This past weekend was very busy for me! I met a lot of new girls who will be staying in Ireland for at least the next few months and even visited some new places! The one downside to being an au pair is how quickly the other girls you meet can come and go. For awhile, it seemed like everyone I met was leaving in the next week or two! Natàlia is the new au pair in Stamullen who is working with the same family that Mercè was working for. I was able to get together with her on Thursday night for the first time at the local pub, Whyte's. She is currently studying at university in Spain and is here in Ireland during her summer break.
Friday night, Natàlia and I went to Ioana's host family's house for a movie night. Ioana is working with Dave's sister's family so we see each other a lot! She is from Romania and will be staying in Stamullen for the next year just like me. Ioana's host parents renovated their attic into a great movie theater room. We watched the Corpse Bride, made popcorn, and had a great time. It was nice to be able to get out of the house and still stay close to home. Sometimes, the journey into Dublin on the bus can feel like more trouble than its worth. And its expensive!
I offered to take Natàlia into town on Saturday to show her around Dublin (at least show her what I know of Dublin!) and meet some other girls for coffee. Another au pair, Maria, lives one town over from us in Julianstown. Maria is able to use her host family's car so she met us at our bus stop and we all went into Dublin together. Maria is from Germany and is also staying in Ireland for the year.
This was also Maria's first trip to Dublin so I felt like an unofficial tour guide! I pointed out some of major landmarks and meet up spots that au pairs use and showed them Dublin Castle which has beautiful gardens.
We also visited the Chester Beatty Library which made its way onto my to-do list after my tour guide from last weekend raved about what a great museum it was. Chester Beatty was a private collector who gathered such a huge collection of books and artifacts from all over the world that he had to hire his own librarian to look after everything! Talk about a man after my own heart! When he passed away everything was donated to the public. The museum was free and quite interesting! Most of the exhibits contained books, scrolls, and artifacts from Asia and the Middle East. I even saw a scroll that was dated from the 9th or 10th century! Unfortunately, since most of the material was so old and delicate, pictures were not allowed to be taken.
After touring the library, the three of us met up with Agnieszka and went for coffee. It was a great day in Dublin and we got back to Stamullen by dinner time. We decided we should all meet up at Whyte's that night. It turned out that there was a Rod Stewart tribute act and Whyte's was a popular place to be! We had a great time even though we were the only people there under the age of 35!
 |
| At Whytes! |
On Sunday, Agnieszka sent me a message in the morning telling me she was thinking about going to Bray since the weather was so nice. When the weather is nice in Ireland you have to jump at the chance to take advantage of it! Bray is little seaside town about 30 minutes south of Dublin. Maria and an au pair she had recently met, Minna, decided to join us as well. We met up in Dublin and got on the train to travel to Bray. This was the first time I had been on the train in Ireland! It wasn't an extremely exciting experience, but I was happy to discover that the train is very cheap! Our round trip to Bray cost 5.20 euros. The bus I take into Dublin costs 11 euros for a round trip.
We arrived in Bray around 2 pm and went to a coffee shop for some lunch. We were happy to see we had chosen to come to Bray on a great weekend... there was a summer festival going on with rides and music!
Our first stop after lunch was the sea! It was the first time I had been to a body of water that wasn't the Atlantic Ocean! (Although I think the Irish Sea is technically part of the Atlantic Ocean but who cares!)
 | ||
| With Minna and Maria at the Irish Sea! |
 |
| With Minna and Agnieszka. We later walked up the cliffs in the background! |
The Irish beach was very rocky. It was a lot different than the beaches I'm used to! While there were plenty of people on the beach, I didn't see anyone in the water. I put my hand in while we were on the beach and it was freezing! Now I know why the Irish always go on holiday to Spain and France. We then did part of the cliff walk that goes from Bray to Greystones, another seaside town. The views were beautiful!
 |
| The Irish Sea |
 |
| A panoramic view with my new camera. Thanks Kelly! |
 |
| On the cliff walk |
 |
 |
| View of Bray |
After the cliff walk we decided to check out some of the rides we had seen at the festival earlier. We took a ride on the ferris wheel and were able to get a great view of Bray and the sea!
 |
| Birds eye view of the sea |
 |
| On the ferris wheel! |
 |
| It was a lot higher than we expected |
What a fun weekend!! And nice panoramic shot :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time. Seems like your getting out and meeting a lot of other girls.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pics Laura! By the time Dad and I get to Ireland, you can be our tour guide! So happy you are having such a wonderful experience. Hug and kisses!
ReplyDelete