The Mullingar Diaries

“Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere”

The day of my departure is coming closer now. It has always been the decision that I was going back to Denmark on the first of April, but it was never the decision that I was actually moving back on that day too. Now that the decision has been made I actually just want to go home and I want to go home as soon as possible. Right now it just feels like I am just sitting in a waiting room waiting for a train that never seems to come. Much like when you are going on a vacation and the day of the departure never seems to get any closer and no matter how close you get to it, it just feels like time is moving slower and slower every day. No matter how much I like it in Ireland I just want to go back to Denmark right now. I can’t help but feel like it’s a waste of time just sitting here waiting and I feel like it would be a waste of time to go out and meet people that I would probably never meet again anyway. I’d rather just be on the plane back home so I can continue with my life and start looking for flats… and see my family again!

However as of lately I’ve been thinking about things that I am probably going to miss in Ireland. One thing is the range of food in the stores. There’s a larger range on almost everything and I like that as much as I hate it. It makes it much harder to choose but it’s also nice to have something to choose from. I find it difficult to figure out what sugar I should buy, because there are so many to choose from or which kind of flour is normal flour, because I have never seen so many different kinds of flour before. In Denmark I never had to stop up to figured out what kind of flour or sugar I should buy. Here I sometimes stand there looking at it for minutes wondering what kind I should get. It might be that the names just confuse me and that we actually have the same range in Denmark, but I just find it hard to figure out the differences because I only know the Danish names. Also I’ve learnt that there is something called self-raising flour and I definitely have to see if we have that in Denmark because it’s pretty amazing. Denmark is much simpler when it comes to groceries. I will however be glad to come back to a better range of fruit.

I am also looking forward to go back to street names, house numbers and postal numbers. No matter how exciting it has been living at a place no one could find it gets tiring having to explain the directions to delivering companies and taxis. I suppose I only have to do that one more time though and that is when they come for my stuff and my bike. Even though I have only been here for around five months it’s amazing how you somehow manage to get a lot of things and I have more than my suitcases can carry.

I was quite surprised today when I went to a tool shop just a few houses down the road and asked them if they had a cardboard box and tape. The woman in there found both things and I left without having to pay for it and that kind of friendliness I will definitely miss here. In that way I wish the Danish people where a bit more like the Irish people, because something like that just makes your day. I don’t think I have ever walked into a shop in Denmark and left with something without paying for it. Another great story I have from here was a few weeks ago when my mum and dad had sent me something and I was out shopping when a man from FedEx called me and told me he had a package for me. I did not know I was getting anything, but I kind of figured out it could only be from my parents. I told him I would be back in twenty minutes and he asked me what road I would be coming from. So on my way back I met him on the R393 and he stopped up and asked if I was Aprilia. Then he asked me if he should drive me home. So he put my bike in the truck and drove me home and I got my package – so I was (kind of) delivered by FedEx! I would never expect those kinds of things to happen in Denmark.

I have never been out on St. Patrick’s Day before so this year was my first year to actually go out and have a drink on that day. I met up with some people at Danny Byrnes and I actually had a really fun night. Not much happened that day though, but I expect things would have happened in the weekend when people wouldn’t have to get up and go to work next day. I have been told that they supposedly celebrate it better in other countries and I suppose things would be livelier in Dublin and probably Galway too.

A lot of people have told me that I should go to Galway, and I will definitely keep that in mind for the next time I come to Ireland – that will most likely only be on vacation.

In Danny Byrnes on Paddy's Day.

So apart from St. Patrick’s Day and a night out last Friday nothing has really happened. Now I have a weekend ahead of me of packing and sorting out which things I am sending back home with a truck and what I am bringing with me to Prague and Schwerin and after that it is back to living with my parents, once again, until I find my own place where I am going to stay for a few years at least!