"Experience of a lifetime" Dublin by Travellingismylife

As I had a 8 months break between college and university in Montreal, I decided to go away, instead of working full-time in my hometown. I wanted to improve my English also...and going in another Canadian province seemed a boring option; it's still in the same country, I would not have been very disoriented. I considered London, in England, but it was too big, everybody goes to London, it was too...popular. But Dublin...it's not a city we talk a lot about.. well, not in Montreal. I didn't know anything about Ireland, except all the things we usually hear about it: a green island, good alcohol, a lot of partys in the pub, etc. But I was sure that Ireland was more than that. I bought a ticket; I left on January 23rd, 2006.

I left Montreal with Marie, one of my best friends. We were very excited about that experience. We didn't know what to expect. We knew that it wouldn't be very easy to find a way to integrate the society. We had to find an appartment and a job. We had to make new friends. It was like building up a new life for a couple of months. I was conscient that it would be very enriching for me. I'm not the kind of person who is very stressed, I usually take thing one day at the time, and I'm fearless about travels, I take it always positively. But this time, I saw the spectre of fear around me. Ok, yes, you can say that it's not that bad going away for six months, that I'm not going to live in Asia for instance, maybe you did it many times! Good for you. But remember the first time you did it. Remember the feeling you had when you were standing on the sidewalk in the city centre, surrounded by strangers, not only the people, but the places, the name of the streets that sounded so unfamiliar for you. O'Connell St, Parnell St, the Liffey River, Temple Bar, Dame St., The Spire....where is my St-Denis St., Ste-Catherine St., René-Lévesque blvd., Mont-Royal, the Old Port?

A traditional party at my flat

After only two days of searching, Marie and I found a flat, situated on Dolphin Road, between Dolphin's Barn and Crumlin. People told us that it was in a 'dangerous' neighbourhood...but we never felt like we were walking on the wrong side of the street, if you know what I mean. I even walked home alone at night and everything was alright. So, despite of people'sayings, we decided to stay there and it was perfect for us. We lived with the landlord, an Irish guy, and two Polish guys. Just by living in this house, I learned a lot of things. Sharing a restricted space with strangers is a real test. But everything worked out well. We had a place to stay in Dublin!!! Good. Now, we had to find a job to pay it.

As I was walking in the city with a pile of CV under my arm, I realized how Dublin is multicultural and filled with young people. Every day, I saw plenty of people doing the same thing as me, going in every restaurant and pub, in search of a job. I was astonished, I didn't know that Dublin had that much people from other countries.
I was very nervous about doing interviews in English, as French is my first language. After a couple of days, I got a job in a little café, called Brewbaker, on South Frederick St., besides the very popular Trinity College. It's the kind of place where there are a lot of regular customers. I made them repeat many times their order because I had difficulty to understand the Irish accent. But they never got upset..they even had a little smile when they heard my Quebecer accent...and were very interested in the fact that I was from Quebec. I got to know them very well. Everything worked out perfectly.

Step two was done. By mid-February, I felt the need of meeting friends. There is a place called USIT, it's like a travel agency, where there is a board with ads for flats, jobs, classes, etc. I decided to put an ad for a cultural/language exchange! I got a lot of calls, I was very happy!! I've met French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Brazilian, German people. They all became my very good friends in Dublin. Through them, I've met their friends and flatmates..and suddenly, the circle became wider and wider. We all shared one thing in common: we were all 'temporary immigrants'. We were all here to live a crazy experience. Together, we could go through this, helping each other to forget that we were thousands miles from our 'original home'. Dublin was our new home and we formed a big family.

Where is going Vanessa after Dublin?

After all the partys we've had together, at our flats or in the pubs, after all the conversations we've had on every subject that exists, after my little road trips to discover other parts of Ireland (Galway, Kilkenny, Bray, Wicklow Mountains) and even Northern Ireland (Belfast, Giant's Causeway), after all this beautiful melting pot, the ultimate day came. I saved enough money to travel six weeks in Western Europe, with my backpack, before going back to Montreal. I had to leave behind all the good people I've met, from my flatmates to my workmates, and all other brillant friends I've had.

I had to understand why I did this experience, what did I learned from it, why it had make me a better person. I had to see it as a very positive step in my life. But even after this, I cried a lot. If I got through this, it's in part because of the warmth and the open-mindness of the Irish people, especially the customers of Brewbaker Café, and all the other ones I've met in my stay. It's because of them I felt like I was part of their society.

At the end, all the street names sounded familiar to me. I had great moments on those streets, I had lived on it.