Two weeks in Mullingar

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”

Whenever you are away from your home country and you see something from back home your national feeling just gets stronger. Two weeks ago I arrived in Dublin airport and the first thing, well almost the first thing, I saw when I stepped out of the airplane was an advertisement for Danske Bank (to the ones who doesn’t know then it’s a Danish bank). I thought that was strange but I later on found out that it is in fact because Danske Bank owns some of the banks in Ireland. Even though I had just arrived I still got that national feeling. I wonder if the feeling will ever go away no matter how long you spend a part from your national country.

Day in and day out I’m both thinking and talking to myself in English. It is something I have done for many years. I’ve always loved the English language and when I was in Denmark I even wrote my shopping list in English at times. Coming to Ireland seem to have turned things around a bit though. It would be more logic for me to write my shopping list in English when I’m here, but now I do it in Danish. Maybe it’s the national feeling or maybe it's the feeling of being able to do something they can’t do here.

Anyway people say that when you’ve been in an English speaking country for a while you start dreaming in English. I can’t remember if I have ever had a dream in English. I don’t even think I have been dreaming while I’ve been here. But when that day comes I sure hope that I’ll be able to remember what language the dream was in, if it was in any at all.

Wednesday last week I went out and handed out my CV to a few places. J told me that it would be a good time to do that now since they will be needing people for Christmas at a lot of places.

Friday I decided that I had to get out of The Cottage. I had to live with the humiliation of going to a pub alone, if I would want to make some friends at some point. I’m pretty sure they won’t be knocking on my door. I went to a pub called John Daly’s, J daughter S had told me about it and she said that she would think there would be a crowd around my age in there. When I came to John Daly’s not many people where in. A few was sitting around the tables and one or two in the bar. I decided to go for a seat at the bar since I would feel stupid sitting alone at a table. Anyway the bartenders were really quick to talk to me and ask me where I was from and what I was doing in Mullingar. They even game me a ‘welcome to Mullingar Guinness’. They were really nice and it was probably the greatest place I’ve been to while I’ve been here. But I didn’t really get any closer to my goal of getting some friends. Well, I met a woman, M, who I spoke to for most of the night. She was really sweet and we actually had a laugh.

When I was about to go home, at that point I had met some guys, and apparently it is a bit weird to go by bike in the middle of the night. One of them wouldn't let me take my bike home and eventually I agreed on letting him pay for a taxi so I could get home. I had to agree because somehow I lost the argument. I don’t know maybe it is weird riding a bike in the dark when you are slightly tipsy. All I know is that it is what we do in Denmark. But again not many people seem to have a bicycle over here so maybe it is uncommon. I got home safe and I got my bike with me in the taxi. But I am still kinda friendless. The question that seems to be on everyone’s mind is: “How on earth are you going to get to know anyone in Mullingar?” I still don’t know the answer but I do hope that I'll find out one day or I’m going to be the forever lonely girl in Mullingar.

Anyway I’ve been working on my Guinness prices. So far the prices I’ve paid for a pint of Guinness are:

€4.50 at Con’s

€4.00 at The Crossbar

€4.25 at John Daly’s

Also I think a pint of Carlsberg at John Daly’s were €4.25 too. Which makes it cheaper than Denmark. So if you want to get drunk in Ireland you might not even have to start drinking at home. Oh, the times I’ve been out in Denmark without buying anything because I couldn’t afford it. Those times are countless. And those time might just be over!

Something kind of exciting has happened too. Apparently Johnny Depp and Cillian Murphy are filming out in the area and they have been spotted in Multyfarnham, which is only 12 km away from where I live. I’ve also read that they have been spotted in Mullingar, but I haven’t seen any proof of that though. It makes me want to go into town to see if anything unusual is happening in there though. I want to marry Cillian Murphy!!!

I think this is it for this time. I will return!