Mai 2014 – Seite 10 – afib@irland

The Prison in Belfast

Hello everyone,

now it`s time to write a post.
We arrived in Belfast at Saturday and it starts to rain and the weather doesn`t change the whole time. It rains 8 times a day and it’s very rare to see the sun.

The food is very expensive here and it’s incomparable to Germany.
The apartment is very good and we have everything that we need.

Yesterday we visit a prison and it was very interesting. The tour guide told us there was a time when 30 people need to share one single cell and they show us how they got killed.
It’s stated that the prison is a hotspot for paranormal activitiy.

The prisoners got a rope on their neck and then a trapdoor has open but the keeper which stand beside the prisoner must then hold on a rope so that they don`t fall too.

Dublin Bus

For me it looks like the best way to get where you want is the Dublin bus. Taking the bus in Dublin is very expensive but fast. When i take the bus to the language and back I’ll pay 5,20€, 2,60€ each. But its getting really expensive if you have to change the busses because you have to pay for each access. So keep in mind the best route to your location is the one with the least changeovers.

Midweek Mashup

A mashup in a way, because I need to tell you about the last couple of days and I’m going to cram as much of it in here as possible. And also because I’m quite artistic and I enjoy writing in a rather uncommon fashion.

So let’s see… there once was a day called Sunnandæg in Old English which soon turned into sunedai and is known to us simply as Sunday. Now, as legend has it, there was this young man who was sent to Ireland to hone his skills and experience the beauty of this not so far away country… far away country… ar away country… way country… ountry…

I woke up quite early which was for one, because of the alcohol I had consumed the night before and secondly, because I was ahead of everybody else by one hour. So after washing up, recapturing the day before and coming to terms with the fact that I had just spent my first night in Ireland, I went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. After breakfast I tried reaching George, answered a couple of the other messages I had received during the night and… bravely sat around while the world turned without my help.

A little later I was on my way to George who had gotten back to me and agreed to venture into the city. The sky, though cloudy and ripe with rain, looked amazing. One would think that the sky looks the same everywhere but I now believe that is not the case.

George and I went to the nearest Spar-shop, which his host dad had kindly pointed us in the direction of, and bought two leap cards for the bus. We each topped off the cards with 15€ and went to the nearest station. After asking a young woman, who tried her best to ignore the persistent bastard I am, we found out that every bus would go to the city centre from this point so we took the next bus and got off at O’Connell Street.

After walking around the city centre, eating lunch and buying our O2 SIMs, we met up with Toni and headed to the Temple Bar to get a few drinks. As it turns out, Temple Bar is a major rip-off (/salute Major Rip-Off) as we paid almost 6€ for a pint of Guinness/Kilkenny and another 6,30€ for a shot of Jameson. It was a nice experience though and at least we get to brag with having had a drink there. We went home after that and I had dinner and went to bed.

Monday was a bank holiday in all of Ireland and I tried sleeping in, which did not work at all. I was up at around 7am, got dressed, had breakfast and then went back to my room and onto my bed to write another blog entry and a few postcards. I watched a movie, enjoyed a couple of YouTube videos and took a nap. It was quite the lazy day until George picked me up at around 16:30 and we went to see what Tesco had to offer and how Lidl would try to compete. I bought my favorite brand of facial tissue because I felt a cold crawling its way into my life here. The day ended as boring as it had started and so after having dinner, I went to bed.

We had our first day of school on Tuesday and it was… okay. I know most of the things our teacher is teaching and the rest I don’t care about. It’s not boring per se but it’s also not a lot of fun. I try and help the other students as much as possible and give explanations where they are needed. Since Monday was off, we had an afternoon-session which ended at 5pm. For lunch, Toni, George and I had a Burrito right around the corner from school and were granted a discount of 1€ with the ISIC.

Later that day I bought flip-flops and a pair of sweatpants at Penneys because I didn’t bring any, not seeing the need that was now painfully clear to me. Dinner consisted of a Quiche and a nice, hot soup. My cold was in full swing and the night was terrible but at least I had Vaseline to keep my lips and nose smooth and keep the irritation at bay.
You, who so bravely read every word and giggled over every little joke, probably want to know how this story continues… Well, you’ll just have to tune in again on Sunday. 😉

Belfast’s different

Hi there!

