a blurry picture, i know, but you get the idea.

anyway, we had dinner and then i had to get back on the train to head back to aarhus to catch a plane in the morning.

a nice visit, but much too short.

so i got on the train for a three hour ride back to the city. i made it back to aarhus at about midnight, henrik and i had a glass of wine, then went to bed.

i had to wake up early to go to the airport, and made it there with time to spare. i made it to london, dreading the fact that i had about 5 hours at the airport before my flight back to dublin. i will spare you the details to keep me from looking as stupid as i actually am, but in the end, i couldn't fly out that day and was stuck in london.

it was going to be 200 british pounds (about 500 canadian dollars) to get a new ticket or to change mine, and about the same to get a hotel room to stay the night and fly out the next day for free. after a bit of a breakdown in the airport, i remembered someone telling me that you can take a bus from london to dublin...

and that's what i did.

14 hours later, i was home! it really wasn't as bad as it sounds... i slept most of the way, was on the ferry for 4 hours, and met some really interesting people on the way.

anyway, i got back to morten and preben's house at approximately 7am and fell asleep pretty much immediately. we went shopping, ate dinner, and got ready for a night on the town.

it was a good night, up until we waited over an hour in the pouring rain to get a cab. apparently cab drivers don't stop for people in this city... seriously.

so now i'm still looking for a place to live. it's not looking good. i've had a lot of appointments that didn't work out, people not calling me back, and apartments that are not fit to live in... it's getting very discouraging and i'm not really sure what to do now.

maybe i'll go somewhere else?

we'll see how tomorrow goes, but if i don't have any opportunities by tuesday, i might just relocate for a little while. no other options, really, and i'm starting to stress.

written by  girlbits on October 1, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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funny how things can change so quickly.

yesterday i got a job AND a home! well, the home isn't fabulous but it's somewhere acceptable on a temporary basis while i look for something great. paradise poker called me yesterday and was very excited about my experience and that i'm canadian... but then this morning, an irish gambling company called "paddy's power" (i think) called me and offered me more money and it's in a better location...

so i think i'm going to take the second one. it sounds like a fun job, actually, and it sounds like a good place to work.

i'm very excited!

so, to celebrate, louise and i went out for a "couple drinks" last night... we checked out a few different pubs, a club in a basement, louise got her purse stolen, then we went home. other than the purse stealing, we had so much fun... then got home and i tried to cancel her cards and phone but all the customer service was in danish. that didn't work so well.

so today is moving day! i'm not exactly feeling up to it, but i guess i have to... can't very well hire movers to move my backpack and guitar.

(did i mention i bought a guitar?)

anyway, i hope everything is well at home and thanks again to everyone who comments, i really love them.

written by  girlbits on October 3, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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everything is happening so fast now! i can hardly keep up.

so i moved into this place on tuesday. it's a cute, old house, but i'm sharing it with about a million other people and that gets a little irritating. so, yesterday i continued to look for places and found the best one ever!

the new place is a little far from town, but on the tram line, so that's not a problem. it's brand new, never lived in, i have my own huge room and bathroom, and a big patio. it's so perfect... almost too good to be true. my roommate is a cute french boy who is studying in dublin at the university next door. we talked a lot, looked at the place, and agreed that i would move in on saturday. how exciting! he doesn't even live there yet, so we're both moving in on saturday... then the housewarming party is next saturday. you're all invited.

and i have a spare bed and couch. so bring on the visitors!

i'm sad about leaving morten and preben's house though. those guys were so fantastic and we had so much fun. but at least i'm still close by... we have a date on saturday, yes?

morten gave me a very thoughtful and beautiful going away present. a fabulous addition to any home. and i'm pretty sure my roommate right now is very excited that i have displayed it on the fireplace in our room. thanks morten! i'll cherish it forever.

so that's pretty much all the news. i won't even talk about what i did last night, because some people seem to think i "go out too much" (don't give me any of that "when i was your age..." crap, henrik, we partied in Denmark too ;)). louise and i just can't resist a pint of bulmers and live irish music. who could?

can you believe it's been almost a month since i left? time really does fly. what an experience i have had so far though. and so many more to come!

