Day trip to Bray (Wicklow)

We went to Bray for a day trip. It’s in Wicklow which is south of Dublin. It was only a 40 minute train ride away. If you haven’t gathered already, places are pretty small in land mass, therefore everything is pretty close. In Bray, there’s a nice beach area just 10 minutes from the train station. We walked across the whole beach, and at the end of the beach there was a nice little hiking trail. But it’s nothing like K-Country. It’s a fairly easy hike and took us only 30 minutes to get to the top of the hill. The view is nice at the top. We can see parts of Dublin from up there. We will probably recommend this area to anyone who comes to visit us. I’ll try to put the pictures together, stay toon.

I still miss everyone!

It's been a while since I updated this thing and not too much as happen, but I promise to update the blog more often.

I bumped into Riley at the outdoor shop, one of my lunch mates at the U of C! He's been here for four years studying dental school at Trinity Collage. I didn't think I would find anyone here I know. He said Dublin changed alot during the last 4 years and it's '100% better'

We went to see the 'Book of Kells' at Trinity Collage with Riley (more like he took us there). Then we walked the hills in 'Killiney' where many of the rich and famous reside. We walked by Bono's estate...

Bo and I haven't moved yet and I haven't quit my job yet. I've finally started to code in dot NET. Anymore document writing and i'll be going mad.

One of my many moments of frustration:
So one day, as I was on my way to work, walking towards my train station, I was told that my station was closed. So I quickly dashed to the next station to catch my train. Alas, I was there and on time. I waited there for while and no train came. Very long story short, they screwed up (so typical) and all of us, who needed to take the ICE (Inter City Express) to the North, ended back at the same station in city centre at 10:30am. Keep in mind that I was at the city centre train station before 8am. Needless to say that I called into work and asked for a day off (they probably don’t want to pay me a full day of pay for a half day of work anyways). Someone had committed suicide and jumped in front of the train that day so everything was delayed. It turns out that this happens a few times a year.

It seems like everything works really (NO EXTREMELY) slowly here. I've finally got my PPS AKA SIN number after working in Ireland for 2 months. It was also hard for me to talk to them since they are only open on weekdays between the hours of 9:15-noon and 1:30-4:30pm. I had to take time off from work to go and talk to them! It took numerous tries and it was always this one person who will NOT issue it to me. One day, after I got turned down again, I waited around there for a while wondering how I would ever get this PPS number without moving! I mean all they wanted was a proof of residence from the landlord, but the landlord just doesn’t want to give us the letter of residence. Luckily as I was contemplating nothing, the guy went on break and another lady took over the one and only window that deals with PPS numbers. I went and talked to her, gave her my proof of residence (bank letters and employment letters) and she took care of my PPS application right away.

Bo also had troubles with his PPS number and he also had to deal with the same guy I had. This guy was constantly refusing to process Bo's PPS application. However, Bo eventually got his PPS number when the guy went on break, and he talked to some other person. Bo and I both came up with the same conclusion about the guy… *$%#

On another note, I haven’t been disturbed by any ‘knackers’ lately, so my experience in Ireland is getting better. ‘Knacker’ is a term used by the locals who describe the jobless people who cares about no one but themselves, who has no interest of working or finding a job, who are most of the time drunk, who has tons of children (so the government would give them a bigger place to live), who likes to give anyone and everyone a hard time.

Pictures from our Galway trip is up!

http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/GalwayIreland/

Another week, another post

Not much happening this week. Just the usual… getting up early for work, taking forever to get there, sit in front of the computer and type away for 8 hrs then taking forever to come back… Yeah, nothing exciting this week.

Observations:

• Shit, shit, shit… shit they’re everywhere! Watch your step, there’s loads of crap on the sidewalk. The dog owners just let their dogs go anywhere without cleaning up after them (at least that’s what I found in Dublin)
• Did I mention lots of stores open late and close early? The “Hours of Business” signs aren’t very popular here either!
• Motorcycles are the way to travel during rush hours. I see them weaving between the cars, by passing all traffic
• Tons of people steal stuff from convenience stores. When they are caught, they are told to put the product back and leave the store(this is true for at least one convenience store that I know of)
• Street police officers do not carry guns, they are often seen stationed alone without much backup close by
• Most of the LRT stations only have one ticket machine. During the rush hour, I always see huge lineups in front of the ticket machine. The train will pull up and lots of people cannot get on because they're still lining up to buy a ticket!