I guess if someone travels to an other country, it’s impossible to not compare the surroundings to your home country. That’s why I can say: Belfast is definitely different than Berlin. The left-hand driving aside, the first things I’ve noticed were some differences related to the traffic here in Belfast. First of all, the traffic lights here have 3 phases, one phase for each direction of motorized traffic and one phase whereby all pedestrian lights are green. I haven’t decided yet, if that’s a benefit, or not. Then, the most crossroads here have an extra area for bicyles, so if the green light goes on, the cyclists can start at first.

The next thing I’ve noticed were these kerbstones. Thanks to the high number of openings the possibility of a clogged drain is much lower. I think thats brilliant.

At the end one picture I made yesterday. „The irish weather is coming.“ And yes, it CAME! 🙁

Crumlin Road Gaol

Yesterday, after we finished school we went to a local prison called „Crumlin Road Gaol“ which is closed since 1996.Our tour started in front of our language school we walked for about 30-40 minutes through belfast before we reached the prison itself. Jane who is responsible for the social actitivies at our school organized this trip and also showed us the way to the prison.
After we arrived at the prison each of us bought a ticket (7£ each students price) and waited for our tour guide.
The tour started at the entrance where every prisoner arrives, afterwards we walked halfway trough the tunnel, that connects the prison with the old court house sadly we weren’t able to go in the old court house due to its bad conditions. We continued our journey at the main entrance that connects all 4 cell blocks, which were able to hold 500 prisoners, at peak there were 1400 prisoners in the prison. We moved on through cell block C where we could see all different kinds of cells starting at a normal cell that was designed for one prisoner(Child/Adult) (Yeah they also put childs in the prison, the youngest kid was about 7). In 1860 they introduced a new law preventing prisoners under 14 to serve their full sentence in a adult prison, but childs could still be sent to the prison for a short amout of time to ’scare them straight‘. Our second to last stop was the condemned cell where the condemned lived together with 2 guards 24/7. He also lived right next to the execution room but he was totally unaware of it since he was 24/7 in his cell. If you’re sentenced to death it happened by hanging. The procedure wasn’t longer than 3 minutes but the body remained there for 45-60 minutes before they pulled it down and put it into a coffin. The bodys (17 in total) were buried in a unmarked grave within the prison walls. Our last stop was the prison wall the place where they buried all the bodys you’re still able to see 2 stones engraved with the initials of two prisoners that were hanged.

My workplace

Today, after our language school, we met Margaret the first time. She told us where we will work for the next 7 weeks. I’ll work for a company thats named Celtrino in the city centre of Dublin. Its a IT consulting company for Electronic Sales/Purchase Processing. I’m really looking forward to work with them.

Start in School Life

Hello There!

Today we had our first school day. After getting up and eat some breakfast we got on our way to the international house, the place where we have our language classes. At the house we met the some people from the other classes from our school and we met some new people. It started with a introduction presentation and get to know the others. After that Leo and I got seperated from the other because we were the better speaker. The class itself were quite boring because there was nothing really new but it was fun talking to the guys from spain.

At 1:00 pm we were free to go but just until 2:00 pm where we had to go back for a social activity. Jane were introduced to us and she told us a bit about the nightlife of Belfast and where we could go for a drink. She took us made some pictures with us and the we went for a little walk in Belfast. It was quite intresting and Jane is a super nice person but we had to cut the trip of because we had a termin at 3:00 pm regarding our work placements.

Later that evening Leo and I went to this pub Jane invited us to go, the „Dirty Onion“. We met Jane and the the guys from spain again. Leo bought me a Guinness and I got into a nice conversation with one of the spains regarding our internship here and how the apprenticeship system works in germany. In the middle of the talk we were interrupted by that guy who teaches „Bodhrán“. He asked us if we are intrested in learning how to play that instrument, what is a drum like instrument, and we glady accepted his offer. After one our of playing I noticed that I have no feel for rythms or that kind of stuff, but it was still fun to play and to try it out. We decided to get home after that because it was already late and we have to get up early in the morning.

