With today it makes a full week I survived my move to Dublin. Word’s out on who my new employer is (but as usual, since this blog is personal and should not be tied to my employer, I’m not even going to name it), and I started the introductory courses. One thing I can be sure of: I will be eating healthily and compatibly with my taste — thankfully, chicken, especially spicy chicken, seems to be available everywhere in Ireland, yai!
I have spent almost all my life in Venice, never stayed for long periods of time away from it, with the exception of last year, which I spent for the most time, as you probably know, in Los Angeles — 2012 was a funny year like that: I never partied for the new year, but at 31st December 2011 I was at a friend’s place with friends, after which some of us ended up leaving at around 3am… for the first time in my life I ended up sleeping on a friend’s couch. Then it was time for my first week-long vacation since ever with the same group of friends in the Venetian Alps.
With this premise, it’s obvious that Dublin is looking a bit alien to me. It helps I’ve spent a few weeks over the past years in London, so that at least a few customs that are shared between the British and the Irish I already was used to — they probably don’t like to be remembered that they share some customs with the British, but there it goes. But it’s definitely more similar to Italy than Los Angeles.
Funny episode of the day was me going to Boots, and after searching the aisle for a while asking one of the workers if they kept hydrogen peroxide, which I used almost daily both in Italy and the US as a disinfectant – I cut or scrape very easily – and after being looked at in a very strange way I was informed that is not possible to sell it anymore in Ireland…. I’d guess it has something to do with the use of it in the London bombings of ‘05. Luckily they didn’t call the police.
I have to confess though that I like the restaurants better on the touristy, commercial areas than those in the upscale modern new districts — I love Nando’s for instance, which is nowhere Irish, but I love its spiciness (and this time around I could buy the freaking salt!). But also most pubs have very good chicken.
I still don’t have a permanent place though. I need to look into one soonish I suppose, but the job introduction took the priority for the moment. Even though, if the guests in the next apartment are going to throw another party at 4.30am I might decide to find something sooner, rather than later.