written by  girlbits on October 5, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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so lots has happened... i moved on saturday into my beautiful new apartment. my roommate, christophe, is the cutest and i think it's going to work out well with him.

i took a couple pictures of the place...

here is the sitting room...

this is my messy, disorganized bedroom. but notice the giant bed... that is actually two beds pushed together. why do i need two beds?

notice that you can also see the pumpkin on the window sill. now it's okay, but people are going to start thinking i'm weird in december.

this is my beautiful (and kinda creepy) view from the balcony.

i'm sure i'll get more pictures as time goes on, especially at our (what looks like it's going to be huge) housewarming party. the building is so cute because it's all students (the university is next door) so everybody knows eachother and has been very nice to me.

anyway, after moving on saturday we all decided to go out to our favourite pub, fitzsimons, in temple bar (notice all the pints of bulmers on the table.. jealous, dan? :))

from left to right that's louise, thomas (louise and preben's brother), preben, annette (thomas' girlfriend), morten, and behind is some creepy drunk guy we couldn't get rid of (as a side note, he was passed out in his chair about an hour after this picture was taken).

we had a great night there filled with maybe a couple drinks, lots of laughs, dancing, and a stumble home with no shoes on. i stayed at morten and preben's place that night, as i couldn't really get home, and we had thanksgiving the next day!

the next morning (around noon) morten and i had to go shopping for breakfast and dinner food, and we were pleasantly surprised to see jack osbourne signing books right there in the dundum shopping center!

that was a little weird. but we got lots of food (and some bedding for my new apartment) and went back home.

apparently they don't celebrate thanksgiving in europe, and i was a little sad about missing mine at home, so i offered to cook what we traditionally eat at home for thanksgiving.

they don't sell turkeys here either. so that makes it difficult.

but, i was still able to pull off a lovely thanksgiving dinner for all the danes (and one irish guy) and it felt a little like home.

so i finally went home on sunday night, made up my room a little bit, slept for a long time, then monday i set out to discover my new neighbourhood. i have all the necessities nearby, which is great, and a huge mall within walking distance.

christophe and i hung out a bit last night with some of the neighbours (our patio isn't separated from anyone else's on our floor, so we can all just walk around to eachother's apartments) on the patio and i got to meet the people in the building, which was nice.

then i had an interview today for paddypower and i JUST got the phone call that i got the job! seriously, i just got off the phone with them. that's so exciting! i start thursday morning... and it's even better because it's about an 8 minute walk from home.

i'm so overwhelmed! if i weren't in a library, i would scream.

so that's that! i don't have the internet in my apartment yet (they say this week) so that's why i haven't been on msn or skype recently. but don't worry, i'll be back in no time.

written by  girlbits on October 10, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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then today it's "mousse au chocolat" that i caught him preparing with claudia.

just thought i'd share the picture. i should have taken a picture yesterday when he was wearing the flowery apron, but this one will have to do.

written by  girlbits on October 11, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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i started my job this week, which is going really well. it's so close to home, the people are great, we get paid well, and don't have to do much. perfect!

i guess the next thing to talk about would be the party last night. and what a party it was! i was expecting a lot of people because the guest list had 80 people on it, and people were bringing people... but i really wasn't expecting what actually happened.

there was a "pre-party" that started at about 7:30, and the apartment was already full. then people just kept showing up as the night progressed. at about 2 i tried to count, got to about a hundred and stopped counting. there were people in our apartment, the apartment next door, and all along the balcony. crazy.

so, as you can imagine, it got a little rowdy.

there was a dj with a huge set-up upstairs (and a microphone, which came in handy), two rooms full of dancing, lots of food and drinks, and lots of drunk people. myself included.

it was truly the best party i have ever been to, and it was in my apartment. so fun! and it was great to meet all the people in the neighbourhood. christophe and i are legends now.

so other than the...

crazy polish guy...

there were really no disasters.

well, okay, we learned that you can't have two people doing an irish jig on a wooden coffee table.

but, overall, the party was quite a success. today christophe and i woke up around noon (did i mention the party started clearing out around 6am?) to people cleaning our apartment. how nice! i made breakfast for us and the people next door, then we had a pretty lazy day.

... and let me just say, that will be our first and last party...

back to work tomorrow!

written by  girlbits on October 15, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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work is going really well. i love the people i work with, the job is fairly easy (other than trying to understand the accents), and it's so close to home. but seriously, have you ever talked to a scottish person on the phone? that's not even english.

louise and i went to the city on wednesday for a couple pints. back to fitzsimons! that pub is so great because there is a bar on the main floor with live music, a rooftop terrace upstairs with music and 2 bars, and a dance club downstairs. all you could possibly need in one place! we love it there.

we ended up staying out a bit later than we had planned, but were too busy dancing to think about going home. on our way out, louise went up to the singer and told him that i want to marry him. sure, i may have said that... but that's not something i wanted him to know. anyway, he invited us back for his show next week.

other than that, nothing has really changed. my apartment is still lovely and my roommate is still fabulous.

i've had a few requests for pictures that i finally got around to taking. if you have any other requests, please let me know.

here is my work:

the courtyard of my building as seen from my bedroom window (that is the building next door, which is really the same building, just separated by the courtyard):

my kitchen (those dishes on the counter are clean):

and a view of the whole balcony (that's my apartment there on the left):

and here's a picture of a rainbow i saw today. my first thought was "how original, Ireland, really":

and that's it! i think we're heading out to temple bar tonight to go to a new bar i heard about. apparently good bands play there, so we'll check it out. if it's not good, fitzsimon's is always close by.

written by  girlbits on October 21, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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as i said last time, it's a bit more difficult to take pictures and come up with interesting stories now that i'm settled in and becoming more comfortable in my new country.

i've been working lots, which normally would be a bad thing, but i'm really enjoying my job. yesterday someone (yes you, henrik) asked me why i would come to a completely different country just to work pretty much the same job i was working at home. and frankly, i think this is a subject worth exploring.

it's because it's not the same job. whether i'm doing the same thing or not is not the point. it's the fact that i've successfully left a job that made me feel underappreciated, and moved on to a job that may not be my lifelong dream, but it's teaching me a thing or two about living in this fantastic country, and allowing me to live here comfortably.

so who am i trying to convince? i don't know. it's just that so many people ask me why i'm here, and what my purpose is. so i start thinking "what AM i doing here??". obviously i know why i'm here, i wouldn't have moved to a country i'd never been to without a reason for going... but i guess it does seem a little strange to some people.

it's almost been two months since i left home and i'm really starting to get a bit nostalgic about the whole experience. i miss home because i miss knowing a lot of people, knowing where i am at all times, and having my family to fall back on when i need them. i also miss breakfast at joe's, and skim milk... but that's another story. but at the same time it's an interesting adventure and test of my sanity. even though i do miss home, i can't imagine being ready to go home in ten months.

anyway, enough about that and more about halloween in dublin. last night, morten, preben, louise and i went for a night on the town to experience halloween weekend in dublin.

it was pretty much the same as any other night in dublin, but a little less busy, and a few more fake spiderwebs. it's a long weekend here, so most people go away and the bars were actually less packed than a normal saturday night... which ended up being really good because we could actually breathe in the bar.

i made my way to morten and preben's house for a few warm-up bulmers, then we all took a cab to the city. We went to the porterhouse, which is a bar i heard about from some guys at work. they had it all decorated for halloween, and the bar itself had about 4 floors and on the second floor there was a live band.

the bar was pretty packed, but it was nice to actually be able to move and breathe inside, unlike an average saturday night at a pub in temple bar.

we met a fabulous british couple who had been traveling by motorcycle for the past few months, drank some interesting tequila flavoured beer, had one too many jager-bombs, and left at a reasonable hour (about 2:30).

there weren't very many people dressed up. there were a couple devils in the bar, but nothing very exciting. not until we walked through temple bar and met up with the pimp, the sumo wrestler, and the... umm... sexy lady?

the pimp actually handcuffed louise to herself and made her "motorboat" the guy dressed in the fat sexy lady costume before she let her go. that was quite amusing.

