So now that I’ve settled in a little – although I still discover new things every day –, things in Dublin become more routine-ish, but more funky as well. The constant marveling of the first weeks has been replaced by a “proud to be a Dubliner” feeling, which I really enjoy.

The only thing I have to take is being urged to start the social part of my weekend on Thursdays. Of course, I still have to work on a Friday, thus, Thursday’s (still easy) pub night makes me suffer already beforehand. On a Friday, everybody is going out – so I do, too. Being wrecked on a Saturday then, you just hope Sunday night to be over as soon as possible, without having slept too much the whole weekend. It’s called “swimming against the tide”, as I was taught recently.

The first paycheck has found its way to my – *drum roll* – new bank account, the Internet connection has been installed the forthcoming weekend, oh, and did I mention our new 42″ High Definition TV? (I tend to call it “Goliath”.) – As you can see, I’m really content because apparently everything’s working out really well right now.

Last week, Cristina came over from Hamburg to celebrate her birthday here in Dublin, and we spent a gorgeous day at two lovely towns on the seaside in Dublin’s north: The more down-to-earth, kind of rough and coarse Howth with it’s fish trawlers and a quite stiff breeze on the one side, on the other side the more elegant and tacit but stunningly beautiful bay of Malahide – both easily reachable by Dublin’s public transportation train DART. We had a great time – as did this seal in Howth’s harbour obviously as well: