At one of Trinity College’s impressive high ceiling decors, with
100-real-candle chandeliers dangling above your head, and a few hundred
co-Dubliners around you, the scene was perfect for us to get acquainted with
our new home. 10 short movies, all featuring some unique aspect of Dublin, were
shown consecutively, ranging from cartoons to documentaries to drama. With the whole city centre lit up green for
the upcoming St Patrick’s festivities I already started feeling at home,
walking routes that start to feel familiar, taking a take-away soup from a Chinese
shop who’s chowmein had served me well the previous time. And speaking of St
Paddy’s…
… that’s one good
reason to escape Dublin! And that’s what we do, spending two nights and three
days in Carlingford, a supposed-to-be picturesque village on a peninsula a few
hours north of the capital. Should be awesome hikes and cosy pubs and lots of
rain. And why we leave Dublin when the nation’s greatest festivity is about to
start? Let me quote a taxi driver -sturdy looking bloke, Northern inner-city slang, tattoos on his knuckles,
you may know the type- who drove me to work the other day: “Good for your will,
if you know what I mean, driving a taxi on Paddy’s in Dublin, but after 5 (pm)
I’m out of there, becomes way too rough. You could earn a decent sum of money,
but you’ll be getting a hell lot of trouble, that’s for sure.” I’m not the
biggest fan of crowds and drunk teenagers puking on the street anyway, so I’d
rather enjoy the more genuinely Irish St Paddy’s in some quaint rural
townhouse. So hiking shoes are packed,
and ready to leave tomorrow early in the morning! Speaking of hiking shoes…
… those had come in only last Thursday, along with all my
other stuff! The house that already felt welcoming and warm now really starts
to feel like home, with the shelves filled and the closets full of my own
clothes! With boxed piled up ceiling-high, the first thing I did when coming
home yesterday, was ripping them open one by one, until I found what I had
desperately missed the past two weeks; my running kit! With two warm 3-course meals
and a Guinness per day, not to mention all the sweets and chocolates surrounding
our cubicle at work, I already started feeling the taint of my ravaging appetite
when not being able to level it off with some decent work-out. So off I went,
running along the canal, breathing in the sounds and scents and movements of
the city and its dwellers, only to return an hour later, feeling fan-tas-tic! Plans
to complement the running with football and golf are on the rise, more on that
soon! For now, enjoy St Paddy’s lads!
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