Weekend trip to Galway

Bo, Danny (our house mate) and I went to Galway for the weekend. We took the bus from Dublin and it took about 4 hrs to get there. We arrived in Galway at around 1pm. We booked a hostel on line before we left so we were set for a place to crash. Tip when booking on line, don’t book at the first site that you find… I found 2 sites for the same hostel and one site was 25% less than the other. And always plan ahead and book early. We booked our hostel about 2 days before arriving and it took me forever to find a vangent hostel with 3 beds. I wanted a 4 bed ensuite but every hostel I found was full.

Anyways, Galway is a lot smaller than Dublin. We walked through the entire city centre in a few hours. We went to see the usual stuff like statues and the bay area. But we’ve already been to several bays, they all look very similar. So nothing really special. We met an Australian in the hostel and he stuck with us for the afternoon. We had Chinese for dinner. Nothing special except that the prices were higher than Calgary and the portion was A LOT smaller. That and the food isn’t as tasty. Did I mention that the weather really sucked… it poured all day long! Oh, I did notice that Galway was a cleaner city than Dublin.

Sunday, we took a tour bus to Burren Region and the Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is the Irish version of the rocky mountain. If you’re an avid scrambler (Joanne) it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. The cliffs were nice. Everyone was crawling to the edges and looking down… it was a loooooong way down. A few tourists fell last year and the bodies were still not found.

There were other stops along the way but the only one worth mentioning is the stone burial ground. Along time ago, people piled large pieces of stone on top of graves. Its pretty hard to image how they were able to lift the large pieces of stones without any machinery.

I’m sure Galway is a great place, but I didn’t have a wonderful time when I was there because I didn’t sleep well in the hostel. What I needed were a pair of ear plugs and an eye mask. You can imagine what happen… I didn’t function extremely well on Sunday.

Day trip to Howth

Bo, myself and 3 of our house mates went on a day trip to Howth on Sunday. It was a 45 mins bus ride (31A) from Dublin city centre. We would of taken the train but there was no weekend services due to upgrades. I would suggest taking the train if its available because it would have only taken 15 mins and its much more comfortable.

We walked around the pier, took some pictures and proceeded to hike up the cliff path to the summit. Sounds technical right? Well, it’s not. We could have hiked it in less than an hour. But we stopped a lot to take pictures. It was a real gradual slope up. But still, if you fall off the side, you’ll surely die! Anyways, it was fun. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of K-Country… until I heard people with their Irish accents. Pictures below:

http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/IrelandPart3/index.html

The Weekend's Here!

Finally, it's Friday today. I've survived another week at work. I took Bo's MP3 player this week and that made such a big difference for my commute to work. I've also decided to take the bus to city centre then switch to the train... before I was taking the LRT to city centre then take the bus to work. The bus to Balbriggin takes me alot closer to work but it's just too unreliable and is always late. I've waited as much as 40 mins for the bus one time. But now that I take the train, I better not be late for it cause the train comes once every hour! I'm also exercising quite a bit. I'm now walking an average of 45 mins per day, getting from the train station to work and from work back to the train station.

Different stuff

• The police are called the Gardia and they don't care if you j-walk. In fact, they do it themselves.
• On the bus and the train, there's fines signs warning you to buy a valid ticket or else be fined. But we saw someone get caught without a valid ticket and the ticket checker asked the person to get off at the next station.
• Lots of traffic circles (they them roundabouts) and some of them have traffic lights. That totally defeats the purpose of a traffic circle!
• On average, movies and TV shows are 6 weeks behind Calgary.
• There are admission fees for churches in Ireland. Gotta pay to pray!

