have a taste and fill you up, whereas the white versions just make you feel full for half an hour. But being positive, it has changed since the beginning of 2016. There’s been a program called ‚operation transformation‘ ( about which I’ll probably make another post but I don’t know yet) and it showed how much sugar there is in white cereals. But I honestly don’t think that this change in the consuming of white cereals will last longer than a month 😀
- Talking about food, the Irish seem to hate seasoning their food. Or to add a sauce to it. Don’t ask me why.
- What annoys me most (after all this food stuff is out of my mind) is that you have to have a car. And you use it. A lot. I live 4km away from my school and I live on a busroute (which is quite important to mention when living in Ireland). There are no hills worth to mention. But do you think anyone is going to school by bus or by bike? No, why should you, if there is a car? Everyone goes to school by car. If you don’t have one, buy one. Otherwise you cannot survive Ireland 😀 you really need it for visiting friends who live in the middle of nowhere, going for a walk, going to your sports club, doing the shopping, you just need it. And that’s what drives CO2 levels up to infinity.
Now here are the reasons why I LOVE Ireland:
- The landscape. Everyone says that and it’s true. I don’t live that far away from town and my neighbours are sheep. And cows. Honestly, behind my house there are sheep and in front of my house there are sheep as well. 10 minutes away from my home there’s a mountain (Knocknarea) and another 5 minutes there’s the beach. I still cannot believe that. It’s just amazing. I’m lost for words haha.
- Hot chocolate with marshmallows. Makes me poor and fat but LOVE IT. Although at first I thought it would be weird. But seriously: TRY IT it’s fantastic!
- The Irish slang. Sometimes I have to ask people to repeat what they’ve said for 3 times to understand them but I love the sound of their English.
- Going somewhere by bus. Public transport in Ireland is horrible, but I quite like it. As I mentioned earlier, I do live on a busroute. And that’s the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. The bus only goes every hour and is quite expensive (4.30€ if the busdriver is in a bad mood, 2.40€ or 1.40€ if they are nice) but the busdriver are simply amazing. There are no normal bus stops (only in the city centre) so you can get off whenever you want. Just tell the driver. And don’t forget to say ´thank you` when you leave the bus.
- Saying ‚thank you‚. OMG, I guess I’ve never said ‚thank you‘ so much. You say it at the end of every class, when you leave the bus, when you ate your dinner, always. And it’s such a good habit.
- Being greeted with ‚hey how are you?‘. Most people don’t expect an answer to this but it’s just a nice way to say ‚hi‘.
- Roundabouts. I don’t know why but I love them. And each has its own name. Isn’t that adorable?
- Music. I don’t really listen to it in my freetime, but it’s nice to listen to it in a pub. Especially live music during Christmas time ( fairytale of New York, anyone?).
- Talking about pubs: traditional Irish food! Although I complained about it in the things I hate about Ireland, I love the traditional dishes. Especially Sheperd’s Pie. And Irish Stew. Love. Love. Love. (still need to get a recipe how to do them when I’m gone)
- Gaelic football. It’s like soccer but you can take the ball with your hands as well and you have to drop it on your foot every third step. I enjoy both watching and playing it.
- Shops are opened on a Sunday. Great for me, bad for the people working in a shop. But it gives you more opportunities to spend your Sunday afternoon. (Yes grandpa, I know you can’t stand it but it’s great to have it for one year)
- Everything is made of wood. My whole furniture (except the couch) is made of wood and I love it. It makes me feel as if I’m in our vacation home in the Netherlands.
- The city centre. You have to know, I don’t fancy big cities. But in Irish cities (I know they aren’t big but you know what I mean) everything looks old on the outside and is new on the inside, which is great.
- School uniform. Ok, it’s not an Irish invention I guess but it’s part of the culture. And it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It saves you so much time, money and space, it’s amazing.
- They use one pitch for everything. They build a sports pitch and play soccer, Rugby, Hurling and gaelic football on it. Amazing.
- Little bakeries and restaurants. Heaven on earth and I’m spending way too much money in them.
- Graveyards. Probably that’s because of Ana and Gabi who told me they’d be great. And they are. Especially when you’re walking in the middle of nowhere and suddenly there’s a gravestone in front of you.
- You know everyone. I can still remember the moment I got my hostfamily and I was looking on the address to search for them on Google Maps. I searched unsuccesfully for the housenumber and the proper street name. But there is none. You just know where someone lives. Or you know the wife of him. Or his cousin. Or the guy he used to work with. Or the guy who used to work with his friend who used to know his cousin who knows the guy you’re looking for.
- Last but not least, CADBURY. Yep, you know me. I have to end my post with chocolate. It’s so delicious. I love it.
Slán, Julia
julia goes to sligo 