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23 juin 2006

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Here's my second post on my stay in Dublin! Forgive me the lack of accents, even though there's practically none in english...

First topic: Accomodation. I visited three places for now, all of them rooms to rent inside a house or appartment shared with other people. The first one was relatively far, meeting at 9:30pm, I will call it Eleanora House for I had to go down at the bus stop named Eleanora, named after Eleanora's pub. There are so many pubs here, that their names are ften used to indicate bus stations and landmarks. It was kind of a hole there, maybe it was the weather, grey, windy, cold, no rain but still... not a good feeling overall. The house was alright, the owner kinda stressed and in a hurry, the other housemates, two men in their end twenties, relaxed but you know, not the kind of person I'd get alng VERY well with, Maxim magazines in the toilet, watching the soccer game, I don't know... I was not really impressed still and there was a 130euro bill that had to be added to the regular 400euro per month. Kind of expensive... I passed.

Second place, BlackHorse house. The tramway station was named that way, and it was, again, named after a pub rght next to it. In fact it was in Inchicore suburb. Arrived earlier, got the time to check out the surrounding, seemed very quiet and nice, drugstore, lauderette, foodstore, everything plus the tramway and the bus, 30 minutes from downtown Dublin! The owner was about 25, named Jack, real estate agent. Nice guy, relaxed but seemed to have a better temper than the two other ones. There was a small house built in the courtyard and that was his room and toilet. So I had my own on the first floor with my own bathroom. The house was a bit in renovation, but mainly paint job and decoration stuff. It seemed very nice, and Jack didn't wanted another housemate since he wanted to have a room free for guests and luggage (yes!!). 415 euros per month, 35euros extra bills, alright with me! Now I am waiting for a confirmation from the agent who was supervising this (It's the first house Jack owned and he asked helped of an agent to supervise and arrange the meetings with interested persons).

Last flat, Northumberland, this time the name of the building, not the pub beside it ; ). 10-15 minutes walk to center Dublin, very nice! But two rooms, two beds in each, eventually 4 people in the flat. But cheap! 300euros a month plus 70euros extra billes for two month. But I can only stay there till end August because the students who rent it usually will come back in septembre. But still, a nice place to stay while searching for somthing more permanent. The women there agreed to keep a bed for me until I get an answer for the Blackhorse room! Nice!

Second part of my post. Dublin makes me think of Montreal in some ways, but it is WAY cleaner. I only saw dog poop twice, and that was in the suburb area. Garbage cans everywhere, very neat, people seem to care! Made a mistake, the minimum wage is of 7,45 euros, quite a difference but still, its the same as living in montreal but with euros... There are also a kind of palm tree growing there, very surprising! And there are swans also! Like wild swans or something, with their BIG babies... very weird.

Transportation services are great too. Buses are always on time and even earlier. They come frequently and practically all go somewhere in center Dublin. You pay the fee in a machine (like soon it will be in montreal) it doesn't give change but it gives a refund ticket, so you bring that to the Main Station and get the money back! Then there's the Luas, a tramway, a bit like the metro in Montreal, except on surface. It passes very frequently and is quite comfortable and quiet.

Weird thing though, you have to pay to get into the shopping center's washrooms...

The hospital now, yes I went to the St James's Hospital. Just before leaving, one of my cousin that I will NOT name for obvious reasons, haha, hit me in the pectoral region, it hurt BAD but I was laughing. Anyways, the day before I had to leave, the pain came back STRONG and eventually, I discovered I had either a fracture or a contusion to the ribs. Both of them is treated the same way, hurts the same way, but the first can be much worse. So I showed up at 9am, full of good intentions and thinking I'd be out before 12... Well no. I waited until 1h15pm, finally got examined, x-rayed and at 3pm got out of there with a Muscle Contusion diagnosis and an Advil... ADVIL prescription. If I'd knew... anyways, now my heart feels... safer.

Alright, well soon I'll post some pictures, hang on haha.