.ie
Hello world, we finally made it to Dublin!
My love for this place starts with the airport signs in Irish Gaelic, for example, ardaitheoir that stands for lift, or elevator. You notice the wooden interior and cannot help thinking it looks very familiar (think Soviet office rooms). The border officer takes your picture, stamps your passport with a green stamp, and unlike the feeling you get after the ridiculously long lineup in JFK is finally over, you're truly welcome to Ireland. One sign you find amusing while waiting for your luggage is that they drive here on the left. You smile thinking it's not a big deal, but the reality kicks in right away - your taxi driver takes a seat on the right and drives on the left side of the road. Next thing you do is crossing the street instinctively looking to the left (your mom taught you to look left first) completely oblivious to the car approaching on your right. Something is wrong. For some odd reason regular rules do not work. Then you rent a bike and join the city traffic to find that you have turned onto the wrong lane - after the bike path ended, you had no idea which side of the road to cycle on (yet again). Being right-handed, you feel as if you have no other options but to use your left hand all the time. Would you call it frustrating? We call it quite an amusing experience :)
Note 1. I do not recommend flying to Dublin with Lufthansa unless you have a Schengen visa and no objections to spending a night in Germany - you may miss your connecting flight in Frankfurt if it's just an hour and a half to connect. We did.
Note 2. Do rent a Dublin city bike here and explore the city. The city is beautiful when it's not raining. To quote aldanor, Dublin is a cleaner and whiter version of London (quite contrary to Brussels, everyone speaks the same language), and it's got an authentic British feel mixed with sunny Italian atmosphere. Sunny, you read it right. It has not rained so far, and the forecast for Dublin remains sunny (+16/+24) for the next week and a half. There are a lot of touristy places to visit, things to do as a local, tons of places to get delicious food and drinks from, shop, chill and enjoy yourself - all accessible by bike.
If you are connected with me via social media, you probably already know that Dr. Smirnov and I are engaged. As of today we have not set the wedding date - right now we are busy dealing with Garda registration, re-entry visa applications, apartment-hunting and other newcomers' relocation-related issues. We have not unpacked yet, this is how organized we are. In fact, we are not organized at all - missed the train to go shopping at Kildare Village outlet, and missed the admission deadline to NCAD. The latter means I have no other choice but to go study here.
Bye for now, we're off to check out the local club life. iPhone shots are up on fb.