Easter Monday

Well, it's been two months since we arrived in Ireland. We have a long weekend this week. Easter Monday is a holiday here instead of Good Friday in Canada. But we didn't go anywhere. I'm just so tired on weekdays that I just didn't want to do anything except nothing. However, we did have a dinner get together with a New Zealand couple on Sunday. We met them in the hostel, and they're also here for a working holiday.

Before leaving Canada, I thought that I could live in Ireland for a few years. But it seems like the longer I'm here, the more I want to go home. I know it's only been two months but I’m missing home a lot already. Things are not too much different here, yet everything seems different. That doesn't make any sense at all! They say it takes three months for the culture shock to pass. In that case, I guess I’m going to feel weird for another month. I think I just need to get to know this place some more and find some good things that can keep me here till the end of the year. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks. I think Bo likes it here in Dublin though.

More Pictures!!!

Last set of pictures from Denmark (Hamlet's Castle)http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/DenmarkPart3/DenmarkPart3.html

Here are some Ireland pictures:
http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/IrelandPart1/IrelandPart1.html
http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/IrelandPart2/IrelandPart2.html

Parade pictures from St. Patrick's Day:
http://www.travelgoats.ca/Europe2005/StPaddyDay/StPaddyDay.html

I guess you all know about my job situation eh? Kind of a dilemma (can't move close to either work places) I think it would be bad for me to quit and look for another one since I already accepted the job and starting for a week already. I'm thinking of maybe crashing at the hostel a day or two a week... suggestions?

First Week of Work

My first week of work. I didn't do much except for sitting around, looking busy and reading a bunch of documentation. Being a contractor and all, I thought that they would give me more to do. I've only worked for 4 days this week cause St. Patricks Day is a holiday in Ireland, but the commute is beginning to be unbearable! How am I suppose to work there for another 10 months if I can't stand it already? Someone give me some advice please!!! We can't really move closer cause then it would take Bo forever to get to work. We are thinking to move into the city centre so at least we don't have to compute into city centre then switch transportations...

It turns out that no one goes out for lunch, everyone either brings their lunch or eats in the company cafeteria. The company I work for is pretty big but I think i'm the only Asian... I miss Canada, the multiculturalism, my family and all my Canadian friends.

On another note, there's lots of Asian foods in Dublin. Today we had hotpot for dinner with our house mates. Good stuff!

Some differences:
- Lots (and lots, and lots...) of people swear lots in their conversations.
- More rude people (towards Asians and blacks), but also met lots of nice people
- The buses and trains are very confusing... everything is priced differently, depending on what you take and where you go.
- Lots and lots of people smoke (and drink)... it seems like everyone's a chain smoker here.
- I see alot more drunk people (any time of the day) here in the last month then the entire year in Calgary.

St. Paddy's Day

I got today off and went to see the St. Paddy Day Parade... I didn't think it was too good, but then I'm not a big fan of parades anyways. Bo took lots of pictures, I'll have them posted soon, but don't expect much commentaries. For all those 'green' beer drinkers in Canada, the Irish have no idea what 'green' beer is...

We didn't drink at all today, but instead, had someone over for dinner. She's a Canadian girl that we met while we were at the hostal. We both had to get up early for work the next day so drinking would be bad anyways.

Bo's got a job!

Bo accepted an offer from the company in Dun Laoghaire. I guess he made an impression, and didn't even have to go for a second interview. The lucky little Bo starts work on the Monday after. He gets to rest for another 2 weeks!! Kind of... he's waking up at the same time as me, to make me breakfast.

Bo's got another interview (third time's a charm)

Things are starting to look up for Bo too. He's going for an interview today at Dun Laoghaire (very south side of Dublin) and looks like he may have a couple more lined up. It takes him 1 hr to get there. Bo thinks the interview went well. He was telling them what they should do (he's so arrogant) If he gets this postion, he would be responsible for .NET development. Wish him luck.

...

Today we went to Balbriggin by bus to see how long it would take. I don’t think I’ll take that bus again. It took us over 2 hrs. to get there, spent an hour there and took another 2 hrs to get back. We left the house at 8:45 today and came back to town at around 2pm (not fun) We spent the rest of the day researching different umbrella companies to see which one I should go with. (not fun)

On another note, we had 2 potluck types of parties now. We’re adjusting better now and meeting new friends.

