Therefore, I was delighted to find pictures from Dublin as it looked like in 1961. These were taken by Charles W. Cushman, an American who travelled around the whole world to take 14,500 Kodachrome color slides. Interestingly, most places I recognize on these photos look very much alike today – the only obvious difference are clothing styles of the people, and cars.

More historic photos of Dublin can be found at fantasyjackpalance.

Photo by Maria Celeste Gomez

It’s a bit hard for me to assess what kind of topic might actually be interesting for my few frequent readers here. After over six months in Dublin, the most important stories have been told, and the phase of settling in is definitely over. There are changes coming up that I will mention in one of the next posts, but until then, I don’t want to bore anyone with articles about Dublin weather. That would be the same story, over and over.

For today, let’s take a look at the Dublin transportation system. Have you ever been to $yourfavouritecapital ? If so, you have probably been relying on a not perfect, but probably so-so functioning public transportation system. – In Dublin, you’d be screwed, if you did.

Let’s start with buses. I’m talking about these really nice and modern double decker Volvos, that you’ll see pretty often on Dublin streets. Fine. But what if you’re planning on taking the bus to a suburb far away, maybe for dinner with friends? Of course, you could take a look at the online time tables, which thankfully they’ve introduced here as well. Thing is: There is only one of those per route and direction, and not one per stop. In other words: You cannot find out when exactly a bus will arrive at a selected stop. You simply can’t. Instead, you are forced to do the maths by taking the time mentioned in the table (= the time the bus starts its journey at the original stop), and then re-calculating the arrival time by adding an approximate (of course, not exact) journey time listed on the time table.

Then there’s DART. Introduced in 1984, it has become increasingly popular linking southern and northern Dublin suburbs, crossing the city centre on its way. Often packed (mostly in the mornings and evenings, of course), and sometimes even on time! You wouldn’t actually believe there is an electronic arrival time display? (There is.) There are signs and wonders, after all.

Oh, and not to forget the city’s newest symbol of modernism: LUAS. Whatever that stands for. Two lines, “red” and “green”, cross Dublin and link the outer suburbs with the city center. Would you have guessed: Of course, the lines do not connect with each other. The closest you can get from red to green is a 15 minute walk. Argh!

See this hilarious video regarding pretty much all of these issues:

To say something positive: The new Aircoach fleet, that brings you from and to Dublin airport (cause guess what, neither DART nor LUAS go there) is very luxurious and even has Wi-Fi on board, so the one hour trip to the city centre becomes a little less boring. This, however, has got it’s price: a return ticket is 14 Euro.

Sign up simply by sending an email to dublineventguide@gmail.com with the subject “Subscribe”. Get a further impression on Joerg’s website.

Look, they already built me a castle! (No, really they didn’t. It’s just a funny-named estate in South Dublin.)

It’s exactly a month of being a Dubliner now – time to come to an interim conclusion. (Okay, it’s a bit early for that, but there are more of those to come.)

1. Left-sided driving still hasn’t made it to into my awareness. I nearly get run over every second day or so. Gotta work on that.

2. Dublin’s high prices still scare me. 10 Euros to go to the cinema – yes, for one movie –, 7 Euros for a sandwich in the next supermarket, and I’ve already mentioned the toilet paper prices… But I’m getting used to it, every day a little more.

3. I haven’t set up my internet connection at home yet – shame on me. But since I’m working in the Internet throughout the day, my motivation might be a little lowered. Plus, I have flatmates that tend to be more of the cellphone-using kinds of persons (960 texts a month! And that’s only one of them!)…

4. Getting a bank account in Ireland is almost as difficult as Wilhelm Voigt once had to experience with getting a passport in Berlin: No gas or electricity bills, no bank account. No bank account, no gas or electricity. A funny game. It’s helpful though, when one of your roommate works with one of those banks and pulls some strings.

5. Oh, what am I going to do with my first paycheck? Finally get an iPhone? Forget it. Out of stock in Ireland, for months to come, I guess.

So, what’s my conclusion? In fact: I can’t really come to one. It’s a nice place to live, the weather actually sucks most of the time, and I spend a lot of time at work. So far, so good. The next months will be filled with more experiences, I’m sure. (By the way, if you’re bored because I’m posting too rarely, check Patrick’s stories from Manchester.)

Lots of old and new friends said goodbye to me last Saturday, even some of the guys living a far cry from Münster visited their old home town, or at least the place they studied at.

Famous German brewery Beck’s kept her promise and equipped me with no less than 10 free crates of beer. Only one of them was left at the end of the party – so much for that.

Thanks to our obviously hearing impaired neighbours who did not complain at all (not even at seven in the morning!), self-proclaimed DJ Jörg could put the PA to the extreme, using a well-working combination of YouTube and MacBook Pro as an inexhaustable source of fine house music. I take people dancing in the pouring rain as a reliable indicator of good entertainment. Even people passing by on the street joined us spontaneously!

Tim and Dütti, colleagues from the local college radio station, surprised me with a pre-produced radio show dedicated to… – me, of course. “The Hazel Show” runs over 80 minutes and features interviews with lots of fellow colleagues and friends, and even one of my former teachers (who obviously didn’t remember me too well). Thanks again for that, guys!

Also, I have to thank my dad for his moving speech and my sister for the great and offhanded interpretation of Oasis’ Wonderwall, courageously singing live in front of everybody.

The party’s aftermath was actually pretty nasty, and cleaning a whole garden while recovering from a nice little hangover definitely won’t make it on my favourite occupation list…

Get some further impression with this flickr gallery.

But as much as I liked this final chapter of my personal Münster story, I really need to focus on my forthcoming move to Dublin now. I’ve started to try to separate the good things from the bad, the useful from the obsolete, and so on – beginning with my bookshelf. On Friday, a bunch of guys from the relocation company come by and pack my stuff. The week after, I’ll be in Hamburg with Cristina, and my final flight to Dublin goes on Monday, August 18.

Whew. There’s no turning back now…