we ended up losing morten and preben on the street at some point, we ran into my roommate and a bunch of the people from my building and started some sort of strange sing-a-long in the street, then i finally caught a cab home.

a great night, if you ask me. i could be feeling better today, but at least i don't have to work so i can lie around, watch movies, eat popcorn, and lounge around in my jamjams.

missing all of you. it's almost time for visitors! who's first? and if not, could you please send me an omelette from joe's, and a glass of skim milk... thanks.

written by  girlbits on October 29, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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turns out halloween isn't really that big of a deal here. it's really just an excuse for teenagers to light fireworks everywhere... which is fun for everyone, really. if you like being afraid for your life.

anyway, i went to work dressed as a canadian girl. no one else dressed up either... and i really didn't even remember it was halloween until i stepped outside and thought i had stepped into the middle of a gunfight.

so, i walked home... quickly... and realized i really live in the best place for halloween. not that i live IN the cemetery, but it's quite appropriate.

creepy!

and then got home and colm, the guy upstairs, has the spinning colourful lights on again that he projects onto the building next door.

sure, you don't really get the idea from the picture... but it's pretty cool.

anyway, that's the extent of my halloween excitement! a cemetery and some lights! man, it's always a party in dublin.

written by  girlbits on October 31, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
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so what has happened in two weeks? let me see...

well, the weather has been beautiful. pretty cold, but at least it has remained sunny so at least it looks nice. so we took advantage of the sun by putting the table on the patio and having lunch out there as often as we can.

a french guy with a baguette? how clichee.

anyway, work has been super busy so i've been working a lot of overtime and trying to keep up. i was so used to bodog where you get a break in between phone calls, but it's not quite like that here. at least i don't get bored.

so the frenchies have come over a few times... as they do... this time it was to share "gunther" videos. if you haven't heard of gunther, he's a guy (i believe he's german... maybe swedish...) who sings these ridiculous songs. look him up on youtube, it's worth it. but anyway, tramway court (my building) is obsessed with him and we dedicated a special night to watching his videos.

there may have been a few drinks involved as well.

other than that i haven't really done much as i still haven't cashed one paycheque on account of the bank hating me and wanting me out of the country. well, they don't hate me, but they certainly don't make it easy to set up a bank account. so i've been working for a month and haven't made any money yet.

but i think i got all that worked out today and i should have my money in 3 working days... right...

and then by accident we all ended up at the local nightclub until 3am. seriously, none of us are sure how it happened.

a couple jagerbombs and one too many pints of bulmers later...

we danced the night away, stumbled home around 3, and i slept at their place.

now back to work tomorrow. i'm happy that i'm enjoying my job, and i'm meeting some great people in the process. although, i was thinking today that my "traveling" has come to a stop and i'm getting too comfortable here with so many resources at my fingertips. so i've been researching a bit and i think a trip to florence in december might be the plan.

i'm spending christmas alone in a foreign country, so i figured the least i could do is surprise myself with a weekend away during the most depressing month of my adventure. i'm so good to me.

and plus, the good thing about not being able to cash my cheques for so long is that i've accumulated quite a lot of money. and i'll be getting a tax cheque in the next few weeks! and i hear italy is beautiful in december.

so lots of things coming up! louise and i had a trip to galway planned, but the banking issues put a bit of a damper on that one and she's going to london next week, so we may have to save that trip until the new year. which is okay, because all we have is time.

plus, i've been getting a little homesick lately. we were talking about it being the "2 month blues" (it was 2 months on saturday) and apparently this is the time that you start missing home. i could attribute it to the fact that they've started playing christmas music in the mall already... but who knows. anyway, the fact is, i miss my family and friends at home. it's such an interesting feeling and test of my own strength to be so far away and to miss everything going on at home.

but, what i said to louise on saturday when she was being sad was that home will always be there when you get back, and nothing will have changed except for you.

so nobody change until i get back so i can prove myself right. thanks.

anyway, it's bed time for me. i'll try to post at least once a week so you can at least know that i'm alive and well.

written by  girlbits on November 14, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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