After all it was a fun day and I am looking foward to all the things we will see and learn.

..not enough time on a single day

On my second day in Dublin Angelo and I explored the city. At first we tried to figure out the public transportation via bus, which was more diffucult than we expected it to be. We drove to the city centre were we saw „The Spire“.

From there we walked to the ministery district were we had a great view at „The Custom House“ and „The Ulster Bank“.

Standing on a small bridge that crosses the „River Liffey“ we were planning the rest of our day. Since we were really hungry we decided to go to the „Temple Bar“ district and order some delicious italien food.

After that, we picked up Toni and went to the famous „The Temple Bar“ in Temple Bar.The drinks were good but the prices not, but it was worth it.

I would have loved to see more of Dublin, but there was not enough time on a single day.

A Very Warm Welcome

To say it was cloudy when we arrived at Dublin Airport would be quite the understatement. However, the carpet looked beautiful from above and kept us warm from below. I don’t know what the temperature was but I had to open all 3 of my jackets on our way to the bus.

After hunting down our luggage we made our way outside where Damien, our driver from INTERNSPLUS, waited. He gave us our welcome pack including an Irish sim (which I’m not going to use) and instructions for the first week in school. We have to attend classes at a language school near the Trinity College in the city and since Monday is a bank holiday, we have to stay the whole day on Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday it’s supposed to be 4 hours from 9am to 1pm so there’s time to see the city afterwards. There is also going to be a welcome meeting on Wednesday after class.

I was the first one to get off the bus and Damien brought me to the front door of 31 Elm Mount Heights where Ann O’Connor is now harboring me. She showed me to the room where I put down my bag and backpack and took off my jackets. I went down to have a cup of tea and a sandwich in the kitchen. I talked to Ann for quite some time and asked her about the things I would have to keep in mind while staying with her and her husband. She told me that there is also a guy from Saudi Arabia and a guy from Switzerland in the house and that she has been a host for about 2 years now. She mostly has full time students here and I’m the first one to have a work experience.

After my second cup of tea Ann told me that she had to run some errands, gave me the key to her Wi-Fi and I went up to unpack. My room had obviously belonged to some girl before because she kindly left her hair all over the wooden floor. I got rid of the hairs and started unpacking.

Later that evening Ann’s daughter and two of her sons where supposed to join us for dinner. I sat in the kitchen while she prepared lamb chops with potatoes and assorted vegetables and an apple pie. We talked a lot which I really enjoyed.

The evening was great and the food awesome. I stayed up until long after 2am that night, talking to Ann, her son Patrick, his wife Denise (who both kindly invited me to their house warming party and Denise’s Birthday) and the rest of the family. Patrick told me about the national sport Hurling and said that the championship is about to start. He offered to take me to a game one time and I’m looking forward to it.

Patrick also offered me a chance to have a Guinness and after having three Heineken already I felt reluctant to refuse the offer. So after 2 Guinness, a couple of jokes and singing Dubliners songs, Patrick and Denise where the last to leave the party and I went to bed after they had left.

I felt very welcome that day and considering it was only the first day and they had just met me, I’m looking forward to the days to come.

Grocery shopping and a little bit of sightseeing

Today we went to the Belfast City Centre to pickup a prepaid Sim card, so we can call each other without paying anything. We chose O² as a provider since our colleagues from Dublin also got it so we can call/text them for free. Afterwards we did a little bit of ‘sightseeing’, although we basically just walked trough the town to see what Belfast has to offer and hell its a lot, even though its a rather small city compared to Berlin. You can find everything within a few meters, multiple places to eat, pubs and grocery stores.

Afterwards we did some grocery shopping to get the basics we need for at least a few days. The closest grocery store is a tesco express, it’s a 5-10 minute walk but its only a small version of tesco so you can’t get everything there you want. On Tuesday we’re going to a normal Tesco to buy more supplies for our stay.

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Monat: Mai 2014