We're connected!

We went to a brand new mall that recently opened in Ireland and it’s supposily the largest mall in Europe. We don’t think it’s too great though. It’s mostly all clothing shops, not enough variety and half of the mall is ‘opening soon’. I think it’s similar in size compared to Chinook. Maybe it’ll be better when everything opens.

We just installed internet, so I’ll be able to post more. I will try to post some pictures soon. Stay tune.

I got a job!

I accepted an offer from the company in Balbriggin. They really liked me, and I didn't even have to go for a second interview. I start on Monday.

The travel is really far... maybe we'll move there. From the locals that i've talked to, there's not much there, not even a theatre. But there is a beach!

I'm getting interviews!

Things are starting to look up. I've got a few interviews lined up and I went for my first job interview today in Balbriggin. This place is in County Dublin (very very far away from Dublin City) It took me 1.5 hrs to get there and another 2hrs to get back. I think the interview went well. If I get this postion, I would be responsible for .NET development, porting old applications to .NET, maintenance, and support. Wish me luck.

Quick Update

Thanks for the comments. We feel so loved in Canada...
Well, we're not moving out after all. The water is fixed (but still no hot water), but we got a microwave and a fridge, and the noise in the bar stops after closing time. I'm feeling much better now. All we need now is a job. So far, not much luck with the job department. We're still searching.

Some differences between the Irish English and the North American English
- Lineups are called Queues
- Fries are called Chips
- Chips are called Crisps
- the time of Six thirty is called Half Six

Some other differences
- There's always people lining up for the bank machine
- Buses have schedules but they are NEVER followed, whatsoever
- Stores closes WAY TOO EARLY- What service in the restaurant? You will not get North American service here...
- Some stores start to refuse people into their stores 15 mins. before they close
- Many individual shops have their door locked and you must buzz to get into the store
- To catch the bus, you have to stick your arm out if you want the bus driver to stop for you

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Lying awake in bed at 2 am, trying to sleep as my head is pounding, nose is plugged, aching back, sore abs and coughing. I’m really tired of getting ill every time I leave the country… in the middle of the night, I was awaken by several speakers pounding beneath our bed. I looked over at the clock and it was 4 am in the morning! Someone was blasting the stereo system in the bar at 4 AM IN THE MORNING! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH… THAT’S IT, WE ARE MOVING!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHH, WE DON'T HAVE A MICROWAVE! No more microwavable dinners… for the past week, we've been really cooking and making real food. Still no fridge yet. Lesson number one of renting. When you’re told that things will be available after you move in, be weary. We learned this one rather quickly since it's been over a week and still no fridge and microwave. They just told us that a fridge would be difficult to move in since our door is too narrow to fit the fridge. We will need to take apart the door to move the fridge in. (BTW, Ireland’s normal fridge size is the size of North American’s bar fridge and even that can’t fit through the door!)

One evening when we’re preparing dinner and making soup… the running tap water flowed strangely into our pot. The water sounded like it was choking and coughing while flowing down. The stream was getting smaller and smaller without any human intervention, until it finally turned into small little droplets. A few minuets later, the water… is no more. AHH, WE RAN OUT OF WATER… AHH. Sigh, things seem to be falling apart slowing. So it seems that there’s no water anywhere but the showers (at least something is working) Flushing the toilet now presents a bit of a problem. We are manually filling up the tank. It’s been almost a week since our little water problem, the plumber came by a few times and still no more water. I’ve been told that things are done quite slowly here. Can't blame our room mates though, they moved in a week before we did and they didn't know this would happen either. Everyone's trying to cope with the problem.

When we first moved to this place, we thought that no internet access is a bit of a problem. Well that changed pretty quickly. Internet, though still high on our list is the least of our worries. We’re having troubles getting our PPS number (same as SIN) cause our landlord, for some unknown reason, refused to sign a letter stating that we live there!

The stress has finally gotten to me, and I've fallen ill.