Hello Dublin!

I’m sitting on the couch in my temporary home in Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland. Staying with friends of my aunty Libby, who have decorated their house in perfect Sydney style – big open spaces, lots of skylights, it’s beautiful! What a shame that this morning, the view from the skylight is a grey overcast sky! Welcome to Dublin ☺

The trip from Sweden was quite epic. We packed up our little red garden shed and checked out at midday. Then, seven of us piled into a minibus / taxi style thing with all our luggage and made for Stockholm Arlanda airport. We decided to check in as a group because there was some slightly inequitable distribution of luggage weight (Brian was leaving home for 10 days, I was leaving home for 10 months!), and we got through no worries. We hung around in the airport for a while, collected other random people who we knew, and eventually got on the flight. 2 hours 20 minutes later we landed in Dublin. There was a blue sky, beautiful sunshine, a light breeze and it was 22 degrees! At 5.20pm! Unheard of. Then I got a bus to meet the people I am staying with at the moment. And here I am!

Last night we went out to dinner chez the extended family. They live on a little street overlooking the bay in Blackrock – it was beautiful! The family is big and warm and slightly mad and they make the Symons family look like a collection of quiet, timid introverts! (those of you who know us and / or are a part of us will know how ***extreme*** these people must be!!) Unfortunately I was falling totally asleep and wasn’t able to enjoy the full benefit of the night – music, singing, amazing food, wine and the rest of it. Unfortunately I just wasn’t in a state to enjoy it!

This afternoon I’ve just got back from seeing the house where I’ll be living from October onwards. It’s a lovely little house in Goatstown (I love it!) with an Irish guy, an Irish girl and a Spanish girl. They seem cool, and the house is fantastic. I’ve got a decent sized upstairs bedroom with a built-in wardrobe thing, it’s big and light and airy and lovely. It’s got all the mod cons (including a HUGE backyard for barbecues on all those hot summer nights... oh no… hang on… gaaah!) and I’m really looking forward to settling in there. The room I have at the moment is great and the bed is comfy and the people are absolutely lovely, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’ve kicked someone out of their room…!

Anyway I better make a move. I’m off to meet my classmates at the front of Trinity College for dinner or a drink or something. Oh! And I got a digital camera! So very soon you’ll be seeing photos of stuff other than just my head! So you can all look forward to that!

Thanks for reading! See you later

☺ Jess